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Flashcards in Sociology-Education: the research context Deck (57)
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1
Q

What are the five main groups and settings in education whose distinctive characteristics may make them easy or difficult to study?

A

Pupils, teachers, parents, classrooms and schools

2
Q

What are the differences between studying young people and studying adults?

A

Hill suggests there are three major differences between studying young people and adults. These are power and status, ability and understanding, and vulnerability. These differences raise particular practical, ethical and theoretical issues that researchers need to take into account

3
Q

What is the power and status difference?

A

Children/young people generally have less power and status than adults, making it more difficult for them to state their attitudes and views openly, especially if they challenge those adults

4
Q

Why is the power and status issue particularly evident in research into education?

A

Schools are hierarchical institutions that give teachers higher status and power over pupils. Teachers may sometimes even be able to use this power to influence which pupils are selected for research, eg in order to promote a good image of themselves or the school

5
Q

How does the power and status issue affect sociological research into education?

A

Formal research methods eg structured interviews/questionnaires tend to reinforce power differences as it is the researcher, and not the young person who determines what is asked and how the answers should be given

6
Q

How can sociologists overcome the power and status issue in sociological research into education?

A

For example, group interviews rather than formal one-to-one interviews may be a good way of doing this. However, it is likely that whatever research methods are used, some power and status differences between researchers and pupils will remain

7
Q

What is a factor that affects the power and status issue?

A

The pupils’ attitudes towards the power and status differences between themselves and their teacher are also likely to affect how they relate to the researcher, eg pupils who resent teachers power over them may be less cooperative with research, but on the other hand, they may feel empowered by participating in the research and express their true feelings about school

8
Q

What is the ability and understanding difference between studying pupils and studying adults?

A

Pupils’ vocabulary, powers of self-expression, thinking skills and confidence are likely to be more limited than those of adults, particularly when trying to express abstract ideas

9
Q

How can pupils’ ability and understanding affect sociological research?

A

Abstract concepts are central to sociological investigation so questions must be worded for pupils to understand. Lack of understanding also makes it difficult to gain true informed consent. Young people also use language in different ways from adults making construction of appropriately worded questions particularly demanding, and young children will often need more time to understand questions. Also young people have less developed memory so may be unable to recall in detail relevant material when asked

10
Q

What is a problem with pupils’ ability and understanding?

A

Pupils are not a homogenous group-they are not all the same. Class, age, gender and ethnicity all create differences between pupils that a researcher will have to take into account. Eg there are age, class and ethnic variations in the kinds of language that pupils use, such as differences in speech codes. It may therefore be important to match the gender and ethnicity of the young person and the researcher

11
Q

What are the vulnerability and ethical issues in researching pupils?

A

As a result of their more limited power and ability, young people are often more vulnerable to physical and psychological harm than adults. This raises special ethical issues for the researcher. They therefore should first consider whether the participation of young people in the research is actually necessary and whether they will benefit from it

12
Q

What is a specific ethical issue in research of children?

A

Consent. It is not enough to obtain informed consent of parents or teachers. Most research guidelines emphasise that the young person too should be aware of what the research entails. However, it may be difficult to explain this to a child, and they may not yet be mature enough to decide whether to participate

13
Q

What are other ethical issues due to the vulnerability of pupils?

A

Protection issues are very important because of vulnerability eg personal data should not be kept unless it is vital to the research. The researcher should also consider what form the participation will take and any stress that may result eg questioning young children for long periods of time would be considered inappropriate

14
Q

What are ‘gatekeepers’?

A

The greater vulnerability of young people means there are more ‘gatekeepers’ controlling access to pupils than there are for most other social groups. These include parents, heads, teachers, local authorities and schools’ boards of governors. Generally the more gatekeepers who are involved, the more difficult it is likely to be to carry out sustained research

15
Q

What are the laws on researching pupils?

A

Child protection laws such as the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 operate a vetting and barring scheme on adults working in schools, which requires researchers to have Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. This may delay or prevent researchers carrying out their research

16
Q

What are the guidelines on researching pupils?

A

As a result of ethical concerns, organisations such as Unicef, Barnardo’s, and the National Children’s Bureau have developed special codes of practice for researching young people. These take the British Sociological Association’s ethical research guidelines even further in terms of protecting the rights of children involved in research

17
Q

What is an example of studying pupils?

A

Because they are legally required to attend school, sociologists will know where to find their target research group-unlike with some other social groups they might study. On the other hand, this is not necessarily the case if the target groups is pupils with anti-school attitudes, many of whom ay truant regularly from school. Also, of course, pupils are normally in school only during the school day and term time

18
Q

What is it like researching teachers?

A

They often feel over-worked and may be less than fully cooperative, even when they want to be helpful. This may mean that interviews and questionnaires need to be kept short, and this will restrict the amount of data that can be gathered. On the other hand, as professionals, teachers are likely to be sympathetic to educational research

19
Q

What areas are looked at in more detail when considering researching teachers?

A

Power and status, and impression management

20
Q

How can power and status be an issue when researching teachers?

A

Power relationships in the school are not equal. Teachers have more power and status because of age, experience, and responsibility in the school. They also have legal responsibilities and duty of care to the young people they teach

21
Q

How do classrooms affect researching teachers?

A

The nature of the classroom reinforces the power of the teachers. Teachers often see it as ‘my classroom’ where a researcher may be seen as a trespasser. However, teacher are not fully independent, even in ‘their’ classroom. Heads, governors, parents and pupils all constrain what teachers may do. Therefore researchers need a ‘cover’ if they intend to carry out covert investigations and this may mean representing themselves as a supply teacher or class room assistant. This gives access, but these groups have lower status in schools so other teachers may not treat them as equals

22
Q

What is impression management?

A

Teachers are used to being observed and scrutinised, eg in Ofsted inspections. As a result, they may well be more willing to be observed by a researcher since it is something they are accustomed to experiencing. However, because a major part of their role is ‘putting on an act’ for pupils etc, teachers are often skilled at what Goffman calls ‘impression management’-manipulating the impression that other people have of us

23
Q

How does impression management affect sociological research of teachers?

A

The researcher may have to find ways to get behind the public face that teachers put on

24
Q

What does Goffman say about teachers?

A

He analyses how, as social actors, we behave differently when we are acting out a role ‘front state’ as opposed to when we are back stage. Some researchers study teachers in their backstage setting eg staffroom

25
Q

What is a problem with studying ‘backstage’?

A

Getting backstage with teachers poses particular problems. The staffroom is a relatively small social space and, because teaching staff are generally known to each other, a newcomer will stand out and may be treated with suspicion. Teachers will be aware any critical comments they make about their school could affect their career prospects so may be reluctant to answer certain questions honestly. However this may be overcome using observational methods rather than direct questioning

26
Q

How can head teachers affect research into teachers?

A

Head teachers may try to influence which staff are selected to be involved in the research and these may not be fully representative of all teachers in the school, eg a head may hand pick teachers who will convey a favourable image of the school-another example of impression management

27
Q

Why are classrooms unusual settings?

A

Because they are a closed social setting with clear physical and social boundaries. Although not as closed as a prison or psychiatric ward, eg classroom is less open than many other settings such as leisure centres or shops.

28
Q

How are classrooms managed?

A

They are a highly controlled setting. Eg the teacher and the school control classroom layout and access, as well as pupils’ time, activities, noise levels, dress and language while they are in the classroom. Young people rarely experience this level of surveillance and control in other areas of their lives

29
Q

How does the fact that classrooms are highly controlled affection sociological research into education?

A

As a result, the classroom behaviour that the researcher observes may not accurately reflect what those involved really think and feel. Furthermore, in classroom interactions, teachers and pupils are very experienced at concealing their real thoughts and feelings from each other, another example of impression management, and they may conceal them from the researcher too

30
Q

What characteristics of the classroom make it easy to observe?

A

They are fairly small, confined space with room for around 30 people usually. They are also comparatively simple social settings: in most cases there are just two social roles in classrooms-teacher and pupil. All this makes classroom interaction relatively straightforward to observe and analyse

31
Q

How do gatekeepers affect classroom investigation?

A

Unlike many other social environments, access to classrooms is controlled by a wide range of gatekeepers. These include head teachers, teachers and child protection laws. Generally speaking, the more gatekeepers there are to a particular research setting, the more difficult it is for researcher to obtain and maintain access

32
Q

How do peer groups affect classroom investigation?

A

Young people may be insecure of their identity/status so in school based groups such as classes/friendship groups, they may be more sensitive to peer pressure and the need to conform, affecting how they respond to being researched. This means it may be necessary to supervise pupils when filling in questionnaires in class for example, to prevent peers influencing each others answers. Similarly in group interviews, true attitudes of individual pupils may be hidden behind dominant attitudes of the peer group

33
Q

How are schools researched?

A

Tens of thousands of schools of many kinds in the UK. If observational methods are used, they are unlikely to have time to study more than a very few of them, risking their work being unrepresentative. Large scale surveys/official stats may overcome this, though here they may lose insight that can be gained from detailed observations. Studying schools would only take minutes to identify their research population eg all schools in a particular area, because the state publishes lists of schools, their location, and the type of school they are

34
Q

What is schools’ own data?

A

What goes on in education is closely scrutinised by the media, parents and politicians. The education system is also highly marketised with parental choice and competition between schools at its heart. Partly as a result there is a lot of secondary data publicly available about schools, often produced by schools themselves

35
Q

What are examples of secondary data produced by/about schools

A

Exam results and league tables; figures on truancy and subject choices; Ofsted reports; government inquiries and school policy documents. Schools also produce personal documents, such as reports on individual students

36
Q

Why can it be a good thing for sociological research, that schools are such ‘data rich’ places?

A

Sociologists may be able to make use of some of these secondary sources in their research. However, school records are confidential and so researchers may not be able to gain access to them

37
Q

Why may other school data pose particular difficulties?

A

Eg, schools with a truancy problem may falsify their attendance figures in order to present a good image and not deter applications. Similarly, although schools have a legal duty to record all racist incidents, there may be a tendency to downplay such incidents so as to maintain a positive public image

38
Q

Why should official statistics on examination performance be treated with care?

A

Schools may make changes in the curriculum in order to improve their results (eg entering pupils for easier qualifications) and create the image that the school is improving when in reality there may have been little or no change

39
Q

How does the law affect research into schools?

A

Law requires young people to attend school in order to be educated (only other major institution to have this legal requirement is the prison system). Having such a ‘captive population’ to study has advantages and disadvantages eg researcher knows where everyone is/should be at any given moment, but as the school’s primary role is education, heads and teachers may see involvement in research as interfering with that role

40
Q

How does law affect the way that schools run?

A

Schools operate within a particular legal framework. Eg, the law requires them to collect information on pupils’ attendance, achievement etc, and this may be useful to sociologists. On the other hand, the legal duty of care that schools have towards their pupils may restrict the researchers access

41
Q

How do gatekeepers affect researching schools?

A

Head teachers/governors are gatekeepers with power to refuse researcher access to the school. They may do so if they believe the research will interfere with the work of the school or undermine teachers’ authority

42
Q

What sociologists talk about gatekeepers in research of schools?

A

Meighan and Harber, who says heads sometimes view research negatively, eg head’s reactions to a research project that Meighan wanted to carry out on consulting pupils about teaching included view such as it’s dangerous to involve pupils in commenting on their teachers, discipline would be adversely affected, it would be bad for classroom relationships and children are not competent to judge teachers

43
Q

What do Beynon and Atkinson note?

A

Gatekeepers such as heads often steer the researcher away from sensitive situations, such as classes where the teacher has poor classroom control. Some situations and school setting may be ‘off limits’ to a researcher

44
Q

What are schools like as an organisation?

A

They are formal organisations with rules and hierarchies. Researchers may come to be seen as part of the hierarchy. Eg students may see them as teachers, while teachers may see them as inspectors. In schools where there is conflict, eg between students and teachers, researchers may even be seen as ‘the enemy’

45
Q

How do school’s differ from other organisations in today’s society?

A

Many schools are single-sex. This may pose problems where the researcher is of a different gender from that of the pupils. Eg the sociologist may become the focus of attention when they might prefer to keep a low profile, eg when conducting participant observation

46
Q

What are disadvantages of schools as an area of research?

A

Relatively large scale, complex, highly organised social institutions. Have daily and yearly timetables, management structures, meetings schedules etc, and these may all affect when/how a study can be carried out, eg school holidays/exam periods may limit research activities. Also schools’ size/complexity can cause difficulties for researchers, who often comment it takes months to work out where everything is/who does what in each school

47
Q

Why are parents also important to research when investigating education?

A

They influence what goes on in education, eg by how they bring up their children, by their involvement in school through parent-teacher contacts/parents governors/attendance at parents’ evenings etc, and marketisation policies encourage parents to see themselves as consumers eg in choice of school

48
Q

Why aren’t parents an easy group to study?

A

For example they are not a single homogeneous group. Their class, gender and ethnicity may all affect how willing or able they are to participate in research, eg pro-school middle class parents may be more likely than working class parents to return questionnaires about their children’s education and this will make the research findings unrepresentative

49
Q

How do parents affect research into pupils?

A

Parental permission is required for many forms of research with pupils. How likely parents are to give their permission may depend on the sensitivity of the research issue and on whether they can see their children benefiting from being involved. In general, the more sensitive an issue appears to be for parents, the less likely they are to consent to their children participating in research

50
Q

How do parents engage in impression management?

A

By presenting themselves to researchers in a positive light by exaggerating their involvement in the children’s education. Eg they may lie about whether they attend parents’ evenings or how often they read to their children. If so, this will result in invalid data being gathered

51
Q

Why is access to parents hard, when wishing to research them in order to investigate education?

A

Many sociologists see parents as playing a vital role in children’s education. However, most parent-child interaction takes place in the home. As a private setting often closed to researchers, this presents particular difficulties, eg while classroom interactions between teachers and pupils can be observed easily, there are few opportunities to observe whether parents help children with their homework

52
Q

How do parents differ from other important groups within education?

A

Unlike most other important groups within education, parents are unusual in that they are for the most part physically located outside the school. This may make them more difficult to contact and research

53
Q

How can the school help with access to parents?

A

Lists of parents’ names and addresses exist in school records, though a school would not normally release such information to researchers. However, the school may be happy to help a researcher contact parents by using the usual method of sending letters or questionnaires home with pupils. However, this would not necessarily guarantee that parents received them or that pupils always returned the questionnaires that their parents had completed

54
Q

What is unusual about education as a research topic?

A

Virtually everyone-including researchers-has had experience of education. Researchers can draw on their own experience of education, eg when formulating their hypotheses or interpreting data

55
Q

How can the researcher’s own personal experience of education be a bad thing?

A

The sociologist’s personal experience and familiarity with classrooms and schools can dull their awareness of just how different educational environments are from other social settings. Because sociologists have spent years in school/university, these places may seem ‘natural’ to them, so when carrying out research they need to be aware of their taken-for-granted assumptions about schools and classrooms, teachers and pupils

56
Q

How may the researcher’s success influence their investigations of education?

A

The researcher has probably been quite successful in education and this may make it difficult for them to empathise with underachieving pupils in an anti-school subculture. Similarly, class, gender or ethnic differences between researcher and pupils may hinder the research

57
Q

How can politics affect sociological research into education?

A

Education is a prominent political issue, with different political parties, pressure groups and individuals holding conflict opinions about what should happen in schools. Research into education issues takes place in this political context and the researcher has to be aware that their investigations can become part of a wider political and media debate

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