AQA Sociology AS Method In context full revision notes

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Methods In The Context of Education 

P - Practical Issues
E - Ethical Issues
R - Reliability
V - Validity
E - Empirical Research
R - Representativeness
T - Theoretical 

P - Practical Issues 

  • Time and Money
  • Funding
  • Personal Skills and Characteristics
  • Subject Matter
  • Research Opportunity

E - Ethical Issues

  • Informed Consent
  • Confidentiality and Privacy
  • Harm to participants
  • Vulnerable Groups
  • Covert Research 

R - Reliability

  • If another researcher took the experiment would they get the same results

V - Validity

  • Is the data truthful

E - Empirical Research

  • Examples of similar research

R - Representativeness

  • Are you results representative of a larger sample/society in general

T - Theoretical Issues

  • Which theoretical or methodological perspective would favour the method?
  • Positivist - Prefer quantitative data, see sociology as a science to be mirrored on the natural sciences (structured interviews, questionnaires, experiments and official statistics etc.)
  • Interpretivists - Prefer qualitative data, reject the idea that sociology is mirrored on sciences, an interpret data looking for subjective meaning (participant observation, unstructured interviews etc.)
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  • Useful Concepts- 
  • Gatekeepers - anyone or anything that has the authority (legitimate or not) to allow, prevent or limit your research
  • Impression Management - social actors try to manipulate the impression other people have of us; this can be a barrier to research as the researcher has to fight this image 
  • Peer Group Pressure- respondents may feel pressurised into conforming to the views of the main reference groups; applies to teachers as well as pupils (e.g. in Group Interviews) 
  • Front-stage behaviour - Goffman suggests we put on an act when we are out there in the social world
  • Back-stage behaviour - in front stage we may not show our true feelings so research needs to get backstage with the social actors
  • Hawthorne Effect - when a respondents act up because they are aware that their behaviour is being studied

Studying Children

  • Easy to find but difficult to access, they are mostly in schools though there are may gatekeepers in the way of accessing them for study (may need a CRB check before entering a school, child protection laws etc)
  • Children are vulnerable because of their age- therefore are harder to study, questions must be simple and careful 
  • May be more naïve and so more truthful
  • Informed consent- children may need extra protection from harm 
  • Less developed language capabilities may lead to misinterpretation on both parties
  • Lower attention span may mean studies need to be shortened 
  • Issues with memory , memories may be partial or not recalled
  • The power, authority and status of the researcher may intimidate the student or give answers they believe will please the researcher. Pupils with anti-school

Comments

Destiny C

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Thank you for doing this, this has summed up methods in context amazingly well **