Methods in education, Essays (university) of Educational Psychology

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AS Sociology For AQA

[2nd Edition]

Chris. Livesey and Tony Lawson

Unit 2:

Education

5. The application of sociological

research methods to the study of

education.

The 2008 AS Sociology Specification requires students to understand research methods “in context” (such contexts being either Education or Health) and the basic mechanics of the examination questions has been outlined by the specimen question papers; students will be required to:

a. Apply a given research method (such as questionnaires or interviews) to a given educational issue or problem (such as gendered subject choice).

b. Illustrate the method using examples from real-world research.

While some publishers and their authors have, for whatever reason, gone overboard with the education / methods link-up - giving it far more space / attention / prominence than it really deserves – it’s clear that this new type of question will test and stretch students in ways they are not used to being tested and stretched. This being the case it’s likely that teachers will also find themselves having to change their teaching strategy to place far greater emphasis than is probably currently the case on research methods / methodology when citing or discussing educational research.

While this is all well and good, a cursory scan of educational research generally reveals a dearth of methodological information (although recent research does include methodological details) which makes it difficult for teachers to pass-on details about research methods in educational studies to their students.

This document is an attempt to, if not exactly fill the gaping void, provide some methodological details about research studies that students can potentially incorporate into their exam answers. Having said this, although linking methods to education is going to be important, the real skill required of students is in the exam itself – the ability to think about and apply research methods in the heat of the exam to a given situation – and it is this that probably needs to be practiced during the AS-level course.

In this respect the “methods in education” question raises some novel problems for students and teachers

• not the least being that students have to understand a range of specific methods (advantages and disadvantages etc) and then apply them to a given (unseen) topic (such as “gendered subject choice” given in the specimen exam paper). Looking at the mark scheme for this question it becomes apparent that what’s required is generally:

“The strengths and weaknesses of the selected method will be accurately identified in some detail…Material drawn from Item B and reference to examples of research studies employing the selected method will be relevant, accurate and sensitively interpreted. Material will be interpreted and applied to the research issues identified in Item B in a more explicit manner”.

In other words, students need a good understanding of a particular research method to get the bulk of the available (20) marks. The problem, however, is how to use “reference to other studies” in an answer.

A detailed understanding of the research methods used in educational studies is going to be a big ask for AS students; the examiner, therefore, will probably settle for mention of some relevant studies in an appropriate way – such as illustrative material for particular points made about a research method; for example, knowing that Sue Sharpe (Just Like a Girl, 1976) used content analysis for part of her research and being able to discuss “content analysis” in terms of research methodology as it might apply to a question based around, say, gendered subject choice.

One “teaching solution” here is to identify for students the research methods writers used in their work as and when appropriate. In this way students will build-up a “research methods in education” glossary as they cover education in a fairly unobtrusive, naturalistic, way. Finally, when approaching “methods in education” it’s important to keep in mind:

1. This question is only a relatively small part of the overall mark. Even if students do the "list advantages and disadvantages" of methods (rather than apply them to a given topic as they should) they'll still get some marks.
2. The question is a stimulus response type – students are given something about the topic around which a method can be applied / evaluated.
3. Most students will be able to construct a reasonable answer based on the material / their knowledge of a particular method - their ability to reference further studies is going to be the icing on the cake (i.e. a small part of a relatively small part of the exam).
4. AQA aren't going to choose stimulus material that's too obscure - students should be able to look at the question, read the stimulus material and then key into the work they've ordinarily done in their classes.
5. This is AS level - the examiner's cannot reasonably expect students to have a vast depth of knowledge about loads of different potential studies, their methodology and so forth..

5. The application of sociological research methods to the study of

education.

Introduction

Ball, Stephen (1981) “Beachside Comprehensive”: Cambridge University Press.

Lupton, Ruth (2004) “Do poor neighbourhoods mean poor schools?”: London School of Economics. Interviews with parents from four schools which all served neighbourhoods within the top 3% most deprived wards in the country.

Mackenzie, Jeannie (1997) “It's a Man's Job...Class and Gender in School Work-Experience Programmes”: Scottish Council for Research in Education. Perceptions of gender roles, peer pressure, role of school staff, influence of parents, and fears and expectations about work placements. Interviews with teachers, employers and pupils.

Mirza, Heidi Safia; Davidson, Julia; Powney, Janet; Wilson, Valerie; Hall, Stuart (2005) “Race and sex: teachers' views on who gets ahead in schools”: European Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 28, No. 3: Routledge

Reay, Diane (2001) “Spice Girls’, ‘Nice Girls’, ‘Girlies’, and ‘Tomboys’: discourses, girls’ cultures and femininities in the primary classroom”: Gender and Education, Vol. 13, No. 2. Interviews with young school girls.

Cox, Peter (2004) “A Fair and Equal Education for All? Is egalitarianism alive, and well, in schools?”: Paper Presented at the Annual AARE Conference, Melbourne Focus group interviews with students and teachers

Stanworth, Michelle (1981) “Gender and Schooling”: Hutchinson. Interviews with school-age children.

Troyna, Barry and Hatcher, Richard (1992) “Racism in children's lives: a study of mainly-white primary schools”: Routledge Study of the effects of social class background on children's oral language development. Interviews with students, ages 10 and 11 years, in their last 2 years of primary schooling.

Lupton, Ruth (2004) “Do poor neighbourhoods mean poor schools?”: London School of Economics Study conducted between 1999 and 2001 in four schools which all served neighbourhoods within the top 3% most deprived wards in the country.

Troyna, Barry and Hatcher, Richard (1992) “Racism in children's lives: a study of mainly-white primary schools”: Routledge A school term of observation in each of 3 British urban primary schools.

Ball, Stephen (1981) “Beachside Comprehensive”: Cambridge University Press. The first case study of a comprehensive school based on (overt) participant observation.

Brimi, Hunter (2005) “The Influence of Cultural Capital on Twenty-First Century Secondary School Literature Curricula”: Electronic Journal of Sociology Ad-hoc observations / interviews with American teachers.

Willis, Paul ( 1977) “Learning To Labour: How Working class kids get working class jobs”: Saxon House. Study of 12 working class boys in a Midlands school (and subsequent workplaces).

Wright, Cecile (1992)“Race Relations in the Primary School”: David Fulton Publishers. A three year ethnographic study in four inner-city primary schools in one LEA.

Benfield, Caroline (2007) “Women graduates paid less”: Higher Education Statistics Agency Around 25,000 students questioned in the three years following their graduation.

Mirza, Heidi Safia; Davidson, Julia; Powney, Janet; Wilson, Valerie; Hall, Stuart (2005) “Race and sex: teachers' views on who gets ahead in schools”: European Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 28, No. 3. Postal survey drawn from diverse geographic regions across England with over 2000 respondents.

Warrington, Molly and Younger, Michael (2000) “The Other Side of the Gender Gap”: Gender and Education, Vol. 12, No. 4. Survey of English Secondary schools.

Cox, Peter (2004) “A Fair and Equal Education for All? Is egalitarianism alive, and well, in schools?”: Paper Presented at the Annual AARE Conference, Melbourne Anonymous survey of 800 students’ beliefs and attitudes toward subjects, and their reasons for subject choices.

Giroux, Henry (1994)“Slacking Off: Border Youth and Postmodern Education”: Routledge. Analysis of 3 films (River’s Edge, My Own Private Idaho and Slackers) portraying plight of young people in postmodern society.

Norman, Fiona; Turner, Sue; Granados-Johnson, Jackie; Schwarcz, Helen; Green, Helen and Harris, Jill (1988) “Look, Jane, Look” in Woodhead, Martin and McGrath, Andrea (eds) “Family, School and Society”. Analysis of children’s books.

Interviews: Non-Structured

Observation

Observation: Participant

Survey: Questionnaire

Content Analysis

Summerfield, Carol and Babb, Penny (eds) (2004): Social Trends 34, Office for National Statistics. Official government statistics on a range of educational issues.

Babb, Penny; Butcher, Hayley; Church, Jenny and Zealey, Linda (2006) “Social Trends No. 36”: Office for National Statistics Official government statistics on a range of educational issues.

Self, Abigail and Zealey, Linda (eds) (2007) “Social Trends No. 37”: Office for National Statistics. Official government statistics on a range of educational issues.

Department for Education and Skills (2005) “National Curriculum Assessment, GCSE and Equivalent Attainment and Post-16 Attainment by Pupil Characteristics in England 2004”

Department for Education and Skills (2006) “Education and Training Statistics for the United Kingdom, 2004/05”: Department for Education and Skills

Blair, Maud; Bhattacharyya, Gargi and Ison, Liz (2003) “Minority Ethnic Attainment and Participation in Education and Training”: DfES Research Paper. This paper summarises research and statistics from a wide range of sources. The focus is mainly on government statistics and government sponsored research.

Carter, Rebecca and Wojtkiewicz, Roger (2000) “Parental involvement with adolescents' education: Do daughters or sons get more help? “: Adolescence Vol.. 35, No. 137. The investigation used data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), which collected information from approximately 25,000 eighth-grade students. Several types of parental involvement were analyzed for gender differences, including school discussion, parent-school connection, parental expectations, parental attendance at school events, and three measures of parental supervision (checking homework, limiting television watching, and limiting going out with friends).

Crespi, Isabella (2003) “Gender socialization within the family: a study on adolescents and their parents in Great Britain”: Centre of Studies and Research on Family. Measured the different dimensions of gender socialization using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). The survey began in 1991 and samples around 5,000 households and 10,000 individuals each year.

Ward, Lucy (2004) “Pupils at good schools 'gain 18 months'”: The Guardian , August 9th. Report of Government research based on value-added tables.

Desforges, Charles (2003) “The impact of parental involvement, parental support and family education on pupil achievement and adjustment: A literature Review”: DfES Research Report 433. Review of literature based on studies that used Data from the National Child Development Study and the US National Educational Longitudinal Study.

Demack, Sean; Drew, David and Grimsley, Mike (1998) “Myths about underachievement: Gender, Ethnic and Social Class. Differences in GCSE results 1988 - 93”: British Educational Research Association Annual Conference paper. Analysis of GCSE examination results for 65,000 pupils.

Gorard, Stephen; Rees, Gareth and Salisbury, Jane (2001) “Investigating the patterns of differential attainment of boys and girls at school”: British Educational Research Journal No. 27. Analysis of Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) GCSE and A level results for 1992–97.

Lacey, Colin (1970) “Hightown Grammar: the School as a Social System”: Manchester University Press. School and LEA records.

MacBeth, John; Kirwan, Tony; Myers, Kate; McCall, Jim; Smith, Iain and McKay, Euan (2001) “The Impact of Study Support”: Department for Education and Skills Research

Northern Ireland Department of Education (1997): “Research Briefing: A review of research evidence on the apparent underachievement of boys”. Review of the statistical evidence.

b. Differential educational achievement of social groups by social class, gender and ethnicity in contemporary society.

In terms of research into differential educational achievement there are a couple of interesting points to note:

1. A range of studies have used official statistical data to test the idea of differential educational achievement; such studies have effectively used secondary data to establish (or less-usually refute) the existence of differential achievement.
2. A further dimension here is that attempts to understand the reasons for differential achievement have overwhelmingly used non-structured (focused and unstructured) interviews.

Statistics

Lupton, Ruth (2004) “Do poor neighbourhoods mean poor schools?”: London School of Economics. Interviews with parents from four schools which all served neighbourhoods within the top 3% most deprived wards in the country.

Malcolm, Heather; Wilson, Valerie; Davidson, Julia and Kirk, Susan (2003) “Absence from School: A study of its causes and effects in seven LEAs”: The SCRE Centre, University of Glasgow.

MacDonald, Robert and Marsh, Jane (2005) “Disconnected Youth? Young People, the ‘Underclass’ and Social Exclusion” in MacDonald, Robert “Disconnected Youth? Growing Up In Poor Britain”: Palgrave Macmillan. Study of young people’s attitudes (Teesside).

Mackenzie, Jeannie (1997) “It's a Man's Job...Class and Gender in School Work-Experience Programmes”: Scottish Council for Research in Education. Perceptions of gender roles, peer pressure, role of school staff, influence of parents, and fears and expectations about work placements. Interviews with teachers, employers and pupils.

Mirza, Heidi (1992) “Young, Female and Black”: Routledge. Questionnaire given to 62 young women aged 15 to 19 years from working-class backgrounds, and 198 of their black and white male and female peers.

Reay, Diane and Mirza, Heidi (2001) “Black supplementary schools: Spaces of radical blackness” in Majors, Richard (ed) “Educating our Black Children: New directions and radical approaches”: Routledge. In-depth interviews with 7 black educators involved in the running of 4 African-Caribbean Supplementary Schools. 8 mothers with children at the schools also interviewed.

Power, Sally; Edwards, Tony; Whitty, Geoff and Wigfall, Valerie (2003) “Education and the Middle Class” Open University Press. In-depth interviews with 350 mostly middle-class young people considered academically promising when they started secondary school. The researchers followed them up in their mid-twenties to see if they had fulfilled their potential. Roughly half went to independent schools and half to state grammar and comprehensive schools.

Sammons, Pam; Smees, Rebecca; Taggart, Brenda; Sylva, Kathy; Melhuish, Edward; Siraj-Blatchford, Iram and Elliot, Karen (2002)“Special educational needs across the pre-school period”: Institute of Education. interviews with parents at entry to the study.

Walker, Barbara (1996) “Understanding boys' sexual health education and its implications for attitude change”: Economic and Social Research Council. Interviews were conducted with 39 boys and young men ( and 21), including people from as wide a range of background and experience as was available. The relatively small sample allowed the time to explore at length issues which were important to the boys themselves, rather than simply following a pre-existing interview agenda.

Willis, Paul (1977) “Learning To Labour: How Working class kids get working class jobs”: Saxon House. Interviews with teachers, careers teachers, skilled manual workers

MacBeth, John; Kirwan, Tony; Myers, Kate; McCall, Jim; Smith, Iain and McKay, Euan (2001) “The Impact of Study Support”: Department for Education and Skills Research Report No. 273 Structured group interviews at a number of the schools. Three specially developed interview schedules were used; one for students who participated in study support, one for students who did not attend, and one for staff other than the study support coordinator, who were involved in the delivery of study support at the school.

Malcolm, Heather; Wilson, Valerie; Davidson, Julia and Kirk, Susan (2003) “Absence from School: A study of its causes and effects in seven LEAs”: The SCRE Centre, University of Glasgow.

Nash, Robin (1972) “Keeping In With Teacher”. Interviewed teachers to understand how they conceived of their “ideal pupil”.

Interviews: Structured

Berridge, David; Qureshi, Tarek and Wenman, Helen (2000) “Where to turn? Family support for South Asian communities”: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The study was located in the new unitary authority of Luton as a case study. Focus groups were organised with the four main South Asian ethnic and religious groups involving 53 parents. Social workers were interviewed responsible for work over the previous year with 20 South Asian families. Four of these were developed into more detailed individual case studies involving discussions with parents. Key senior managers were also interviewed.

Kerr, David; Lines, Anne; Blenkinshop, Sarah and Schagen, Ian (2002) “England’s results from the IEA International Citizenship Education Study”: Department for Education and Skills. Phase 1 of the international study

Lacey, Colin (1970) “Hightown Grammar: the School as a Social System”: Manchester University Press. Attempted to make generalisations about “all schools” on the basis of this case study of a single school.

Lupton, Ruth (2004) “Do poor neighbourhoods mean poor schools?”: London School of Economics. Study conducted between 1999 and 2001 in four schools which all served neighbourhoods within the top 3% most deprived wards in the country.

Nehaul, Kamala (1999) “Parenting, Schooling and Caribbean Heritage Pupils”: International Studies in Sociology of Education, Vol. 9, No. 1. Small-scale research located in homes and in schools that used case studies to identify the wide-ranging set of influences on achievement.

Reay, Diane (2000) “A useful extension of Bourdieu's conceptual framework?: Emotional capital as a way of understanding mothers' involvement in children's schooling”: Sociological Review Vol. 48, No. 4. Uses the concept of emotional capital to explore the class and gender processes embedded in parental involvement in education. Drawing on fieldwork from a study of mothers' involvement in their children's primary schooling it examines their emotional engagement with their children's education.

Francis, Becky (2000) “Boys, Girls and Achievement: Addressing the Classroom Issues”: Routledge. Classroom observations used to examine how boys and girls saw themselves as learners; showed the impact of gender constructions on pupils' learning and behaviour.

Gewirtz, Sharon (1998) “Can All Schools Be Successful? An Exploration of the Determinants of School 'Success'”: Oxford Review of Education Vol. 24, No. 4.

Keddie, Nell (1971) "Classroom Knowledge" in Young, M.F.D. (ed) “Knowledge and Control”: Collier- Macmillan. Observation of staff meetings, classes.

Lacey, Colin (1970) “Hightown Grammar: the School as a Social System”: Manchester University Press. Spent 12 weeks teaching and 12 weeks observing teachers over 18 month period.

Mirza, Heidi (1992) “Young, Female and Black”: Routledge. 62 young women aged 15 to 19 years from working-class backgrounds, and 198 of their black and white male and female peers were interviewed and observed in their homes and classrooms over a period of 18 months.

Hargreaves, David (1967) “Social Relations in a Secondary School”: Routledge

Reay, Diane and Mirza, Heidi (2001) “Black supplementary schools: Spaces of radical blackness” in Majors, Richard (ed) “Educating our Black Children: New directions and radical approaches”: Routledge. Observation in two African-Caribbean Supplementary Schools

Woods, Peter (1979) “The Divided School”: Routledge and Kegan Paul. One year study of a school.

Johnson, Martin (1999) “Failing School, Failing City: The Reality of Inner City Education”: Jon Carpenter Publishing.

Willis, Paul (1977) “Learning To Labour: How Working class kids get working class jobs”: Saxon House. Group of 12 male school pupils studied in their school and workplace.

Nash, Robin (1972) “Keeping In With Teacher”. Exploring the impact of teacher’s expectations on pupil achievement.

Case Study

Observation: Non-Participant

Observation: Participant

Experiments

Asthana, Anushka (2007) “Girls' lessons tailored to suit female brain”: The Observer, October 14th. Analysis of exam grades.

Babb, Penny; Butcher, Hayley; Church, Jenny and Zealey, Linda (2006) “Social Trends No. 36”: Office for National Statistics. Official government statistical data and analysis across wide range of areas.

Smith, Emma (2003) “Failing Boys and Moral Panics: Perspectives on the Underachievement Debate”: British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 51, No. 3. Statistical analysis of “achievement / underachievement”.

Cano-Garcia, Francisco and Hughes, Elaine (2000) “Learning and thinking styles: An analysis of their interrelationship and influence on academic achievement”, Educational Psychology, No. 20. Students completed Learning styles and Think styles inventories which were then analysed and correlated to exam performance.

Howard-Jones, Paul; Pickering, Sue and Diack, Anne (2007) “Perceptions of the role of neuroscience in education”: The Innovation Unit, University of Bristol. Questionnaire (open and closed questions) asking educators about their thoughts, beliefs, views and knowledge on the link between neuroscience and education.

Griffin, Christine (1986) “It's different for girls: the use of qualitative methods in a study of young women's lives” in Beloff, Halla (ed) “Getting into Life”: Methuen

Lees, Sue (1993) “Sugar And Spice: Sexuality and Adolescent Girl”: Harmondsworth. Individual interviews and group discussions with 100 girls (aged 15 and 16) and 30 boys at 3 different schools.

Royal Society for the Arts (1998) “Opening Minds”: Royal Society for the Arts

Willis, Paul (1977) “Learning To Labour: How Working class kids get working class jobs”: Saxon House. Interviews with teachers, careers teachers, skilled manual workers

Best, Lesley (1992) “Analysis of sex-roles in pre- school books”: Sociology Review: Philip Allan. Of children’s books (replicating, in part Lobban’s study of children’s reading schemes).

Burn, Elizabeth (2001) “Do Boys need Male Primary Teachers as Positive Role Models?”: British Educational Research Association Annual Conference. Of Teacher Training Agency publicity and recruitment slogans.

Coffield, Frank; Moseley, David, Hall, Elaine and Ecclestone, Kathryn (2004) “Should we be using Learning Styles? What research has to say to practice”: Learning and Skills Development Agency. Examined theories about learning styles and scrutinised some of the leading commercial products in this field. The aim was to identify the most influential models and instruments of learning styles, to look for evidence to support their claims and to assess the likely impact on students’ learning.

Hetherington, Kevin (1998) “Expressions of Identity: Space, Performance and the Politics of Identity”: Sage. Analysis of expressive identities through issues of performance, spaces of identity and the occasion.

McRobbie, Angela and Garber, Jenny (1976) "Girls and subcultures" in Hall, Stuart and Jefferson, Tony (eds.) “Resistance through rituals: Youth subcultures in post-war Britain”: Hutchinson. Touches on questions about the nature of subcultures and subcultural behaviour (analysis of different texts).

Hargreaves, David (1967) “Social Relations in a Secondary School”: Routledge

Jackson, Phillip (1968) "Life In Classrooms": Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Johnson, Martin (1999) “Failing School, Failing City: The Reality of Inner City Education”: Jon Carpenter Publishing. Observations and generalisations based on author’s personal experience of teaching.

Willis, Paul (1977) “Learning To Labour: How Working class kids get working class jobs”: Saxon House. Overt participant observation of a group of 12 male school pupils studied in their school and workplace.

Cano-Garcia, Francisco and Hughes, Elaine (2000) “Learning and thinking styles: An analysis of their interrelationship and influence on academic achievement”, Educational Psychology, No. 20. Students completed Learning styles and Think styles inventories which were then analysed and correlated to exam performance.

d. Relationships and processes within schools, with particular reference to teacher/pupil relationships, pupil subcultures, the hidden curriculum, and the organisation of teaching and learning.

Statistics

Survey: Questionnaire

Interviews: Non-Structured

Content Analysis

Observation: Participant

Experiments: Laboratory

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