The context of the question is a particular topic in education Methods in context The context of the question is a particular topic in education The question is accompanied by an item containing stimulus material for the candidate to apply in their answer

Format: applying material from item b and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate strengths and limitations of using unstructured interviews to investigate attitudes to education This question always asks about one research method and how it applies to one particular issue in education The research method could be any of those named in the specification It will be important to know the difference between covert and overt participant observation or the difference between hand-held and postal questionnaires The particular issue could be any topic on education that sociologists might be interested in studying, such as labelling in the classroom or anti-school subcultures in schools

What you need to know The methods: for each method the candidate needs to know its key strengths and limitations, based on practical and ethical and theoretical issues – and relationship to the key methodologies The research characteristics: the main groups and areas hat sociologists study are: pupils, teachers, classrooms, schools and parents

Issues that may emerge regarding the research characteristics of the groups under study

Ethnicity Language barrier Difficult to establish rapport with some ethnic groups if they feel embarrassed about underachieving in education, or if they are nervous of researches of other ethic groups May be sensitive about some areas surrounding religion Difficulties of avoiding racial stereotypes in discussion

Students Hard to access due to parental consent Opinions may not be valid- influenced by peers No spare time eg lessons all day Sensitive topics cannot be researched- not to scare students, be careful with language use Anti-school subcultures unwilling to take part Difficult to build rapport

Gender Boys may be unwilling to take part in research – anti school subcultures are often formed by boys by labelling Different social spaces: boys are harder to access eg football at lunch Girls are willing to talk about feeling ‘bedroom culture’ Less peer pressure for girls Research has to be careful not to make gender stereotypical assumptions Researcher can be the same gender as the participants to build rapport

Social class w/c restricted code –Bernstein Access- w/c may not trust researcher, social class is a sensitive topic, social class is difficult to define Some social class groups are critical of authority Researcher should not make assumptions w/c may have lower literacy levels – lower representativeness

Parents Difficult to access if not interested in childs education – w/c May not have the time to participate due to work/ younger children/other responsibilities Language barrier, restricted/elaborated code Research has to be careful with language used eg short sentences, try not to make them inferior Go off topic Defensive – low validity

Different regions Access for covert participant due to accents Travel costs – moving around Different values for different regions Hierarchy = researcher may feel like they are authoritative if they have elaborated code, makes individuals feel excluded

Synario: covert participation observation for studying pupil teacher interactions

Access would be hard because… Parental consent would be needed Researcher would not blend in, would be an adult in a room full of children Need to establish a rule- would be time consuming eg ta Background checks need to be carried out beforehand

Teachers and pupils would be deceived Do not know the true nature of investigation – deception No informed consent Would have no choice but to do overt participation

Hard to replicate the investigation – low reliability Pupil teacher interactions can vary, each lesson tends to be unique Some lessons may have theory based work, some may be more practical

Low representativeness – small scale research Small group of students – difficult to generalize pupil teacher interactions Doesn’t always have the time to carry out numerious observations – time consuming

Qualitative data = high validity See what goes on between student and teachers rather than what they say they do Teacher may not be aware that they are labelling their pupils/ wont admit it in other types of research methods

Unstructured interviews for investigating the effect of material deprivation on educational achievement

Strengths Limitations High validity: qualitative Useful as it will enable students to tell the researcher accurate examples of how poverty has affected them at school. Example: trips, free school meals Low reliability: student/ researcher relationship, no preset questions, will be unable to make comparisons between certain age groups as student is a in control of what they talk about. Amy talk about different things to other students Build rapport: as it is a sensitive topic, students will feel more comfortable if the researcher has build versten between them. They will feel more comfortable to talk about experiences Example: a time they were bullied/ name called However needs to be addressed in a way where the student feels in control Time consuming: students may take time to trust the researcher – to build rapport. Unstructured interviews, no preset questions so can go off topic to make the student feel more comfortable eg ask about their day Access: time, students have a busy schedule- wouldn’t want to come out of lessons or sacrifice lunch times. Parental consent is an issue. Parents may be wary of the research due to it being so sensitive. Low representativeness

Self completion questionnaire to investigate unauthorized absences from school

Advantages Limitations Time effective – can be completed in a time that suits them. Parents busy schedules can fit it around work hours, check calendars/diaries for reasons of absence Parents may not receive questionnaire – low representativeness. Passed through child – may have lost it/ forgotten they have it. Child may not be in one of the days they give out the questionnaire, children with high absence rates wont receive it Cheap Can be sensitive topic- protection from hard: may not want to share reasons for absence – child eg bullying If closed it is reliable. Childs responses can be compared to their parents response Low validity if closed: imposition problem, not true to life if their responses is not on there they may have to pick another. May not understand question – no one to help