Research Characteristics : Methods in Context

Power and status:

Teachers have power due to their age , experience and responsibility (duty of care towards young people they teach)

Teachers 'my classroom' mentality making it difficult for researcher to gain access.

Researchers need to do covert research.

Impression management: 

Teachers are used to being observed e.g Ofsted inspections 

Goffman - teachers are highly skilled at 'impression mangagement' meaning a researcher would need to get backstage to study teachers.

Headteachers may try to influence which staff are selected to be involved in the research.

Hill (2005) : three main differences when studying young people and adults

1) Power and status :

Young people have less power = more difficult for them to state their attitudes and views openly.

2) Ability and understanding : 

Pupils vocabulary, thinking skills etc = limited in comparison to adults 

Could make gaining informed consent difficult 

3) Vulnerablity and ethical issues:

young people = more vulnerable to harm than adults

Child protection issues = important

Vulnerability leads to more gatekeepers controlling access to pupils e.g teachers and parents 

Classrooms are : 

• closed social settings
• highly controlled settings 
• simple social settings

Classroom behaviour may not accurately reflect what those involved really think and feel.

Gatekeepers e.g headteachers control access to classrooms.

Peer groups may influence answers therefore supervision may be needed from researchers to prevent this from happening.

Secondary data is available about schools e.g Ofsted reports and school policy documents however some of these secondary sources = confidential.

Schools = 'data-rich' places

However data can be manipulated to make schools come across better in order to attract more students.

The school has a 'captive population' which allows researchers to know where students should be at any moment in time. However, schools have a legal duty of care so access to pupils could be restricted.

Size and complexity of schools = difficult for researchers to get used to 

Parents are not a single homogeneous group e.g middle class parents may be more likely to fill out a questionnaire about their child's education = unrepresentative findings 

Parents may engage in impression management presenting themselves in a positive light which leads to data that lacks validity. 

Access to parents = difficult because interaction happens within the home which the researcher typically cannot access. 

Parents = hard to contact without the school's cooperation.