METHODS IN CONTEXT
PA P E R O N E
, • Primary v secondary data
• Quantitative v qualitative data
• Practical Considerations – time and money, requirements
of funding bodies, personal skills and characteristics,
CHOOSING subject matter, research opportunity
• Ethical Considerations – informed consent, confidentiality
A METHOD and privacy, harm, vulnerable groups, covert research
• Theoretical Considerations – validity, reliability,
representativeness, positivists v interpretivists
• Choice of topic – sociologists' perspective, society’s
values, practical factors, finding bodies
,PROCESS OF RESEACRH
Formulating aim or hypothesis – aim is a general intention (interpretivists),
hypothesis is a specific statement to prove or falsify (positivists)
Operationalising concepts – defining specific words or deciding a way to
measure ideas
Pilot study – draft on a small sample to find and correct any problems
Samples and sampling – sample frame of everyone who we are interested in
studying, sampling techniques – random, quasi-random, systematic, stratified
random, quota – or non-representative sampling – snowball or opportunity
, THE RESEARCH CONTEXT
Researching Pupils Researching Teachers
• Hill – 3 differences between adults and pupils • Power and status – duties of care towards pupils, power
1) Status and power – less open to state ideas, schools are imbalances between teachers, covert researchers may adopt a
hierarchal, teachers can influence student opinions, structural cover role as a supply teacher or teacher’s assistant, but this
research reinforces hierarchy, peer relationships can have an gives them less power
influence too
• Impression management – used to be observed and
2) Ability and understanding – limited vocabulary, self-expression scrutinised, Ofsted, Goffman teachers are good at putting on
and grasp of abstract concepts, harder to gain informed an act as they have to act differently in their job anyway, ‘front
consent, poorer recall, but differences between gender, class stage’ vs ‘backstage’, teachers may be reluctant to be critical
and ethnicity may need adaptations as they won’t want to risk their job or promotion opportunities,
3) Vulnerability and ethics – necessity of pupils in research, more head teachers may influence teachers doing the research who
vulnerable to harm, harder to gain informed consent, more will give a favourable impression
gatekeepers
Researching Classrooms
• Laws and guidelines – child protections laws, Safeguarding
• Closed social setting, lots of control, small social setting
Vulnerable Groups Act, vetting and barring schemes to work in
schools (DBS) • Gatekeepers – more difficult to maintain access
• Peer groups – conformity, true ideas hidden behind dominant
influences
PA P E R O N E
, • Primary v secondary data
• Quantitative v qualitative data
• Practical Considerations – time and money, requirements
of funding bodies, personal skills and characteristics,
CHOOSING subject matter, research opportunity
• Ethical Considerations – informed consent, confidentiality
A METHOD and privacy, harm, vulnerable groups, covert research
• Theoretical Considerations – validity, reliability,
representativeness, positivists v interpretivists
• Choice of topic – sociologists' perspective, society’s
values, practical factors, finding bodies
,PROCESS OF RESEACRH
Formulating aim or hypothesis – aim is a general intention (interpretivists),
hypothesis is a specific statement to prove or falsify (positivists)
Operationalising concepts – defining specific words or deciding a way to
measure ideas
Pilot study – draft on a small sample to find and correct any problems
Samples and sampling – sample frame of everyone who we are interested in
studying, sampling techniques – random, quasi-random, systematic, stratified
random, quota – or non-representative sampling – snowball or opportunity
, THE RESEARCH CONTEXT
Researching Pupils Researching Teachers
• Hill – 3 differences between adults and pupils • Power and status – duties of care towards pupils, power
1) Status and power – less open to state ideas, schools are imbalances between teachers, covert researchers may adopt a
hierarchal, teachers can influence student opinions, structural cover role as a supply teacher or teacher’s assistant, but this
research reinforces hierarchy, peer relationships can have an gives them less power
influence too
• Impression management – used to be observed and
2) Ability and understanding – limited vocabulary, self-expression scrutinised, Ofsted, Goffman teachers are good at putting on
and grasp of abstract concepts, harder to gain informed an act as they have to act differently in their job anyway, ‘front
consent, poorer recall, but differences between gender, class stage’ vs ‘backstage’, teachers may be reluctant to be critical
and ethnicity may need adaptations as they won’t want to risk their job or promotion opportunities,
3) Vulnerability and ethics – necessity of pupils in research, more head teachers may influence teachers doing the research who
vulnerable to harm, harder to gain informed consent, more will give a favourable impression
gatekeepers
Researching Classrooms
• Laws and guidelines – child protections laws, Safeguarding
• Closed social setting, lots of control, small social setting
Vulnerable Groups Act, vetting and barring schemes to work in
schools (DBS) • Gatekeepers – more difficult to maintain access
• Peer groups – conformity, true ideas hidden behind dominant
influences
