Place-Based Methods for Researching Schools (Bloomsbury Research Methods for Education)

by Christine Hall (Author), Christine Hall (Author), Pat Thomson (Author)

New
Illustrated
2016
$32.65

Schools are complex institutions. They do not easily reveal themselves to researchers who rely on only one or two methods. Understanding a school, its neighbourhood and its students requires a researcher with a more complex repertoire of verbal, statistical and visual research strategies. Place-Based Methods for Researching Schools shows how multiple methods can be used together to research schools, rather than dealing with decontextualised methods, one by one. Taking a novel theoretical approach to the school as a `place', the book offers grounded illustrations of schools as places from real case study and ethnographic research conducted in both Australia and the UK. A practical guide, this book explores the on-the-ground questions researchers are likely to face in the order they are likely to face them. The chapters not only look at data generation approaches, but also address analysis of the data and writing about the school, topics that are often ignored. Methods explored for use include those drawn from urban planning and geography to explore neighbourhoods, visual surveys, mapping, classroom observation, ethnographic observation, interviews, focus groups, sociograms and linguistic corpora. Including research tips from the authors, case studies, a glossary and annotated further reading list, this book is essential reading for students and scholars approaching their research project.

Synopsis

Schools are complex institutions. They do not easily reveal themselves to researchers who rely on only one or two methods. Understanding a school, its neighbourhood and its students requires a researcher with a more complex repertoire of verbal, statistical and visual research strategies. Place-Based Methods for Researching Schools shows how multiple methods can be used together to research schools, rather than dealing with decontextualised methods, one by one. Taking a novel theoretical approach to the school as a `place', the book offers grounded illustrations of schools as places from real case study and ethnographic research conducted in both Australia and the UK. A practical guide, this book explores the on-the-ground questions researchers are likely to face in the order they are likely to face them. The chapters not only look at data generation approaches, but also address analysis of the data and writing about the school, topics that are often ignored. Methods explored for use include those drawn from urban planning and geography to explore neighbourhoods, visual surveys, mapping, classroom observation, ethnographic observation, interviews, focus groups, sociograms and linguistic corpora. Including research tips from the authors, case studies, a glossary and annotated further reading list, this book is essential reading for students and scholars approaching their research project.

$32.65

Quantity

10 in stock

More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 296
Edition: Annotated
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 15 Dec 2016
ISBN 10: 147424288X
ISBN 13: 9781474242882
Book Overview: Explores the multiple interconnected methods and tools necessary to successfully research and understand the complexities of a school, its neighbourhood and its communities.

Media Reviews

The authors are generous with their suggested further reading and because of the geographical lens offered these are likely to give the reader references that many educational researchers will be unfamiliar with. The quality and depth of the approaches that the authors suggest make me particularly confident in the robustness of these qualitative data generation approaches. However, the authors do not shy away from the quantitative data that can be generated through national databases. A rich picture of one school can be generated if their advice about place-based research is followed. Overall, this book has much to be commended on and I highly recommend it to any researcher involved in school-based research. * International Journal of Research and Method in Education *
Pat Thomson and Chris Hall's imaginative, informed and innovative methodology text book is a must for anyone, from novice to expert, studying any aspect of schools. This is a book to transform both your approach to research and your thinking about schools - and indeed their communities - with new ideas and practical illustrations. * Liz Todd, Professor of Educational Inclusion, University of Newcastle, UK *
Patricia Thomson and Christine Hall use the literature on space, time and place in combination with that on place-based research projects to provide a map for the field. They write with a deep understanding of a wide range of theory and a commitment to ethical research methods and practices. Their map covers the field of place-based research, offering a clear framework and the necessary know-how. Accessible, interesting and rigorous their work inspires an interest in schools as places, and in place-based methods for researching, understanding and representing them. * Hilary Janks, Emeritus Professor, Wits University, South Africa *
This book inspires me to do school research, and to do it well. It takes seriously the many entangled factors - people, places, structures, ideas, experiences, feelings - that make a school, demonstrating the `specificity, particularity and complexity to the near-universal experience of being in school' and showing us what we might do with this as researchers. The book addresses a sophisticated reader who is able to make her/his own decisions and research plans, but still offers structured insights for thinking practically about how to research schools. It is also a compelling and pleasurable read. After this book, it will be difficult to think of school research that does not engage deeply with the place of a school. * Deborah Youdell, Professor of Sociology of Education, University of Birmingham, UK *
This book is a very useful resource to a beginner school-based researcher. It provides useful advice on various practical aspects of conducting research in schools and outlines some theoretical and methodological foundations and approaches to conducting research with human participants. * Oksana Afitska, University of Sheffield, UK *
This is an excellent student book suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in research in schools. Although the focus is on place based methods and there are appropriate and helpful articulations of place and space theory, this book usefully provides a number of practical approaches and a range of references for the reader to follow up. If the mark of a good book is that the reader is left wanting to find out more, this work succeeds (and it is my favourite book of the year!). * Dr ML White, University of East London, UK *

Author Bio

Pat Thomson is Professor of Education in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK. A former headteacher, she works with teachers and artists using action research and ethnographic approaches. Her research focuses on arts, learning and change in educational, gallery, museum and community settings. Christine Hall is Professor of Education in the School of Education at The University of Nottingham, UK. Formerly a secondary school teacher, she has worked in teacher education for the last 20 years supervising numerous students and teachers on school-based research projects. Her research is on literacy and the arts in schools.