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AQA A-level Sociology Education - Methods in Context
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In-depth notes on the Methods in Context section of the Education Paper.
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Sociology AQA - Paper 1 - Methods in Context
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AQA A-level Sociology Research Methods Textbook Notes
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AQA A-level Sociology Paper 1 Education Textbook Notes
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Methods in context1 – Carrying out research in the context of education
4.1.1 > Researching schools and colleges
4.1.2 > Researching staff in an educational context
4.1.3 > Researching pupils and students
4.1.4 > Researching parents in an educational context
4.1.1 - Researching schools and colleges:
Educational research takes place in a range of educational establishments including:
> primary and secondary schools (for example, private and state schools)
> sixth form and further education colleges
> universities.
Schools and colleges are located in different catchment areas and vary in terms of the social mix of their
intake as well as their culture and ethos. Some studies are based on a single site while others are based
on several sites and allow sociologists to compare and contrast schools when analysing their data.
Research settings and participants:
Sociological research into education can take place in different non-public locations or settings such as:
> classrooms
> staffrooms
> specific departments
> playgrounds and other social spaces
> students’ homes if the research involves parents.
Different groups of people participate in research on education and provide information to enable
sociologists to address their research questions. These groups include:
> classroom assistants, teachers, heads of departments and head teachers
> pupils and students
> parents, guardians and carers
> school governors
> careers staff and counsellors.
Practical issues in educational research:
Educational research requires time and money. The costs of travel, accommodation, phone calls,
photocopying, stationery and transcribing, for example, must be budgeted for during the planning stage.
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,Sociologists have to bear in mind any possible time and resource constraints when designing their
research and selecting their methods. For example, if a sociologist is studying students’ involvement in
extra-curricular activities, their research budget might not cover the relatively high costs of lengthy
unstructured interviews, but it might be enough for a short questionnaire survey. A sociologist who has a
regular teaching timetable may not have enough time to carry out an ethnographic study of a school or
sufficient funding to employ a researcher to do the fieldwork. In this case, they may use unstructured
interviews instead. Another consideration is that schools and colleges operate on an academic year
calendar and sociologists have to timetable their fieldwork around this.
It can be hard to find a quiet, private place in a school to carry out confidential interviews. Teachers and
students may walk into a room where an interview is taking place and stay around for a while. As a guest
at the school, a researcher may find it difficult to ask a teacher to leave the room.
Ethical issues in educational research:
Ethical principles cover issues such as harm to participants, informed consent, invasion of privacy and
deception. Researchers in education use agreed ethics standards, codes or guidelines, for example those
produced by professional associations such as the British Sociological Association (BSA) or the British
Education Research Association (BERA). The funders of a project such as the Economic and Social
Research Council (ESRC) may also set their own standards of ethics.
Ethical guidelines on educational research protect not only research participants including students,
teachers and parents but also researchers and their employers. Sociologists must apply the general ethical
standards (for example, on informed consent) to their own study of education. How they do this will
depend on the particular context (for instance, whether the participants are primary school pupils,
university students or head teachers), the sensitivity of the topic and the methods they are using.
Informed consent:
All research participants must be able to make an informed decision about whether they want to take part
in a study. One way of informing prospective participants is by providing detailed information sheets
about the study and how they will be involved. This information could include assurances about
confidentiality, anonymity, privacy and participants’ right to withdraw at any stage. Within the context of
education, the language and vocabulary used in the information would need to be tailored to the particular
group of participants, taking into account factors such as their age, competence and ability to understand
abstract ideas.
The role of research ethic committees:
Sociologists may have to submit their research proposals to a research ethics committee (REC) at their
university. RECs help to safeguard research participants (such as primary school children or students with
special needs), advise on the ethical implications of a study and grant approval (or otherwise) to the
research.
Theoretical issues in educational research:
Theoretical issues concern questions about, for example, the validity, reliability and generalisability of
data gathered during research. For instance, studies of counter-school cultures are usually based on
participant observation in one secondary school. This allows the researcher to build strong rapport with
participants and gather rich and detailed data about the formation of student subcultures in the school.
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,However, if teachers or pupils associate participant observation with inspectors, for example, this may
reduce the validity of the data.
Power relationships within schools and colleges:
Power relationships are built into the management structure of schools. Newly qualified teachers, for
example, have less power than head teachers and senior managers. Power relationships also exist between
teachers and pupils. In general, young people are used to complying with adults’ wishes. These power
relationships have implications for research ethics, for instance, in terms of informed consent and how far
this is given voluntarily. They might also affect how honest participants are when responding to questions
in unstructured interviews or questionnaires.
The legal framework:
Researchers must comply with the requirements of legislation on working with children and child
protection. As part of a school’s safeguarding procedures, researchers who have contact with pupils may
have to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
Researchers must also comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1988. For example, all
personal data must not be kept longer than is necessary to complete a study. It must then be destroyed or
securely archived.
The political framework:
Educational research takes place within a political context and many topics in educational policy and
practice (such as funding and academies) are hotly debated by politicians, teachers, teaching unions and
parents. Some issues are more politically sensitive than others at particular points in time, such as
grammar schools in the run-up to the 2017 general election. This may affect the availability of funding
and the willingness of prospective participants to get involved in a research project.
Summary:
1 – Sociologists carry out educational research in different types of school as well as sixth form colleges,
further education colleges and universities.
2 – Different groups – including staff, students and parents – participate in research on education.
Research can take place in settings such as classrooms, staffrooms and students’ homes.
3 – Sociologists have to consider several practical issues when planning and carrying out research
including the availability of time and money.
4 – Researching education raises ethical issues such as harm, informed consent, privacy and deception.
5 – Theoretical issues include the validity, reliability and generalisability of data gathered during
research.
6 – Other issues to consider when planning and carrying out educational research include power
relationships in schools and colleges, and the legal and political frameworks within which the research
takes place.
4.1.2 - Researching staff in an educational context:
Practical issues in researching staff:
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, Practical issues include selecting and accessing a research site and negotiating access to participants.
Selecting and negotiating access to a research site:
Initially, a researcher has to choose an appropriate educational establishment and negotiate access to this
site to carry out research. In practice, sociologists often draw on their personal contacts (friends/ former
colleagues) when trying to access a school or college. They might approach a local school to cut down on
travel costs and time. However, a convenient local site may not necessarily be the most appropriate site
(Walford, 2001). For example, the researcher may find that the sixth form is too small for a study of
social class differences in students’ higher education choices based on quantitative methods.
The head teacher, principal or chair of governors is usually the main gatekeeper with the power to grant
or refuse access to the school or college. They are more likely to allow access if they recognise the
purpose of the research or its relevance to schools. Researchers often give the gatekeeper an information
sheet containing details about the research aims and methods, and provide assurances about
confidentiality, anonymity, privacy and so on. The gatekeepers must be willing to support the project if it
is to succeed. They must also feel confident that any account of the school, its staff, students and practices
will be fair and balanced.
When negotiating access, some researchers offer to work as a supply teacher at the school or to teach a
number of classes per week. This gives the researcher more of an insider perspective. One potential
disadvantage of doing this is that the students might be less open in interviews because they see the
researcher as an authority figure. This could reduce the validity of the data.
Powerful gatekeepers might have their own agenda in granting access. For example, the head teacher may
give the researcher access only to trusted teachers or pupils to protect the school’s image ad this raises
questions about the data’s validity. Alternatively, the head might give the researcher access to a teacher
who they want information about and this could create ethical problems for the researcher.
Gatekeepers differ in how far they control researchers’ movement around a school and their access to
teachers and students. David Gillborn and Deborah Youdell (2000) carried out research in two secondary
schools in London over a 2-year period to investigate some of the effects of league tables and
marketisation on teaching. In one school, a deputy head teacher controlled their access to the school the
staff and students. In the other school, however, the researchers were able to observe assemblies, parents’
evenings and staff meetings, and to talk to students and teachers informally during tutor group periods. As
a result, Gillborn and Youdell developed closer rapport with students at this school.
Refusal of access:
Negotiating access to an educational establishment can be a lengthy process and there are no guarantees
of success. The gatekeepers’ priority is the students under their care rather than a research project. They
may block access because the research could impact on students’ achievements (e.g., during the run-up to
public examinations), increase teachers’ workload and cause stress (e.g., around the time of an Ofsted
inspection). Some research topics or issues are potentially more sensitive than others for the schools
involved because they are viewed as undesirable or threatening in some way. Topics such as streaming,
unauthorised absence, school-based factors linked to underachievement, racism, gender inequality in the
classroom or bullying are all potentially sensitive. In these cases, staff may be reluctant to participate in a
research project.
In the current climate of marketisation and competition, schools and colleges are concerned about their
image and would be cautious about participating in research if the results could reflect badly on their
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