1. Methods In Context

2. P.E.R.V.E.R.T
• Practical – time and money, difficult to
analyse, interviewer training
• Ethical – is it right or wrong?
• Reliable – Can it be replicated?
• Validity – Are the results true to life?/
Social Desirability/Hawthorne Effect
• Evidence of studies – What studies have
used this method?
• Representativeness – does it reflect
society as a whole?
• Theoretical - Positivist or Interpretivist

3. Methods Used in Education
• Experiments
• Questionnaires
• Structured Interviews
• Unstructured Interviews
• Structured Observation
• Participant Observation
• Official Stats
• Documents

4. Task
• Using the workbooks printed, go
through each research method
• Read through the methodological
location and using this information (&
your own knowledge) identify whether it
is a positivist or interpretivist methods
• In the box Characteristics underneath
prepare a statement explaining the
theoretical perspective and why

5. Task
• Using the workbooks printed, go
through the textbook identifying each
research method
• Identify general advantages and
disadvantages (using previous knowledge
also)
• Then evaluate in relation to Education

6. Documents
Education in the Past
Stereotyping in School Books
Official Curriculum
Registers
Reports
CANNOT USE ON:
WC experiences of schooling
Classroom interaction
Labelling

7. In Context: Documents
• Useful source of information about
policies
• E.g. parliamentary debates/speeches
about policies/government regulations
and guidance issued to schools
• Give an insight into reasons for
educational policies as well as criticisms
of them
What are the disadvantages of using
documents?

8. • PRACTICAL- A lot of public
information e.g. school policies, school
brochures, websites, pupil reports
• ETHICAL- few ethical issues with
public documents as placed in public
domain. Issues with private
documents e.g. teachers diaries,
pupils books
• RELIABILITY- direct comparisons
can be made e.g. attendance
registers. However accidents when
completing them can reduce reliability

9. • CREDIBILTIY- schools wants to
present themselves in a positive ways
to parents so may not be valid
• REPRESENTATIVNESS- Some
documents legally required from all
schools and colleges so high in rep.
However not all behaviour recorded
e.g., racist incidents. Personal
documents by teachers and pupils less
representative as personal opinion
• VALIDITY- Can provide important
insights into meanings held by teachers
and pupils. However all documents open
to diff interpretations

10. Questionnaires
Class & Achievement
Parental Attitudes to Education
Subject Choice
Material Deprivation & Achievement
CANNOT USE ON: WHY?
Classroom Interaction
Labelling
Gender & Class Behaviour

11. In Context- Bowles & Gintis
• Measured students personality traits
using a questionnaire
• Questionnaires compared with students
school grade averages and exam scores.
• Found a correlation between personality
traits valued by employers (passivity,
obedience) and high scores at school
Strengths and Weaknesses?

12. Methods In Context: Chubb & Moe’s
• Survey of parental attitudes to schooling
• Surveys- asking people a fixed list of questions
(either written questionnaire or interviews)
• Chose it to make generalisations about parents
views on the way schools should be run and on how
much chose parents should have
• What are the strengths and weaknesses?
1. Interpretivists argue using a fixed list of q’s
imposes the researchers meanings on respondents
by limiting what answers they can give
2. Survey may therefore have produced results that
suited their New Right perspective

13. Tony Sewell (2002)
• Gave 150 black 15-year old pupils a
questionnaire in 5 different schools.
• Sewell found that 80% said that peer
group pressure to do badly in education
was the biggest barrier to their learning.

14. Questionnaires in Context
• Hasley Heath and Ridge (1980) tried to
measure relative importance of
cultural/material factors in educational
achievement.
• Smith and Tomlinson (1989) use
questionnaires to explore racism in education.

15. • Practical- Useful for gathering large
quantities of basic info quickly and cheaply
from large numbers of pupils,. Teachers or
educational establishments. Correlations
between achievement, attendance and
behaviour can be studied against school size,
class size, number of staff
• Sampling Frames- Schools a good source
of ready made sampling frames. List of pupils
and staff kept.
• Response Rate- Often low however when
conducted in schools response rates can be
higher than other areas. Pupils, teacher and
parents used to completing questionnaires
issued by schools

16. • Researching Pupils- Children have short
attention spans so short questionnaire more effective
than lengthy interview. However limits amount of
information that can be gathered. Issues for pupils
with low literacy in completing questionnaires.
• Operationalising Concepts- Turning
abstract ideas into a measurable form is difficult.
Young people have poorer grasps of abstract ideas, so
les likely to understand questions
• Samples- School may not keep lists that
reflect researchers interests e.g. lists of
pupils sorted by ethnic origin
• Validity- Life experiences of children are
narrower so may not be able to answer q’s.

17. Experiments
Teacher expectations
Classroom interaction
Labelling
Pupils self concepts
NOT USED ON:
Gender & Achievement WHY?
Education Policy
Election & Segregation

18. Methods in Context:
Rosenthal and Jacobsen
• Field Experiment
• Allow researchers to manipulate a real,
naturally occurring social situation to discover
cause-and-effect relationships
• Rosenthal and Jacobsen able to manipulate
classroom interaction by labelling pupils to see
whether this would cause a SFP
• Researchers cannot control all variables that
might have led to pupils ‘spurting’ so cannot be
certain that they have in fact discovered the
real cause of their improved performance

19. Experiments in Context
Lab experiments:
• Harvey and Slatin (76): examined whether
teachers had preconceived ideas about pupils
of different social classes. The study showed
that teachers did label certain social classes.
• Mason (73): looked at whether negative or
positive expectations had the greater effect.
Mason found that the negative reports had a
much greater impact that the positive one on
the teachers expectations.

20. Other Examples
• Ray Rist and Howard Becker- Labelling
in Primary Schools

21. • Application in class-Classroom has clear
boundaries in terms of space and time.,
making it easier for researcher to achieve a
degree of control over the situation and
develop an effective field expt.
• Reliability- Simple & therefore easy to
repeat. Schools have broadly similar features
so expts can be repeated in broadly similar
ways
• Ethical Problems-Young ppl are more
vulnerable & less able to understand what is
happening to them. Therefore less able to
give informed consent

22. • Limited Application- Expts small scale and
only examine a single aspect of beh. Larger
issues like Social Class & Achievement cannot
be studied
• Controlling all variables- Schools large,
complex institutions & many variables affect
beh of teachers and pupils e.g. type of school,
class size. Impossible to identify and control
all variables that might exert an influence on
teachers expectations

23. Structured Interviews
Class & Achievement
Material Deprivation & Achievement
Parental choice of schools
CANNOT USE ON:
Classroom Interaction
The official curriculum

24. • Response Rate- Take less time than
unstructured interviews and so they are less disruptive
to schools activities. Researchers more likely to receive
official support therefore may increase response rate.
• Reliability- Easy to replicate therefore large scale
patterns in educational beh can be identified e.g. In
gender and subject choice.
• Validity- As young ppl tend to have better verbal
than literacy skills, interviews may be more successful
than written questionnaires as a way of obtaining valid
answers. However the formal nature of structured
interviews (similar to exams, lessons and controlled
school situations) means pupils are unlikely to feel at
ease and therefore may be less forthcoming.

25. • Question Design- More difficult to create q’s
for use with young people because linguistic and
intellectual skills are not fully developed. So may not
understand long, complex sentences or some abstract
concepts. Children therefore need more help
clarification- which doesn't happen in structured
interviews
• Ethical Issues- Parental permission required
• Power & Status Differences- Pupils and
teachers are not equal in power affecting their
behaviour. Pupils often alter their responses to seek
adult approval by giving untrue but socially acceptable
answers. Children see adults as authority figures so
the researcher may come across as a ‘teacher in
disguise’. Reducing the validity of the interview data.

26. Unstructured Interviews
Teachers racialised expectations
Pupils subcultures
Parental attitudes
How school policies are actually implemented in
practice
CAN NOT USE ON:
Patterns of Achievement
Speech codes used in class

27. Methods in Context: Willis
• Carried out unstructured group interviews to
uncover the counter school culture of the
‘lads’
• Allowing lads to talk freely in their own words
about the way they viewed school, teachers
and work. Giving an insight into their world
• However UI are said to be unreliable- cannot
be repeated in exactly the same way with
other groups
• Also the meaning of what is said in a group
interview is open to the researchers own
biased interpretation

28. Methods in Context
• Girls changing perceptions and ambitions
• Sue Sharpe used unstructured interviews to
study girls attitudes to education, family &
work
• Open ended Q’s allowed rich qualitative data
giving a valid picture of their feelings,
aspirations and views
• What are the weaknesses of her method?

29. • Power & Status Inequality- Overcome barriers
of power & status inequality because of their
informality a rapport can be established more easily.
• Practical Issues- Pupils may be inarticulate or
reluctant to talk so these give more time, space and
encouragement to work out responses. Younger pupils
have shorter attention span so may find this too
demanding.
• Validity- The difficulties in communicating with
young people mean that unstructured interviews may
be suitable because the interviewer cab clear up
misunderstandings be explanting qs. Children may also
have more difficulty in keeping to the point and may
present contradictory or irrelevant responses to the
qs

30. • Reliability- To put young ppl at ease interviewers
maintain a relaxed atmosphere by nodding, smiling &
making eye contact. However this cannot be
standardised so different interviewers may obtain
very different results & this would reduce the
reliability of other findings.
• Social Desirability- Pupils used to adults
‘knowing better’. Children more likely than adults to
change their original answer when a question is
repeated. Teachers present themselves in a +ve light
to protect their professional self image, however an
U. Interview allows researchers to probe behind this
• Interviewer Training- Child interviews
require more training in not interrupting answers, to
tolerate long pauses and to avoid repeating questions.

31. Interviews in Context
• Paul Willis conducted group interviews.
• Jackson (2006) ‘Lads and Ladetts in school’
used semi-structured interviews

32. Official Stats
Class & Achievement
Education Policy
Material Deprivation & Achievement
CANNOT USE ON: WHY?
Classroom Interaction
Teachers racialised expectations of pupils
Labelling
Gender & Classroom behaviour

33. Methods In Context
• Government collects a vast amount of
statistical data on the educational achievement
of different ethnic groups
• Official Stats save Sociologists time and money
• Allows them to identify the patterns of
differences in achievement between ethnic
groups
• However the stats do not explain the ethnic
differences just shows they exist
• Also Governments definition of ethnicity may
be different from that of the sociologist, so
the way official data is categorised may not be
useful to the researcher.

34. Methods In Context:
Using Official Stats
• Govt collects stats on education so using
them can save Sociologists time and money
• They are used by Sociologists to establish
correlations between social factors e.g. link
between FSM, exam success and maternal
deprivation
• However stats themselves cannot prove
that deprivation is the cause of under
achievement
• Govt doesn’t always collect stats of
interest to Sociologists

35. • Practical- Govt collect stats already saving
sociologists time and money. Also allows to make
comparisons e.g. Between achievement of different
social classes, ethnic groups/genders. Also examine
trends over time. Govt interested in same educational
issues as sociologists so stats likely to be useful for
researchers. However definitions of key concepts and
issues may differ from those sociologists use e.g.
Measuring achievement by 5 A*-C grades.
• Representativeness- All state schools have to
complete a census 3 times a year. Would be
impossible for researchers to collect this quantity
and range of data alone.

36. • Reliability- Govt uses standard categories and
definitions of educational stats. Allowing the same
process to be replicated year to year. However they
may change definitions and categories e.g. Several
definitions of ‘value added’ have been used to
measure school performance, reducing reliability
• Validity- Interpretivists challenge the validity of
educational stats, seeing them as socially constructed
(decided by parents, teachers, pupil). Schools may
manipulate their statistical records because there is
pressure to present themselves positively in order to
maintain their funding and parental support.
Undermining validity of stats. However some stats
are less open to manipulations e.g. Pupil numbers on
roll and exam results

37. Observations

38. Methods In Context: Lacey
• Participant & Non-participant observations
• Immersed in school life teaching some lessons
and observing others, helping with cricket
team and school trips.
• Able to gain a detailed insight into social
relations within the school to show how pupils
polarised into pro and anti-school subcultures
and impact on achievement
• However can be time consuming (took him 18
months)
• School may not be representative of others,
so results may not be generaliseable.

39. In Context: Observations
• Wright observed classroom interactions
of over 1,000 pupils and teachers
• Able to see how teachers actually
behave towards pupils- rather than how
they claim they behave.
• She witnessed how teachers sometimes
labelled Asian pupils negatively
What are the limitations to this research method?

40. Structured Observation
Classroom interactions
Teachers ‘racialised’ expectations of pupils
Labelling
Gender & Classroom Behaviour
CANNOT USE FOR:
Class & Achievement
Education Policy
Material Deprivation & Achievement

41. • Practical Issues- Classroom well structured for
obs as its a closed physical and social
environment. Easy for observer to sit at back of
class and record behaviour. Short duration of
lesson means researcher doesn't get fatigued.
Simplicity means they are quicker, cheaper and
require less training
• Reliability- Range of classroom behaviours are
limited and therefore a limited number of
behaviour categories can easily be established
for use in observation. Therefore easy to
replicate class obs. Structured obs generate
quantitative data, meaning comparisons can be
made

42. • Validity- Interpretivists criticise for a lack of
validity, simply counting behaviour and classifying it
into a limited number of pre determined categories
ignores the meaning that pupils and teachers attach
to it.
• Observer Presence- Presence of a stranger
using a checklist can be very off putting (and
difficult to disguise). Likely to affect teacher and
pupils behaviour reducing validity.

43. Participant Observation
Classroom interactions
Teachers ‘racialised expectations’ about pupils
Gender and the ‘male gaze’
Pupil subcultures
CANNOT USE FOR:
Class & Achievement
Education Policy
Material Deprivation & Achievement

44. • Validity- Likely to overcome the problem the
status differences between pupils and
researcher, allowing the researcher to gain
acceptance by pupils resulting in more valid data.
Children and teachers skilled at altering their
behaviour when being observed by those in
authority, making it difficult fore researchers to
know if behaviour is genuine.
• Practical Issues- May observer time to
understand how a school functions. Class obs less
disruptive than interviews so may be easier to
gain permission. Observation restricted by class
timetable, holidays, headteachers control over
access etc

45. • Ethical Issues- Pupils more vulnerable-
informed consent may not be given so obs have to be
covert. Also protecting a schools identity, a poor
public image as a result of research can damage a
schools reputation and education of its pupils
• Hawthorne Effect- Most obs have to be
covert, so Hawthorne Effect is unavoidable to some
degree. Teachers may be suspicious of an observer in
their class and alter normal behaviour.
• Representativeness- Can only be carried out
on a very small scale. As there are over 35,000
schools & colleges representativeness is impossible to
achieve

46. Observations in Context
• Wright (1984): Ethnicity and Education
• Mac an Ghaill (1994): participant
observation used to study gender and
ethnicity.