Social survey research + questionnaires

What are the general advantages of using questionnaires in an educational context?

• respondents concentrated on 1 site so researchers can collect large amounts of info quickly + cheaply

• sampling frames eg. registers available (although school may not release - data protection)

What is an example of a questionnaire used in an educational context?

• Kim Slack et al (2014) researched higher education decision-making

• how do the sources used by students in relation to their HE choices relate to their background?

• mixed methods approach

• questionnaires distributed through named contacts at range of institutions (unis, colleges, 6th forms, colleges, state + independent schools)

• 1544 completed

• asked about what sources students used, how useful they are, socio-economic factors etc.

What are the practical disadvantages with using questionnaires in an educational context?

• access might be denied by school ‘gatekeeper’ if would take lesson time or hamper academic progress

• if researcher supervises completion, students might not be honest (could be identified by handwriting)

• if questionnaires simply distributed, students might not bother/ treat it as joke/ discuss answers

• young children/children with literacy problems may struggle

• students who truant may not be present

• students may not understand Qs

• difficult to access parents

• if students asked to give questionnaire to parents, no guarantee they will —> high non-response rate

What are the practical advantages with using questionnaires in an educational context?

• cheap + not time-consuming

• can be sent to large samples

• schools may prefer to ethnographies over long periods

• if researcher supervises, can answer Qs and ensure no discussion of answers + high response rate

• if questionnaires distributed, anonymity safeguarded

What are the ethical disadvantages with using questionnaires in an educational context?

• informed consent from younger pupils difficult if don’t understand details of research

• students may feel pressure to complete if supervised, even though might not want to

What are the ethical advantages with using questionnaires in an educational context?

• easy to withdraw as can simply not answer Qs/scribble answers, with no repurcussions

• can be anonymous

• usually publishing statistically so little chance of identification

What are the theoretical disadvantages with using questionnaires in an educational context?

• difficult to define/institutionalise abstract concepts eg. cultural capital

• Interpretivists: questionnaires based on assumption that sociologists know in advance what is important - difficult to discover meanings

• answers may not reflect actual classroom behaviour - less valid

• peers may influence responses eg. discussion during completion

• some groups eg. truants likely to be absent (under-represented)

• Law + Swann used quantitative survey & found few gypsy/traveller students were present

• anti-school cultures —> treating as joke/not bothering to respond

• samples might be unrepresentative & so generalisations difficult eg. if largely UC class

What are the theoretical advantages with using questionnaires in an educational context?

• closed questions —> quantitative data (can be linked to other data to find correlations)

• Qs standardised so comparisons possible

• postal questionnaires —> no social desirability effect

• positivists favour to test hypotheses

• can be replicated to check reliability