Methods in Context Questions for A Level Sociology – An Introduction

The ‘Methods in Context question’ appears on papers 1 of both the AS and A Level exams, and
will ask you to apply any of the main research method to any topic within education. This hand-out
is written for students focussing on the A Level exam, but the advice should work just as well for
anyone sitting the AS.

Two examples of methods in context questions (taken from AQA exam papers)

Example 1 - Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the
strengths and limitations of using self-completion written questionnaires to investigate
unauthorised absences from school (20 marks)

Example 2 - Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the
strengths and limitations of using covert participant observation to investigate pupils with
behavioural difficulties (20 marks)

What the methods in context question demands is that you take any of the theoretical, ethical, or
practical strengths and limitations of the method and apply them to the particular characteristics of
the people/ places/ topic you are studying, and then make the method and the topic ‘talk to each
other'.

You can see from the above two examples that the combinations of method and topic can be quite
varied!

This brief hand-out covers the following processes of how to deal with Methods in Context (MIC)
questions.

1. Firstly – it looks at a question and a mark scheme and outlines what you need to do to get
into the top three mark bands.
2. Secondly it deals with how to plan methods in context essays (using example 1 above to
illustrate)
3. Thirdly, it deals with how to actually write methods in context essays – presenting a ‘safe’
strategy, again using example 1 above to illustrate.
4. Finally, it provides a further example of how you might go about answering a further two
MIC questions.

Possible question combinations (there are hundreds of possible combinations!)

The different methods you The different topics within education you might be
need to be able to apply in- asked to consider include (non-exhaustive)
clude – • Researching how the values, attitudes, and aspi-
1. Secondary Documents rations of parents contribute to the achievement of cer-
2. Official statistics tain groups of children
3. Field Experiments • Why boys are more likely to be excluded than
4. Lab experiments girls
5. Questionnaires • Why white working class boys underachieve
6. Unstructured Interviews • Exploring whether teachers have ‘ideal pupils’ –
7. Overt Participant Obser- whether they label certain groups of pupils favourably!
vation • Assessing the relative importance of cultural dep-
8. Covert Participant Ob- rivation versus material deprivation in explaining under-
servation achievement
9. Non Participant Observa- • Assessing the success of policies aimed to im-
tion prove achievement
 Full Example of a Methods in Context Question and a Strategy for Writing an Answer

The example below is taken directly from an AQA AS sociology specimen paper. It may be AS, but
exactly the same item and question could appear on the A Level paper.

Methods in Context Question Example 1

(05) Read item B, then answer the question below

Item B

Investigating unauthorised absences from school

There is a close correlation between frequent unauthorised absence from school and
educational underachievement. Those pupils who are not doing well at school are more
likely to truant. Similarly, those who truant regularly are likely to finish their school career
with poor qualifications. Pupils may be absent without authorisation for many reasons,
from caring responsibilities at home or dislike of school, to parents arranging family
holidays in term time.

Sociologists may use self-completion written questionnaires to study unauthorised

absences. These can be distributed easily to large numbers of pupils, parents or
teachers. The findings of the questionnaires can also be used to establish patterns and
trends in relation to unauthorised absences. However, self-completion questionnaires
often have very low response rates, especially when they ask about sensitive issues.

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the
strengths and limitations of using self-completion written questionnaires to investigate
unauthorised absences from school (20 marks)

Planning the above essay:

You should spend 30 minutes in total on the MIC question – I recommend spending about five
minutes planning the essay first – simply highlight the ‘hooks’ in the question and jot down the
theoretical, ethical and practical strengths/ limitations of the method. The mission with writing the
essay is then to try and link the method to the hooks in the item (or anything else you know about
the topic which may not be in the item!)

A ‘safe strategy for writing an answer to this MIC question:

Once you’ve read the mark scheme on the next page, you should realise that the following
structure is a relatively safe way to ‘game the mark scheme’.

Essay section 1 – write a ‘safe’ three paragraphs on the method, covering the theoretical,
practical and ethical strengths and limitations of the method – as you do this, also discuss the
general strengths and limitations of the method relating to researching education in general
(pupils, parents, teachers, in schools and classrooms, maybe in pupils’ homes). If done well, this
alone can get you into the middle mark band (13-16). Obviously if you can, link in the items

Essay section 2 - use the hooks in the item to discuss why this method might be a particular
problem, or particularly useful for the topic you are researching. Just doing this two or three times
should be enough to lift you into the top mark band (17-20)

Essay section 3 – write a brief conclusion – state whether this is a sensible method!
 A Methods in Context Mark Scheme

(pared down from the original, my summary in bold at the top of each band)

Top Mark Band (17-20) – Good knowledge of method and applies the method to the specific
topic

'Students will apply knowledge of a range of relevant strengths and limitations of using self-
completion written questionnaires to research issues and characteristics relating to unauthorised
absences from school.

These may include some of the following and/or other relevant concerns, though answers do not
need to include all of these, even for full marks:

 the research characteristics of potential research subjects, eg individual pupils, peer

groups, parents, teachers (eg class, ethnic and gender differences; parental literacy skills;
teachers’ professionalism, self-interest or stereotypes of pupils)

 contexts and settings (eg classrooms; staffrooms)

 the sensitivity of researching unauthorised absences from school (eg policy and resource
implications for schools; schools’ market and league table position; its impact on
achievement or behaviour; stigmatisation; parental consent).'

Fourth Mark Band (13-16) – Good knowledge of method and applies the method to
education in general.

'Application of knowledge will be broadly appropriate but will be applied in a more generalised way
or a more restricted way; for example:

applying the method to the study of education in general, not to the specifics of studying
unauthorised absences from school, or

specific but undeveloped application to unauthorised absences from school, or

a focus on the research characteristics of unauthorised absences from school, or groups/contexts

etc involved in it.'

Middle Mark Band (9-12) – Good knowledge of method, loosely applied to education

'Largely accurate knowledge but limited range and depth, including a broadly accurate, if basic,
account of some of the strengths and/or limitations of self completion written questionnaires.

Understands some limited aspects of the question; superficial understanding of the presented
material.

Applying material (possibly in a list-like fashion) on self-completion written questionnaires, but with
very limited or non-existent application to either the study of unauthorised absences from school in
particular or of education in general.'
 Planning a Methods in Context Essay

Planning an essay will help you hit the fourth and fifth mark bands – the box on the left below is
info on the method, and the box on the right info on the topic… researching the topic within
education, you need to make them ‘talk to each other’ – see section 2 of the actual essay over
page for how to do this.

MIC Question Example 1

(05) Read item B, then answer the question below

Item B

Investigating unauthorised absences from school

There is a close correlation between frequent unauthorised absence from school and
educational underachievement. Those pupils who are not doing well at school are
more likely to truant. Similarly, those who truant regularly are likely to finish their school
career with poor qualifications. Pupils may be absent without authorisation for many
reasons, from caring responsibilities at home or dislike of school, to parents
arranging family holidays in term time.

Sociologists may use self-completion written questionnaires to study unauthorised

absences. These can be distributed easily to large numbers of pupils, parents or
teachers. The findings of the questionnaires can also be used to establish patterns and
trends in relation to unauthorised absences. However, self-completion questionnaires
often have very low response rates, especially when they ask about sensitive
issues.

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the
strengths and limitations of using self-completion written questionnaires to investigate
unauthorised absences from school (20 marks)

Strengths/ Limitations of the Issues with researching the topic

Method (Questionnaires)
Taken from the item (technically you don’t
 Positivists like them need to write these down if you’ve
 good for trends/ correlations highlighted them!)
 good for large samples/
representantiveness  Pupils not doing well at school
 good reliability  low qualifications (low literacy!)
 Poor validity (imposition  Many reasons for absence – caring etc.
problem)  Dislike of school.
 Practically strong – time/
money Other issues relevant to education
 Access may be a problem to generally
some people
 Ethically good –  Access to schools not easy (gatekeepers)
confidentiality  Impression management (school wouldn't
 Ethically poor – sensitive like)
topics  Access to parents – time
 Access to pupils – peer pressure
 Writing a Methods in Context Essay

Section 1 - – Deal with The Method (and hit the middle mark band, 9-12) – If possible, link to
education general or even the topic using words in the item from the beginning.
 Structured Questionnaires are preferred by Positivists, they are a good for distributing to large
samples of people and collection quantitative data, and establishing patterns and trends by
making comparisons. They generally have good reliability, because they are structured, and no
researcher is present when they are completed. They should have good representativeness,
assuming appropriate sampling is done – which is useful, given the wide variety and location
spread of schools.
 However, validity may be compromised given their structure and the imposition problem.
 Practically they are wonderful for the researcher as thousands can be completed at one time,
and they are very cheap – this is useful when researching teachers who are busy.
 Ethically they are good for confidentiality, but may not be suitable for sensitive topics as they
are quite a cold method.

Main body - Self completion questionnaires directly applied to the specific topic of
unauthorised absences – all of these hit the top mark band descriptor (17-20)
 An advantage of self-completion questionnaires is that they can be distributed easily to large
numbers of pupils, parents, or teachers, HOWEVER there are numerous reasons why pupils
who are absent from school without being authorised won't want to fill in the questionnaires –
as the item states, such pupils may not be doing well at school and would be reluctant to fill
in a questionnaire about something they don't like (school), which could result in a low
response rate
 A second reason for a low response rate is, as the item states, because students have caring
responsibilities at home, and they may not have time to complete the questionnaire, or they
may not see it as important as their caring duties.
 Another problem is that validity of responses may be low – if unauthorised absences are due to
parents arranging holidays in term time, they may not want to admit to this in a
questionnaire because they may have lied about this reason to the school to avoid a fine.
 The item states that self completion questionnaires are a good way of finding trends and you
could use them to explore the relationship between unauthorised absences and low
qualifications, however, if people have low qualifications they may have low literacy levels,
meaning they would not be happy filling in a questionnaire, so a booster sample would be
required, or another method for such people, such as structured interviews, but this would
reduce the reliability.
 One advantage of the method is that you can distribute large numbers of questionnaires
quickly, and they are quick to fill in, so teachers would like them as they have busy schedules,
and would also probably be happy to talk about this issue, given its negative effects.
 A barrier to access would be the schools themselves however, although the method is quick,
they may not want someone researching absences which make them look bad.
 One problem with this method is the imposition problem – you need to set questions in
advance, and as the item says, there are many reasons for unauthorised absences, they
problem is that you may not discover these reasons if you don't include it in the questionnaire
in the first place.
 This imposition problem would be a problem especially if absences are due to bullying, which
is a sensitive issue – even if it is on the questionnaire, it's quite a cold method and so
respondents may not want to discuss it in a 'tick box' manner.
 A final advantage of this method is that it is anonymous, which may outweigh some of the
problems above.

Conclusion - In conclusion this is a rubbish method for researching this topic, you'd be much
better off with structured interviews to make sure you have better representativeness of unwilling
participants and to check up on the validity of results with this sensitive topic.
 Methods in Context Question Example Two

This question has a similar method, but different topic – I’ve written it to show you how section two
would be different to the previous example…

(05) Read item B, then answer the question below (hooks in bold)

Item B

Investigating the role of parents in pupils’ achievement

Parents play a vital role in pupils’ achievement. There may be social class
differences in parents’ income levels, cultural capital, educational qualifications,
attitudes to school and how they socialise their children, for example into using
different speech codes. Similarly, ethnic differences among parents, for example in
family structure, discipline styles or home language, may affect pupils’ achievement.

Questionnaires may be a good way of investigating the role of parents in pupils’

achievement. Pupils can be asked to distribute them to parents at no cost, giving
wide coverage. Parents are accustomed to supplying information to the school on a
regular basis and this will help to ensure a good response. However, the questions
asked may be very personal and some parents may feel that they are being judged.
However, they may be less useful when dealing with sensitive issues

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the
strengths and limitations of using questionnaires to the role of parents in pupils’
achievement (20 marks)

Section 1 – Deal with the method – this will be similar to example so no need to repeat here

Remember to deal with

- Theoretical
- Practical
- Ethical

And link education in general, or the topic at this stage if you can…

Section 2 – Link the method to the specific topic.

Examples of top mark band statements – these will be quite different from the previous exemplar
because the topic under investigation is different, although there will also be some overlap
because there are similarities.

 Questionnaires might be a quite useful method for researching some aspects of the role of
parents in pupils’ achievement because they make it easy to compare differences in home
background. Some aspects, such as income levels and educational qualifications of the
parents are relatively easy to measure, and would be simple to correlate this with the
educational achievement of the child.
 However, other aspects of home life would be more difficult to measure – cultural capital for
example is much more complex than income levels, as it appears in many different forms –
how could you measure how ‘skilled’ a parent is at choosing a school in a questionnaire, for
example?
 Similarly with speech codes and language differences, if parents have linguistic deprivation,
 they may not be happy completing a questionnaire designed to measure their poor language
skills, they may not even be able to, thus you would get poor representativeness from such
parents.
 Again with socialisation practices, which takes place over many years, questionnaires wouldn’t
allow you find out with any depth the many interactions that go into making up the child.
 A stated strength in the item is that parents are used to giving information to schools, and so
would be happy to complete a questionnaire, this may be true of parents who have a good
relationship with the school, but less so with those who value education less, or feel that school
is biased against them, maybe because they perceive it as ethnocentric.
 Also, as stated in the item, if you were going to give the questionnaires to students, those
students with poor performance in school may not give their parents the questionnaires,
possibly because they think it may harm them.
 A final problem mentioned is that parents may feel they being judged, and the formal nature of
the questionnaire wouldn’t help this, again meaning a low response rate is likely from such
parents.

Conclusion

You decide! Personally I think it’s not as stupid a choice of method for this topic as the previous
one, but it still has many limitations!
 Methods in Context Question Example Three

(05) Read item B, then answer the question below (hooks in bold)

Item B

Investigating pupils with behavioural difficulties

Some pupils experience behavioural difficulties and problems interacting with

others. This can create a major obstacle to learning, for both themselves and their
classmates. In some cases, they are taught in specialist schools or in pupil referral
units separate from mainstream education. Often, their behavioural difficulties result from
problems outside school and many pupils come from materially deprived and chaotic
home backgrounds.

Some sociologists may study pupils with behavioural difficulties using covert participant
observation. This method enables the researcher to witness directly the pupils’
behaviour and its context. It may also allow the researcher to build a relationship of
trust with pupils and parents. However, the researcher may find it difficult to fit in and
he or she may need to adopt a specialised role such as teacher or support worker.

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the strengths
and limitations of using covert participant observation to investigate pupils with behavioural
difficulties.

Section 1 - – Deal with The Method (and hit the middle mark band, 9-12) – If possible, link to
education general or even the topic using words in the item from the beginning.

- Covert participant observation is generally preferred by interpretivists – good for insight, depth.
- Validity is generally good, but in this case it may not be (see below)
- Reliability and representativeness are poor
- Practically – difficult to do, especially with closed institutions like PRUs
- Ethically – highly problematic, especially within education, researching vulnerable students.

Section 2 – Main body – Covert PO directly applied to the specific topic of pupils with
behavioural difficulties – all of these hit the top mark band descriptor (17-20)

- Students with behavioural difficulties are vulnerable, thus gaining access would be a problem,
especially with any type of PO given the close contact you would have with the students.
Gatekeepers would be reluctant to let people in in order to protect students, they may also not
be keen for a researcher to see how chaotic life is in such institutions. Thus Covert PO is a
sensible choice because you’re more likely to get into a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) if you pose
as a professional and thus appear on ‘the side of the institution’.
- However, covert would still be difficult to gain access, because getting into a PRU covertly
would require you to be trained as a teacher or LF, they won’t just let anyone in!
- In terms of validity, while PO is good for getting respondents to trust you, if you were covert,
apparently working with the PRU, then they may not open up to you because such students
wouldn’t trust authority figures, thus this major advantage is nullified.
- Having said this, it would still allow the researcher to observe how peer groups reinforce bad
behaviour in the context of the institution.
- Ethically, there is a possibility of the researcher being put in danger, they may come across
 violent students and not be able to break cover easily if in a class room.
- Practically, if you were to adopt to role of covert observer as a support worker, you would not
be able to follow the students to their home backgrounds or onto ‘the street’ to see how they
behaved outside of the institution where you ‘worked’, thus you wouldn’t get any insight into
where they spend most of their time. Thus this method is pretty useless for this topic.
- On a similar level, you wouldn’t be able to gain access to their homes either, to explore their
‘chaotic’ backgrounds, so you wouldn’t be able to observe this, you’d be stuck with asking them
about it while in the PRU.

Section 3 – Conclusion

Overall, participant observation may well be a sensible choice of method for researching this topic,
but there is nothing to be gained from doing covert compared to overt, and with covert, it probably
wouldn’t happen because no one would fund it given the ethical problems surrounding researching
vulnerable students, so all of this has been a rather pointless discussion.

The last sentence is optional!