Practical Issues- BUT FOR WHICH METHOD? 5. Behaviours/ Interactions may be spontaneous (e.g. staffroom/ corridor/ playground) and recorded after the interaction has taken place – there may be mistakes in recall and subjective interpretations will be made (bias!) Schools are complex places – access may be difficult to obtain. Need to ‘set up cover’ which could take a long time. Personal characteristics of the researcher (age, gender, ethnicity, social class) can also affect interactions and the behaviour of participants Schools are busy places – researcher may find it difficult to find the privacy to record their findings Now create your own set of practical/ ethical or theoretical issues for a method of your choice and see if the class can guess it Page 99 from Hodder

Structured Observations Pre-categorised observation schedules THEORETICAL LINK: Preferred by positivists as it enables them to collect measurable, quantitative data to represent in tables and graphs to discover patterns. Positivist would also prefer the opportunity to compare data. This method is usually non-participant and can be overt or covert. Example: Flanders Interaction Analysis Categories (FIAC) E.G. Comparing the speech codes used in a top and bottom set class.

Practical (FIAC is easy, quick and cheap to use to use – less training required to conduct) Used to measure pupil-pupil and pupil-teacher quantitatively. Chart is used to record interactions at 3 second intervals, then placing each observations into a predefined behaviour category (see left). Quick discussion: What could you investigate using this method?

Quick Discussion: Issues with FIAC?

Advantages and disadvantages of using the FIAC Working in pairs annotate you r copy of the Flanders system of interaction analysis categories with potential advantages and disadvantages. Sort them into Practical, Ethical and Theoretical

Quick Discussion: Issues with FIAC? Key issue here: Meaning and interpretation – The quantitative data is NOT meaningful – explains ‘that’ but not ‘why’. The meaning behind the behaviours are open to interpretation. There may be BIAS – the observer may draw conclusions to support their hypothesis, but this may not be accurate. Questions the validity of the results…… Lose INSIGHT – do not fully understand the values and attitudes through these observations

Positivist/ interpretivist debate Why would positivists support the use of the FIAC but interpretivists reject it?

Reliability and Validity (Structured Obs) Reliability – Structured observations (FIAC) are easily replicated; other researchers can apply the same strategies in a standardised way. Validity – Presence of a researcher may result in the Hawthorne effect – where the pupils/adults change their behaviour as a result of being watched. However – students and teachers are very used to be observed in school (Ofsted) so may behave more naturally and truthfully. PRINT OFF PAGE 99 FROM HODDER BOOK AND DISCUSS HERE. Interpretivists would also argue that a structured observation ignores the MEANING behind interactions – it quantifies the interactions but the data is not a valid (true) representation of pupil-teacher attitudes and values. WHY?

Exam question Outline two reasons why sociologists sometimes choose to use structured observations (4 marks)

Immediate activity No notes no discussion. Methods throw back quick questions Interviews 1) Why might interviewer bias be more likely in an unstructured than a structured interview Questionnaires 3)What ways might questionnaires impose the researcher’s meaning on respondents? Experiments 4) Why do interpretivists argue that the experimental method is not appropriate for studying human beings? 5) Suggest two criticisms of field experiments? 2) Suggest two ways in which sociologists can improve the validity of interviews as a source of data.

Mark your work Interviews 1) In an unstructured interview, the interviewer may be more likely to ask ‘leading’ questions because there are no restrictions on how they phase questions. They are freer to influence the answer by their facial expression, body language or tone of voice. They may be more likely to identify too closely with the interviewees. 2) Any two of the following: By giving interviewees little time to think when answering questions Using some questions to check the answers interviewees gave to earlier questions Using follow-up interviews to check earlier answers Using aggression, disbelief and ‘playing dumb’ to extract sensitive information from interviewees that they might not otherwise reveal Making sure interviewers and interviewees are ethnically and language-matched. Questionnaires 3) By choosing which questions to ask, the researcher has already decided what is important. If closed-ended questions are used, respondents must try to fit their views into the ones the researcher has decided to offer them. Experiments 4) Humans have free will, consciousness and choice; our behaviour cannot be explained in terms of cause and effect, which is what laboratory experiments aim to do. 5) Any two of the following: compared with laboratory experiments, field experiments allow less control over the variables; we cannot be certain that the causes we have identified in field experiments are the correct ones; field experiments are unethical, since they involve carrying out an experiment on their subjects without their knowledge or consent.

Creating your own structured observation schedule Imagine that you are researching anti school subcultures in a range of schools, you decide to use a structured non participant observation- why? You need to come up with 10 categories (just as the FIAC does) which will effectively operationalise (define and make measureable) behaviours associated with anti school subcultures.

Quick recap Brains only, no books, no notes! Tell me all you can about structured observations

Structured/ Non participant Unstructured/ participant Make a mind map – apply the discussed issues to the study of the different concepts.

Non participant observation methods in context question Covert observations present a number of significant problems for researchers investigating education because of the vulnerability of the potential research participants and so an alternative research method to use is non participant observation to investigate anti school subcultures. It allows researchers to see how pupils actually behave rather than simply hearing how they claim to behave. However access and validity may continue to be problematic with some researchers arguing that the lack of empathy created means that behaviour can only seen but not understood.

Prep notes for next week Secondary sources- official statistics- pages 149 up to documents heading on page 152.