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Home , Qualitative research, Quantitative research, Social research, Social science

SOCIAL FOR SCHOOLS Social : How does it ? 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 works, or tell us about the lives of those from other . Research generates new . 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, makers, local , 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 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. collects confrontational atmosphere are being included in police numerical , such as ‘12 per cent of adolescents training across Europe. Other research findings have report being bullied at school’. Quantitative informed aimed at reducing child poverty and methods collect from surveys, , or reforming the UK tax 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 ’ enables researchers how 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 , participant 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 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 or . These people are known as respondents, informants or the subjects of the research.

1 FOR SCHOOLS Methodologies What is ?

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 – 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 . 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 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 are ‘the ’. 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 aside, there is an irreducible to the . There is an • Seeking to find and interpret the meanings that 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 . Though case studies are than setting out to test ideas that have emerged sometimes dismissed as ‘mere journalism’, this charge from other research. Such is often called neglects the time and effort, the cross-checking and ‘exploratory’ because it explores new possibilities detailed that goes into qualitative .” 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 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 Unlike 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 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 , or , 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 , through surveys, examination or records or censuses that no 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 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 . Some is collected by social of great interest. Do pupils from different social 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. The behave in a more environmentally friendly way than development of the internet has revolutionised the others? Or are there another factors (age, income, collection, processing and analysis of quantitative data. ) that influence this?

By careful use of comparison, we can examine how The computer and the internet have revolutionised societies . For example the Understanding the kinds of data that can be collected and the ways Society survey of young people aged 10 to 15 found they can be disseminated and analysed. Data collected that bullying by brothers and sisters at home was far by one group of researchers can easily be accessed by more common (one in two young people reported it) others. Results that used to require days of calculation than bullying at school (reported by around 12 per by hand can be delivered in an instant by computers. cent). School bullying declined steadily with age, while It is now much easier to present results visually using children bullied at home were more likely than others charts graphics and animations. Few people have the to also be bullied at school. Young people bullied at patience to carefully study row upon row of numbers. school were far more likely than other young people to However a well-designed chart can display key results report that they were unhappy. at a glance. search.” 4 SOCIAL SCIENCE FOR SCHOOLS Methodologies Quantitative methods and terminology

Cross sectional studies (Target) population These are surveys undertaken at one point in time: A group of people we want to research: e.g. adults in rather like a photo taken by a camera. If the same or the UK; young people aged 12 to 16 who live at home; similar survey is repeated, we can get good measures of girls who smoke; mothers of young children. how society is changing. Questionnaires Demographics Questionnaires collect data in a standardised way, so Surveys and censuses usually collect information about that useful summaries can be made about large groups their respondents, such as their age, sex, where they of respondents, such as the proportion of all young live or ethnic group. These are known as demographics people of a given age who are bullied. Usually most and are often used to ensure that a is questions are ‘closed response’, where respondents are representative. given a range of options to choose from. Researchers have to be careful that the questions are not ‘leading’, Longitudinal studies that the options are comprehensive (they cover every Longitudinal studies follow the same respondents over possible answer) and are mutually exclusive (so that an extended period of time. They can employ both only one answer is correct for any respondent). qualitative and quantitative research methods, and they follow the same group of people over time. For Respondents example, the Millennium has been keeping are people who are the subjects of research: those who track of more than 11,000 children born between 2000 answer a questionnaire or take part in an interview. and 2002. Some of its many findings have shown how childhood factors such as poverty and birth weight can Sample affect health and success at school as children get older. A sample is a group of respondents who are studied. Depending on how the sample is chosen, it can Opinion polls represent a much larger population. An opinion poll is a form of survey designed to measure the opinions of a target population about an issue, e.g. Social attitude surveys support for political parties, views about and These ask more general questions about beliefs and , the or the environment and so on. behaviour: e.g. how often people go to church; how much trust they have in the police force; whether they think children a strict upbringing; how content they are with their life; how often they see other family members; whether they are in employment.

Surveys and censuses A census is a survey of everyone in the population. Because of the vast number of respondents they are very expensive to organise. Governments now depend much more on administrative records (e.g. those created by a stay in hospital, or tax returns) and sample surveys. Surveys use a questionnaire to investigate respondents in a sample. Samples are chosen in such a way that they can represent a much larger population. Precise calculation can be make of how accurate the information from any sample is likely to be.

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