theory and methods A02

questionnaires

Hite: only 4.5% response rate to surveys sent out

Cicourel: argued they lack validity

Shipman: categories for questions can get shifted about and misinterpreted

Shipman: pruning and air bending of answer and question is often seen

methods in context studies for questionnaires

Rutter (1979): used questionnaires to collect large data sets from London schools

Dewson (2001): questionnaires sent to 4000 working class students across 14 higher education institutions

interviews

Interviews: a social interaction

Oakley: interviewer bias

Rich: children want to please adult

Griffin: Scrap interviews

Becker: manipulation garnered info

Structured interviews

Young and Willmott (1962): extended families in London

Graham (1983): argues this method is patriarchal and invalidates womens’ real lived experiences.

Willis (1977): ‘Learning to Labour’

Unstructured interviews

Labov (1973): relaxed interviews of Black African American children elicited more information

Dean and Taylor-Gooby (1992): freedom to use own terms

methods in context studies for interviews

Bentley (1987): informal interview technique aids education interviews. Labov agrees with this.

Bell (1981): interviews may be seen as interviewer in disguise

Greene and Hogan: group interviews best with pupils

Powney and Watts (1987) age related issues with questions in interviews

Willis (1977): ‘Learning to Labour’

observation

Participant observation

Thornton (1995): clubbing and the rave scene

Griffin (1962): changed his skin colour to experience racism in the American Deep south

Punch (1979): Amsterdam police observations

Humphreys (1970): studies gay men’s sexiual encounters in toilets

Cicourel’s (1968) study into the police force and unconscious bias

Yablonsky (1973): teen gangs are hard to gain reliable data on for all researchers

methods in context studies for observations

• Flanders (1970) classroom observation and (too much) teacher talk, this led to his development of FIAC analysis/categorisation

• Lacy: took two months to familiarise with the school & Eggleston (1976) took three months to set up cover for his observations

• Wright (1992), experienced antagonistic behaviour from white teachers linked to her African Caribbean ethnicity, but was held in high esteem by black pupils

• Hawthorne effect: King (1984), Ball (1993), 

• Willis (1977); small scale study of boys ‘ learning to labour’ = unrepresentative

• Hammersley: school staffroom data collection more likely to contain ‘sample’ bias

experiments

Lab experiments

Milgram (1974): obedience to authority

Mayo (1927): the Hawthorne effect/the experimental effect

Harvey and Slatin (1976): teacher preconceived ideas a about pupils due to social class

The comparative method

Durkheim (1897) study into religion and suicide

Field experiments

Rosenhan (1973) Pseudopatient: mental health

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968): Pygmalion in the Classroom labelling and false IQ tests with teachers

methods in context studies for experiments

Harvey and Slatin (1976): teacher preconceived ideas a about pupils due to social class

Charkin et al (1975): university students teaching the same boy to assess approach based on differgin IQ info

Mason (1973): teacher response to pupils varied by reports

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968): Pygmalion in the Classroom labelling and false IQ tests with teachers

Claiborn (1969) found no evidence to support the claims of R&J in teacher pupil classroom interactions.

secondary sources

Official statistics (registrations & official surveys)

Ofsted, Department for Education, Census, local parish statistics, School collected data, Crime survey for England and Wales,

Durkheim’s (positivist) study of suicide in religion,

Atkinson (1971): argues that stats lack validity,

Irvine (1987): argues that stats serve capitalism

Documents (public and personal)

Black report 1980 into inequalities in health

The polish Peasant in Europe and America:migration and social change (Thomas and Znaniecki 1919)

Peter Laslett - parish records in pre-industrial England

Lobban (1974) gender roles in children’s reading schemes

Tuckman (1978) the portrayal of women in TV

methods in context studies for secondary sources

Official stats for schools

CVA: contextual value added stats

Gillborn (1995) racism and schooling

Gerwitz et al (1995) the marketization of education

Hey (1997) notes passed between girls