SOCIAL SCIENCE FOR SCHOOLS Methodologies Social research: How does it work? What is research for? Why do we do research? The simple answer is: to find things out. It tells us about the world beyond our immediate experience. It can help explain how our own society works, or tell us about the lives of those from other cultures. Research generates new knowledge. It can help us understand almost any aspect of society, from the causes of unemployment or what helps economic growth, to how and why people vote, or what makes people happy. It provides vital information for NGOs, policy makers, local authorities, governments, and other agencies. Research makes a difference, and the ESRC website of people by studying only a few hundred, as long as (www.esrc.ac.uk) has many examples of its impact. For they are chosen according to rules that scientists have example, a study of behaviour at football matches has developed and tested. shown that if police avoid heavy-handed tactics this can help maintain crowd control in potentially hostile Research methods are sometimes divided into two situations. The study’s findings on how to create a less broad categories. Quantitative research collects confrontational atmosphere are being included in police numerical data, such as ‘12 per cent of adolescents training across Europe. Other research findings have report being bullied at school’. Quantitative informed policies aimed at reducing child poverty and methods collect evidence from surveys, censuses, or reforming the UK tax system to help poorer families. administrative records and give us vital information Charities such as Save the Children have used such about the size or extent of different things in society: research to highlight the higher prices paid by the poor how many young people report bullying at school for basic necessities such as fuel and banking. compared to bullying by brothers or sisters? Are girls more likely to be bullied than boys? Are young people Research has one fundamental characteristic: it uses who are bullied at home more likely to be bullied at scientific methods to produce evidence and results. It school? does this by following strict rules, so that findings do not depend upon the personal views of the researchers. However, social scientists often want to understand For example ‘random sampling’ enables researchers how individuals think, feel or behave in particular to accurately describe the characteristics of millions situations, or in relations with others that develop over time. Here social scientists will use in-depth interviews, participant observation or other qualitative methods to gather data. Researchers might watch a school playground to observe and record bullying behaviours, or ask young people about exactly what they understood by being bullied, and how they thought it affected them. Qualitative methods are equally scientific, but are geared more to focusing on the meaning of different aspects of peoples’ lives, and on their accounts of how they understand their own and others’ behaviour and beliefs. Both kinds of research usually depend upon collecting information from selected people; often by asking them a series of questions, using a questionnaire or interview. These people are known as respondents, informants or the subjects of the research. 1 SOCIAL SCIENCE FOR SCHOOLS Methodologies What is qualitative research? Qualitative research is used to explore and understand Case studies – where researchers examine a small people’s beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behaviour number of specific examples – and narratives – where and interactions. It often focuses on understanding researchers study respondents’ stories in depth – are particular examples in depth or over time. For example, just two examples of methods used in qualitative while quantitative research has found a strong link research. These methods can help bridge the gap between young people being bullied at school and between our own world and the worlds of others. being unhappy, qualitative research can explore why Cases studies can help researchers to explore life in this is the case through examining different young different families, cultures and communities. However, people’s experiences of bullying. We can easily imagine in order to examine how far we can generalize from the that children who suffer bullying at school become specific cases studied to wider society, some form of unhappy as a result, but it could be that young people quantitative methods are often needed. who are unhappy for other reasons make easier targets for bullying. Professor Rob Walker, Professor of Education at the University of East Anglia, explains: “We try to be Of course, qualitative research does not assume that systematic and to remain critical. We know that single the respondents’ accounts of their behaviour or beliefs studies cannot be representative of larger populations are ‘the truth’. Rather they reveal their perspective on in the way that random samples can. We know that the situation. Researchers follow rules to attempt to our presence distorts the social behaviour of others avoid ‘leading questions’ that might make it easier for and that what and how we record what we observe is respondents to give a particular answer over another. not neutral. We know that our studies are difficult to replicate. There are various approaches to qualitative research, but they share certain features, including: “But, all these problems of methodology aside, there is an irreducible value to the case study. There is an • Seeking to find and interpret the meanings that authority that stems from the careful framing of a people bring to their own beliefs or behaviour first hand account tempered by a close reading of the • Studying small numbers of people or organisations relevant literature and sensitised by understanding • Allowing ideas to emerge from the data, rather of social science theory. Though case studies are than setting out to test ideas that have emerged sometimes dismissed as ‘mere journalism’, this charge from other research. Such analysis is often called neglects the time and effort, the cross-checking and ‘exploratory’ because it explores new possibilities detailed data analysis that goes into qualitative social research.” 2 SOCIAL SCIENCE FOR SCHOOLS Methodologies Qualitative methods Semi-structured interviews The researcher has a small core of questions or areas they wish to explore, but will then take the questions in different directions, depending on the answers they receive. The key word is flexibility. This method is used when seeking richly descriptive information – for example, what makes a good teacher. Unstructured interviews These completely open-ended interviews are informal in nature. The researcher is seeking a detailed picture and tries to bring no preconceptions. This type of interviewing is often used in narrative research. Generally the researcher asks one question and then leaves the interviewee to talk or ‘tell their story’. Observation This method relies heavily on the skills of the researcher to understand and interpret what they are seeing in an unbiased way. It might be used, for example, in education research to see how much time ypung people spend “on task” and what they do when distracted. In this method, the researcher observes what is happening and makes ‘field notes’ either at the time or soon afterwards. Open questionnaire survey Unlike questionnaires in quantitative research, which offer a limited range of choices, open surveys seek opinion and description in response to open-ended questions. They may be used to gather information and ideas from more people than one-to-one interviewing would allow. Keeping logs and diaries Researchers and participants can keep logs or diaries as a way to collect details about daily life. Participants are asked to keep detailed records of some aspect of their life, such as social activities or exercise, so the researcher later can analyse this material. Researchers also keep diaries during the period of data collection on aspects of the research, such as the context in which interviews or observation takes place. This is then used alongside other data to help them to broaden their understanding of the research findings. 3 SOCIAL SCIENCE FOR SCHOOLS Methodologies What is quantitative research? Sizing up society Quantitative research can measure and describe whole societies, or institutions, organisations or groups of individuals that are part of them. The strength of quantitative methods is that they can provide vital information about a society or community, through surveys, examination or records or censuses that no individual could ever obtain by observation. Such methods are now so well established that it is easy to forget how badly mistaken people could be without them. The first European country to organise a regular population census was Sweden, in 1749. The government wanted a better idea of the country’s military resources at a time when manpower was the main source of a country’s military strength. The results were a shock. At 1.8m, Sweden’s population was about one tenth of the size expected! The government treated the census results as a state secret: it feared its enemies would regard such a small Sweden as a feeble nation. Such a state of ignorance is unthinkable today, but only because regular censuses and surveys collect a wealth of data, and social science has developed the techniques needed to make sense of it. Much data is collected by governments to make their day-to-day work possible – for example, employment The most straightforward comparison can often be records or health statistics. Some is collected by social of great interest. Do pupils from different social class scientists trying to answer scientific questions about backgrounds have the same chance of gaining a the nature and development of society. Often data is university place? Do women do more housework than collected for one purpose but can be used for many men? Do people who think climate change is a problem others: a technique known as secondary analysis.