Methods in Context: Revision Table

Primary Method
Questionnaires

Advantages
Practical
You can gather large quantities of basic
information quickly and cheaply.

Sampling frames may be available from the

school because of the amount of data that
they have to produce and keep, e.g. lists of
pupils and teachers in the form of classes
and teaching departments. Data on
ethnicity and attainment will also be
available. This will allow studies to be
representative.
Ethical
Teachers can get parental consent where
needed to overcome ethical difficulties.
Theoretical
When schools allow researchers to
distribute questionnaires response rates
are often very good, especially if they are
completed in school time. If the response
rate is high it may mean that the data is
more representative and so generalisations
can be made with greater confidence.

Limitations
However, this data is often confidential so
that a disadvantage of this for the
researcher be gaining access to it difficult
Schools may not be so keen to cooperate
with questionnaires if: They take too much
time to complete They disrupt the lessons
and learning too much. They explore topics
which the school might not be happy with,
e.g. under-age sexual activity or attitudes
to drug-taking This means that
questionnaires might not be fully
representative due to practical difficulties
Ethical
Parents may not give parental consent
making the sample unrepresentative. In
addition gaining parental consent is time
consuming.
The data generated is often limited and
superficial. Whilst Rutter was able to make
correlations between variables the data did
not enable him to explain these
correlations.
For questionnaires to work, they require
that the participants (e.g. children) can
read and understand the questions. This
makes them unsuitable for younger

Example studies
Rutter (1979) used
them to gather large
quantities of data from
12 inner London
secondary schools.
From this he was able to
correlate achievement,
attendance and
behaviour with
variables such as school
size, class size and
number of staff. Other
methods, such as
interviewing and
observation, could have
achieved the same
results but would have
taken much longer and
have been harder work
for the researcher(s).
However, the data
generated is often
limited and superficial.
Whilst Rutter was able
to make correlations
between variables the
data did not enable him
to explain these
correlations.

Primary Method
Interviews
(Structured and
unstructured)

Advantages
Practical

Limitations
Practical

Structured interviews can be carried out on

a large scale and can be conducted by untrained researchers- therefore, limiting the
cost of the research.

Structured interviews are limited because

younger interviewees (i.e.) may:

Many children prefer talking to writing and

this method might be better for producing
more valid data than questionnaires

The hierarchical nature of a school may

work in the interviewers favour- if the
researchers gain consent then the
headteacher can instruct teachers to allow
students to leave the classroom to be
interviewed.

Be more inarticulate or reluctant

to talk
Not understand long, complex
sentences or some abstract
concepts
Have a more limited vocabulary
and use words incorrectly
Have a shorter attention span and
poorer memory retrieval than
adults Read body language
differently from adults

Unstructured interviews take more time and

require a trained researcher. Access to
students can be difficult if they need to be
away from lessons and, therefore, missing
learning.
Unstructured interviews may allow children
to wander away from the point, unless the
interviewer is well-trained in interviewing
children, which adds to the cost.
The content of the interview (or an
inaccurate version of it) might spread

Example Study
Unstructured
Example:
In general unstructured
interviews may be
more suitable for
overcoming barriers of
power and status
inequality. Their
informality can put
young interviewees at
their ease and
establish rapport more
easily e.g. Labov
(1973). His study of
black American
children found that in a
formal setting children
seemed tongue-tied.
In a less formal setting,
sitting on the floor side
by side for example,
the children opened up
and spoke freely. By
putting the children at
their ease and
encouraging them to
open up, they may
produce more valid

around the class/school relatively quickly

after only a small number. This could
influence the responses of those still to be
interviewed, thus reducing the validity of
the data.

data. Such methods

may be particularly
useful when dealing
with sensitive topics
such as bullying.

The hierarchical nature of schools means

that consent to interview students or
teachers needs to be gained at several
levels. Including parental consent.

Group Interview
Example:
Alternatively the
research can use group
interviews rather than
the conventional oneto-one type. Paul Willis
(1976)learning to
Labour study used
group interviews to
investigate student
subcultures (lads and
earoles)

Ethical
In most instances parental consent can be
gained for interviews to take place.
Responses can be made anonymous to
protect identities.

Theoretical

Ethical
Parental consent must be gained. Parental
consent can be particularly hard to get
depending on the subject- Fields 1987
study of sex and health education had a
refusal rate of 29%.
Much of the information held about
students in confidential.

Structured interviews produce reliable data

because they are standardised.
Theoretical
By using unstructured interviews
researchers can increase the likelihood of
valid answers, interviewers should:

Use open-ended questions (not appropriate

in structured interviews)
Not interrupt childrens answers
Tolerate long pauses

Structured interviews may not produce

valid data, since young people are unlikely
to respond favourably to such a formal
style, perhaps because the interviewer
appears to be more like a teacher. There

Advantages can
include:
Some pupils feel
safer when with
their peers
They may be
more willing to
speak up in front
of an adult
They may
provide insights
into pupil
interactions
However on the
downside:

Recognise that children are more

suggestible, so it is very
important not to ask leading
questions
Avoid repeating questions

are techniques which can overcome this,

e.g. creating a relaxed atmosphere before
starting, using eye contact, nodding and
smiling but such a very personalised
interviewing style can be hard to
standardise so that different interviewers
would be likely to obtain very different
results and this would reduce reliability and
comparability of their findings
Power and status inequalities can affect the
outcome of interviews. If interviewees
have less power than the interviewer, they
may see it as being in their own interests to
lie, exaggerate, conceal information or seek
to please when asked questions. They may
be more nervous and less articulate, which
could reduce the validity of the data
There are power and status inequalities
between young people and adults.
Interviewers are usually adults and children
may see them as authority figures. This is
even more likely in educational research,
especially if the interviews are conducted
on school premises.
If the researcher is perceived as a
teacher in disguise, this can affect
the validity of the data in several
ways:
Answers may aim to please the
teacher, e.g. by exaggerating how
much time is spent on homework
The children may defer to the
teacher in the interview because

Pupils may be
strongly
influenced by
peer pressure.
They might egg
each other on to
say similar things
or conform to the
expectations of
others rather
than express
what they truly
think.

they are accustomed to think that

adults know better, e.g. if a
question is repeated, some children
will change their original answer
because they think they must have it
wrong

Primary Method
Observation two
types:

1. Highly
structured

Strengths
Practical

Limitations
Practical

Highly structured methods are quicker,

cheaper and require lesson training than

Open-ended methods are time consuming

and require a high level skills from the

Example Study
Highly structured
observation:
The Flanders system of

using precategorise
d
observatio
nal
schedules
(these are
preferred
by
positivists)
2. Open
ended
methods
preferred
by
interpretiv
ists

open-ended methods.
Observation may be easier to gain
permission to conduct than interviews as it
does not remove students from the learning
environment.

observer. Schools are complex places and

therefore observation is time consumingEggleston (1976) needed three months to
set up his cover role before he started
observing in school. Observation in school
is limited by the restrictions of the school
timetable, holidays, health and safety etc.
The results are difficult to record accurately.
Hammersely admitted for example that
staff room conversations had to be
recorded covertly, hurriedly and often in
hindsight.

Ethical
Ethical
Parental consent is less likely to be needed
for observation than in the case of
interviews.

Covert observation is not appropriate due

to the increased vulnerability of children
and young adults.
Delamont points out that researchers often
observe of overhear things that could get
students into trouble. What to do with this
knowledge is an ethical concern.
Good image is crucial to a schools successparticular because of the marketisation of
education, therefore, protecting identities is
crucial otherwise harm could be caused.

Theoretical
Theoretical
Structured methods are easily replicated.
Unstructured methods come closest to

Structured methods do not consider the

meaning attached to interactions in the

interaction analysis
categories (FIAC) This is
used to measure pupil
and teachers
interactions
quantitatively dividing
all behaviours into 10
categories and
recording them every 3
seconds). Observations
can easily be converted
into quantitative data.
Flanders (1970) study
of America found that
68% of time is taken up
by teacher talk.
Opened- ended
observation:
Willis (1977) study of
student subcultures

observing classroom interaction and giving

a valid picture of this.

classroom. Interpretivists believe that

simply classifying and counting up
behaviours is pointless.
Open ended observation is hard to replicate
and therefore lacks reliability.
Personal characteristics of the observer
may cuase students to react differently.
Wright found that as a black female she
was more readily accepted by Black
students and treated with suspicion by
white teachers (1992)
Students and teachers may give off a false
image when being observed (the
hawthorne effect). Ronald King (1984) tried
to be as unobtrusive as possible by sitting
in the Wendy House!
The small scale nature of observational
studies may mean that they lack
representativeness. E.g. Willis (1977)
observed only 12 boys

Primary Method
Laboratory
experiments

Advantages
Practical

Limitations
Practical

They can be replicated

They are costly, time consuming to conduct

and take highly skilled researchers to carry
them out. Experiments are also very
difficult to design. Most schools would be
unwilling to allow experiments to take
place- this could attract negative attention
from the media this may harm a schools
reputation (an ethical consideration)

Ethical

Ethical

Consent can be gained if the researcher is

open about the research taking place.

It is often impossible or unethical to control

the variables, students could have their
progress or self-esteem damaged.
It is considered generally wrong to mislead
people as to the nature of the experiment
and yet the researcher needs the informed
consent of the research participantsespecially younger students who are
considered the most vulnerable.

Example studies
Experiments have been
conducted by
sociologists interested
in how teacher
expectations of
different groups of
pupils have important
effects, leading to
labelling, the selffulfilling prophecy and
unequal achievement,
e.g.:
Harvey and Slatin
(1976) examined
whether teachers have
preconceived ideas
about pupils from
different social classes.
They used a sample of
96 teachers. Each
teacher was shown 18
photographs of children
from different social
class backgrounds.

Theoretical
Theoretical
They achieve their main goal of reliability
through careful control over experimental
conditions and experimenter detachment,
which produces reliable data which can
then be replicated by others
Being able to identify and measure
behaviour patterns quantitatively and to
manipulate variables to establish causeand-effect relationships

A laboratory is not a normal or natural

environment. As a result, it is likely that
any behaviour that occurs in these
conditions is also unnatural or artificial. If
people do not behave in true-to-life ways,
the experiment will not produce valid
results
However, positivists do recognise the
shortcomings of laboratory experiments:
It is often impossible or unethical to control
the variables Their small scale means that
results may not be representative or
generalisable
Interpretivists dont like laboratory
experiments, saying they are an artificial
situation producing unnatural behaviour
and therefore are not so high in validity
If people know they are being studied, they
may behave differently; for example by
trying to second-guess what the researcher
wants them to do and acting accordingly.
This will ruin the experiment, which
depends on the subjects responding to the
variables that the researcher introduces
into the situation, not the fact that they are
being observed. This problem is often
known as the Hawthorne Effect.
Finally, interpretivists argue that human
beings have free will, consciousness and

To control other
variables, the photos
were equally divided in
terms of gender and
ethnicity.
The teachers were
asked to rate the
children on their
performance, parental
attitudes to education,
aspirations and so on.
Harvey and Slatin
found that lower-class
children were rated less
favourably, especially
by more experienced
teachers. Teachers
based their ratings on
the similarities they
perceived between the
children in the photos
and pupils they had
taught. Real pupils
were not involved, so
no child suffered any
negative effects
This experiment can be
criticised because:
It had a very
narrow focus (i.e.
appearance) and
did not consider
other variables

choice so that our behaviour cannot be

explained in terms of cause and effect.
Instead it can only be understood in terms
of the choices we make freely. Therefore, in
their view, the experimental method is not
appropriate for studying human beings.
Given these issues, laboratory experiments
are rarely used in sociology, even by
positivists Field experiments are used more
commonly but because of the practical and
ethical problems, which are associated with
them, as well as criticisms about validity,
they are not used as widely as other
research methods in education and other
fields of study

Secondary
methods
Official statistics

like:
Behaviour,
accent and
impressions
formed by
meeting the
parents
It was artificial
because photos
were used

Strengths

Limitation

Example Studies

Practical

Practical

Local Education Authorities (LEAs and the

Department for Children, Families and
Schools (DCFS) collect a wide range of
statistics on education. Much of this data is
published and thus easily accessible to
researchers. It would be too costly and
time-consuming for sociologists to carry

Governments collect statistics for their own

purposes and these may not be the same
as the sociologists. Governments may also
employ different definitions that
sociologists. The Government defines
students class as dependent on parental
occupation, whereas Marxist see class as

Each school returns a

school census three
times per year. This
contains data regarding,
amongst other things,
students background
(gender/ ethnicity etc),
attendance and the
number of students that

research on 30,000 primary schools and

4,000 secondary schools in England and
Wales.

defined in terms of property ownership.

Trends can be observed over time and

comparisons can be made between
different groups.
Ethical
Issues of consent have be previously dealt
with by the LEA or government
Theoretical
Theoretical
Some official statistics are highly
representative. Schools are required to
complete a school census three times a
year. This covers virtually every pupil in the
country.
Official statics are reliable and this means
that they can be used to test and re-test
researchers hypotheses.
The government impose standardised
definitions, allowing them to the replicated
year after year- making official statistics
very reliable.

Governments can change definitions.

League tables introduced in 1988 were
based simply on a schools overall exam
performance. Labour changed this in 2006
introducing Contextual Value Added (CVA)
this took account not just of CVA but also of
the levels of deprivation students suffer.
This changed the way that schools were
placed dramatically.
According to interpretivists official statistics
are social constructs this undermines their
validity. For example schools manipulate
their attendance figures by re-defining poor
attenders as being on study leave or
additional work experience.

receive free school

meals.