Methods in context
Practical issues
- Time and money- large-scale surveys require large amount of employees who need training,
participant observations are cheaper but take longer.
o Has to fit in line with schools timetable and holiday time
- Requirements of funding bodies- research institutes require results in a specific from, will have to
adapt method to produce type of data needed
- Personal skills and characteristics- different abilities influence use of methods, e.g. interviews may
require empathy.
o Communicating with children requires specific interpersonal skills
- Subject matter- researcher may not be able to access group, e.g. male trying to observe all-female
group.
o School in w/c area with high levels of crime may not be open to visitors or researchers.
Children or teachers might also refuse to be in study. Teachers are used to being observed
so may be skilled at impression management but won't be natural in backstage setting.
- Research opportunity- may not be able to gain access/ can occur unexpectedly so can't prepare
structured methods, e.g. Patrick offered to observe Glasgow gang so had to do participant
observation.
o Process of ‘getting in’ and ‘getting out’ during observations may be difficult, may require DBS
checks.
Ethical issues
- Informed consent- offered right to refuse to be involved and told relevant aspects of research to
gain consent
o Have to gain consent from parents and child
- Confidentiality and privacy- keeping identity and personal information secret to prevent possible
negative consequences.
o Social class pupils may not want to be identified
- Harm to research participants- effects on those studied, e.g. social exclusion/ psychological
damage
o May lead to enforcing stereotypes of pupils in lower sets/ schools in w/c areas
- Vulnerable groups- take special care, e.g. regard for child’s protection, speaking in ways a child can
understand and gaining child & parent consent
o Children have limited power and ability so research should be absolutely necessary, must be
explained to a child so they understand
- Covert research- hiding identity and purpose of research is deception, can't gain informed consent.
o Laws reflect urge to resist coercion and pressure on children to participate in research
Theoretical issues
- Validity- producing true picture of how something really is, closer to the truth. Qualitative methods
give deeper understanding
- Reliability- will have same results when repeated by another researcher, more likely with
quantitative methods.
- Representativeness- typical cross section of research population, enables generalisations
- Methodological perspective- positivists prefer quantitative data, seek to discover patterns of
behaviour. Interpretivists prefer qualitative data, want to understand meaning.
, Research group characteristics
Pupils
- Hierarchal imbalances between researcher and pupil, pupil may be reluctant to share information. Formal
research methods reinforce power differences. Can be overcome by using informal methods
- Pupils language skills may be limited, might not be able to understand abstract ideas. Also makes it more
difficult to gain informed consent. Memory is less developed and may take more time answering a question.
Data may not be accurate
- More vulnerable to harm, should consider need for research, not keeping personal data, adapt methods to
suit children
Teachers
- Teachers have more power in classroom and may be reluctant to be observed, researcher may have to from
a cover. Can also influence classroom behaviour against the researcher
- Won't have much excess time to give to researcher but may be sympathetic to the researcher
- Want to maintain a good impression
Classrooms
- Closed setting, clear boundaries, teacher and school control time/ layout
- Behaviour observed in a classroom may not be an accurate reflection of what ppts are thinking or feeling
- Pupils and teachers are very experienced in concealing real thoughts or feelings
- Large amount of gatekeepers makes it hard to gain access
- Young people more likely to feel pressure to conform to peer groups, can affect responses
Schools
- Large amount of schools, can't observe them all. Quantitative methods lose critical insight.
- Great deal of secondary data available from schools as highly monitored by parents/ media including exam
results, OFTSED reports and subject choices figures. Schools are ‘data-rich’.
- Data may be confidential so not available to researchers. Schools may downplay racist/ violent incidents to
appear better
- Legal framework means schools have legal duty to record attendance and educate, might see researchers as
interrupting that
- Head teachers, parents, governors have ability to prevent research. Meighan and Harber found heads may
see research in a negative way e.g. discipline for commenting on teachers
- Researchers may be viewed as teachers by pupils, reluctant to give information. Time of research is limited
by school timetables
Parents
- Not a homogenous group, w/c may have less time to be interviewed, sensitivity of research influences
likelihood for parent to give consent. Makes data unrepresentative
- Parents may engage in impression management
- Most parent child interactions take place in the home- unavailable to researchers.
Practical issues
- Time and money- large-scale surveys require large amount of employees who need training,
participant observations are cheaper but take longer.
o Has to fit in line with schools timetable and holiday time
- Requirements of funding bodies- research institutes require results in a specific from, will have to
adapt method to produce type of data needed
- Personal skills and characteristics- different abilities influence use of methods, e.g. interviews may
require empathy.
o Communicating with children requires specific interpersonal skills
- Subject matter- researcher may not be able to access group, e.g. male trying to observe all-female
group.
o School in w/c area with high levels of crime may not be open to visitors or researchers.
Children or teachers might also refuse to be in study. Teachers are used to being observed
so may be skilled at impression management but won't be natural in backstage setting.
- Research opportunity- may not be able to gain access/ can occur unexpectedly so can't prepare
structured methods, e.g. Patrick offered to observe Glasgow gang so had to do participant
observation.
o Process of ‘getting in’ and ‘getting out’ during observations may be difficult, may require DBS
checks.
Ethical issues
- Informed consent- offered right to refuse to be involved and told relevant aspects of research to
gain consent
o Have to gain consent from parents and child
- Confidentiality and privacy- keeping identity and personal information secret to prevent possible
negative consequences.
o Social class pupils may not want to be identified
- Harm to research participants- effects on those studied, e.g. social exclusion/ psychological
damage
o May lead to enforcing stereotypes of pupils in lower sets/ schools in w/c areas
- Vulnerable groups- take special care, e.g. regard for child’s protection, speaking in ways a child can
understand and gaining child & parent consent
o Children have limited power and ability so research should be absolutely necessary, must be
explained to a child so they understand
- Covert research- hiding identity and purpose of research is deception, can't gain informed consent.
o Laws reflect urge to resist coercion and pressure on children to participate in research
Theoretical issues
- Validity- producing true picture of how something really is, closer to the truth. Qualitative methods
give deeper understanding
- Reliability- will have same results when repeated by another researcher, more likely with
quantitative methods.
- Representativeness- typical cross section of research population, enables generalisations
- Methodological perspective- positivists prefer quantitative data, seek to discover patterns of
behaviour. Interpretivists prefer qualitative data, want to understand meaning.
, Research group characteristics
Pupils
- Hierarchal imbalances between researcher and pupil, pupil may be reluctant to share information. Formal
research methods reinforce power differences. Can be overcome by using informal methods
- Pupils language skills may be limited, might not be able to understand abstract ideas. Also makes it more
difficult to gain informed consent. Memory is less developed and may take more time answering a question.
Data may not be accurate
- More vulnerable to harm, should consider need for research, not keeping personal data, adapt methods to
suit children
Teachers
- Teachers have more power in classroom and may be reluctant to be observed, researcher may have to from
a cover. Can also influence classroom behaviour against the researcher
- Won't have much excess time to give to researcher but may be sympathetic to the researcher
- Want to maintain a good impression
Classrooms
- Closed setting, clear boundaries, teacher and school control time/ layout
- Behaviour observed in a classroom may not be an accurate reflection of what ppts are thinking or feeling
- Pupils and teachers are very experienced in concealing real thoughts or feelings
- Large amount of gatekeepers makes it hard to gain access
- Young people more likely to feel pressure to conform to peer groups, can affect responses
Schools
- Large amount of schools, can't observe them all. Quantitative methods lose critical insight.
- Great deal of secondary data available from schools as highly monitored by parents/ media including exam
results, OFTSED reports and subject choices figures. Schools are ‘data-rich’.
- Data may be confidential so not available to researchers. Schools may downplay racist/ violent incidents to
appear better
- Legal framework means schools have legal duty to record attendance and educate, might see researchers as
interrupting that
- Head teachers, parents, governors have ability to prevent research. Meighan and Harber found heads may
see research in a negative way e.g. discipline for commenting on teachers
- Researchers may be viewed as teachers by pupils, reluctant to give information. Time of research is limited
by school timetables
Parents
- Not a homogenous group, w/c may have less time to be interviewed, sensitivity of research influences
likelihood for parent to give consent. Makes data unrepresentative
- Parents may engage in impression management
- Most parent child interactions take place in the home- unavailable to researchers.
