Education Research Context

POWER AND STATUS

• children have less power than adults ~ difficult to share views openly
• schools have hierarchy - teachers more powerful, can influence which pupil will be researched
• structured interviews/questionnaire -  reinforce power
• group interviews are better - some power can remain
• teacher pupil relationship affect relationship with researcher

ABILITY AND UNDERSTANDING

• vocabulary, self-expression, confidence are limited - unable to understand abstract concepts
• sociologist need to word questions carefully
• difficult to get informed consent - may not understand what is going on
• memory less developed - unable to recall in detail
• class, age, ethnicity create differences - different speech codes

VULNERABILITY/ETHICAL ISSUES 

• more vulnerable to physical/psychological harm
• sociologist need to consider if young people are necessary to research
• not just informed consent of parents - child needs to know what's going on
• may be difficult to explain
• child protection issues - personal data must not be kept unless it vital to research
• need to consider what is appropriate - questionning kids may not be appropriate
• more gatekeepers - more difficult to gain access

LAWS AND GUIDELINES

• child protection laws - requires researchers to have Disclosure and Barring Service checks

Advantage: legally required to go to school - know where to find them

HOWEVER - not the case with anti-school pupils, truant a lot

POWER AND STATUS

• teachers have more power - age, experience, responsibility
• classroom reinforces power - 'my classroom' ~ researcher seen as trespasser
• HOWEVER - not fully in charge - heads, governers, parents control what they can/not do
• cover observation - research needs 'cover' ~ supply teacher e.g
• gives access BUT teachers see them as lower

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

• used to being observed - OFSTED inspection - more willing to be observed by researcher
• manipulates impression - researcher needs to find way to get behind the facade
• Goffman - we behave differently on 'front stage' to 'back stage' - better to research in staffroom
• HOWEVER - staffroom small, teachers know each other - newcomer will stand out
• Interviews - know what they say could affect their job - reluctant to answer honestly ~ observation is better

closed, highly controlled social setting

Hawthorne Effect - may act more good when being observed - not valid

GATEKEEPERS

• wide range of gatekeepers
• headteachers, teachers and child protection laws

PEER GROUPS

• young people may be insecure about their status/identity
• more sensitive to peer pressure - may affect how they respond to being researched
• may need to supervise when doing QUESTIONNAIRES - prevent peers influencing answers
• GROUP INTERVIEWS - true attitudes may be hidden by dominant attitude of group

loads of different schools in UK - only time to research a few schools - risk unrepresentativeness

large scale SURVEYS/OFFICIAL STATISTICS overcome problem - loses insight you get in OBSERVATION

SCHOOL'S OWN DATA

• education system marketised - great deal of secondary data available ~ exam results, league tables, attendance - HOWEVER schools records are confidential - hard to access
• schools may falsify attendance figures to present good image
• schools must record all racist incidents - this may not be the case ~ unvalid

THE LAW

• requires students to be in school
• advantage - researcher will know where everyone is
• disadvantage - heads may see researchers may interfere with it's function of educating

GATE KEEPERS

• heads and gatekeepers - can refuse if they think it will interfere with work
• Meighan and Harber - heads often see research negatively 
• Beynon and Atkinson - heads steer away from sensitive subjects e.g poor classroom control

SCHOOL ORGANISATION

• formal organisation - rules and hierarchies ~ researchers come to be part of hierarchy
• pupils may seem them as teachers, teachers see them as inspectors
• single-sex schools - problems if researcher is opposite gender - focus of attention when trying to keep a low profile
• school holidays and exam periods limit the sociologist research 

parents influence school - parent governers, parents evening, 

not easy to study - class, gender, ethnicity affect how willing they will be in research

• pro-school MC parents - more likely to returned questionnaires ~ unrepresentative
• sensitive issue - less likely to allow pupil to be involved
• impression management - want to be seen in positive light ~ lie about parents evening, or how much they read to children

ACCESS TO PARENTS

• sociologists see parents vital to education - most parent-child interaction happens at home
• private closed setting - few opportunities to OBSERVE parents helping with hw/reading
• school would not usually release info of parents to researcher
• BUT will help by sending letters/questionnaires home
• cannot guarantee that parents will receive them or will be returened

• researchers can draw on their own experience of education when formulating data
• because of school and university - being there is natural for them
• need to be aware of their assumptions of schools, classrooms, teachers and pupils
• have been successful - difficult to empathise with underacheiving pupils