This paper considers the ethical and practical issues of recruiting for, and administering a quantitative survey with marginalised populations. These issues were identified through a focus group discussion, which consolidated and expanded upon informal conversations held previously by five researchers about their experiences of conducting a…

This case study describes the adoption of a mixed-methods approach to explore provision for 2-year-olds in England at a time when funding for free places for disadvantaged children became available. A literature review was carried out to find out about aspects of early childhood provision considered important for 2-year-old children's development,…

This project was a qualitative longitudinal research study into cultural and structural change in an English secondary school. The schools' consistent underperformance led to its conversion to "academy" status as part of a development under the Labour administration of 1997-2010. The Labour policy for academization was designed, first,…

This article draws on data from a project on children's playground games and rhymes in the new media age. One objective of the project was to examine the relationship between traditional playground games and children's media cultures. As part of the project, two ethnographic studies of primary playgrounds took place in two schools, one in the…

Background: Coaches developing young talent in team sports must maximise practice and learning of essential game skills and accurately and continuously assess the performance and potential of each player. Relative age effects highlight an erroneous process of initial and on-going player assessment, based largely on subjective opinions of game…

Discussion of different types of methodological approaches, and description of the research methods used to study an innovative secondary school in England, make clear why the case study was chosen as the method to employ. The methodological approaches considered included the positivist or scientific method, involving external observation and the…

The author focuses on the pastoral care provided for pupils during their secondary education. He reports the results of his findings after a Sabbatical leave when he examined the house system in comprehensive schools, its characteristics and attitudes of pupils toward their houses. (Author/RK)

Uses an exploratory study, "Children, Parents and Risk," to examine some ethical and methodological issues specific to child-focused research. Focuses on gatekeepers who control access to parents and children, and on the interview process, asserting that the research process itself constitutes an important source of data on models of…