covert participant observation
school characteristics:
ethical issues-consent-weakness if you are doing a research on students you can't do a covert research as they are under 18 therefore it would be illegal,however when studying a teacher or parent it is not illegal to do a covert research as they are over 18
covert observation means that headteachers arent able to gatekeep by only allowing the best teachers to be observed.
you can see the way they are as they don't know they are being watched (no hawthorne effect).
if observation is covert, it may be harder to collect data however there will be public statistics available
headteachers want to present the school in a good light which is marketisation. however, with observation being covert the researcher is able to see the true intentions and actions the school takes and how well they are able to achieve when in private
access to pupils would be harder as they are under 18 and they would realise if it is a covert research as they would be at school most of the time.
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teachers characteristics
gatekeepers by higher authority
this means that the teacher would have to try and not use the backstage behaviour
meaning that their boss would allow for this to happen
and let the researcher in the class
Teachers have control of the classroom
this could allow for the research to happen because the researcher disguised as the LSA could easily just watch the teacher and the pupils and observe their front stage behaviour at school
they might just let the researcher in the classroom ie. if the researcher pretends to be an LSA
parents characteristics
parents may have poor experience in education so might not want to be observed because their lack of knowledge towards education
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the hawthorne effect in classroom observation could be difficult because the presence of the researcher that could influence the behaviour of those being observed
hierarchy within school can affect access which can be a negative
even if research is covert, researcher characteristics can still have an impact on the way a school will act towards a researcher, including its pupils
this means that the hawthorne effect might be valid
they might not give consent for the researcher to observe them . could be too embarrased to participate
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this may be a disadvantage because of the way that the parents would not want to disclose confindential infomation
this would be an advantage because it would be difficult to avoid
the teachers expectations would be and advantage because the teacher would not notice the researcher in their classroom