Geoffrey Walford

Research ethical guidelines and anonymity1

That researchers should give anonymity to research sites and to the individuals involved in research is usually taken as an ethical norm. Such a norm is embodied internationally in most of the ethical guidelines and codes of practice of the various educational, sociological and psychological research associations and societies. This paper challenges this assumption on the basis that it is usually impossible to ensure anonymity and that it is often undesirable to try to do so.That researchers should give anonymity to research sites and to the individuals involved in research is usually taken as an ethical norm. Such a norm is embodied internationally in most of the ethical guidelines and codes of practice of the various educational, sociological and psychological research associations and societies. This paper challenges this assumption on the basis that it is usually impossible to ensure anonymity and that it is often undesirable to try to do so.

Choice and equity in education

The tradition of choice choice in the early 1980s a new choice of school? choice for all after 1988? who makes choices? choice for inequity? choice in the USA.

Doing educational research

1. Refexive Accounts of Doing Educational Research Geoffrey Walford 2. Reflections on Young Children Learning Barbara Tizard and Marting Hughes 3. Researching Common Knowledge: Studying the Content and Context of Educational Discourse Neil Mercer 4. Breakthroughs and Blockages in Ethnographic Research: Contrasting Experiences during the Changing Schools Project Lynda Measor and Peter Woods 5. Researching The City Technology College, Kinghurst Geoffrey Walford 6. Young, Gifted and Black: Methodological Reflections of a Teacher/Researcher Mairtin Mac an Ghaill 7. Working Together? Research, Policy and Practice. The Experience of the Scottish Evaluation of TVEI Colin Bell and David Raffe 8. Primary Teachers Talking: A Reflexive Account of Longitudinal Research Jennifer Nias 9. Power, Conflict, Micropolitics and all That! Stephen J. Ball 10. Doing Educational Research in Treliw David Reynolds 11. The Front Page of Yesterdays News: The Reception of Educational Research Peter Mortimore Index

Finding the limits: autoethnography and being an Oxford University Proctor:

This article discusses autoethnography –in particular, in relation to an autoethnography of my experience as a University Proctor for Oxford University during 2001–2002. It is a article of several parts which in themselves form an autoethnography of my experience of trying to write and think about autoethnography. It starts with a personal account of part of the day during which I was admitted as a Proctor. It then recognizes and provides some contextual material in which the account can be situated both historically and in the present day. The next section describes the empirical basis on which the autoethnography could be constructed. This is followed by a more theoretical section that considers the nature of autoethnography and critiques some of its forms. The article concludes with a discussion of the merits and drawbacks of some forms of autoethnography as a research method and as a research product.

The practice of writing ethnographic fieldnotes

Fieldnotes are central to ethnographic practice, yet there is surprisingly little written about how fieldnotes are constructed. This article reports the results of some interviews with four well-known ethnographers of education who were questioned about their practice. It is designed to be a resource for those new (and, maybe not so new) to ethnography.

Classification and framing in postgraduate education

ABSTRACT The quality of supervision received by postgraduate students has been seen as a considerable problem in a growing number of research reports. This paper takes the view that to see the problem in terms of student and supervisor roles obscures more than it clarifies. It is proposed that the concept of classification and framing used by Bernstein can be developed to shed light on the matching process which must be achieved between supervisor and student. The analysis is illustrated by examples taken from a study of postgraduates in experimental physics research.

Classification and Framing of the Curriculum in Evangelical Christian and Muslim Schools in England and The Netherlands

This article examines some of the ways that Muslim and evangelical Christian schools in England and The Netherlands deal with religious education. Various schools take different views about how aspects of religious belief should be taught and how Christian or Muslim belief should be related to the wider curriculum of the school. While some of the schools have attempted to integrate, for example, evangelical Christianity throughout the whole of the curriculum, others have been content to have the religious teaching as a separate component of the curriculum. This paper uses the work of Basil Bernstein to describe and understand the nature of the religious curriculum in these schools. Through a series of case studies of schools and curricula it examines the nature of the curricula and their possible effects on children.

Site Selection within Comparative Case Study and Ethnographic Research

In reading numerous comparative accounts that use case studies or ethnographies of schools and classrooms, it is evident that insufficient concern is often given to the choice of research sites. Far too often it seems that researchers settle for research sites to which they can easily gain convenient and ready access rather than thinking through the implications of particular choices. The result is that there are too many comparative case studies where the choice of both the countries involved and the more micro-sites and case studies do not appear to be closely related to any theoretical objectives of the study. It is recognised that when selecting sites, researchers have to consider the time, financial and personal costs involved in conducting fieldwork in what might be distant and inconvenient locations. Additionally, and obviously, ethnographic and case study research can only proceed where access has been achieved, and this is not always straightforward. But, however difficult access may be, it is crucial that obtaining access is not seen as the primary consideration in selecting an appropriate site. The argument will be illustrated with examples from the authors current comparative research on schools for religious minorities in the Netherlands and England.

Diversity and Choice in School Education: An Alternative View.

Abstract This article is the first part of a debate with David Hargreaves about the ideas expressed in his article ‘Diversity and choice in school education: a modified libertarian approach’. It discusses the difficulties of using cost‐benefit analysis in education, examines in detail some of the documents on which Hargreavess argument is based and traces the development of policy on school choice. It is argued that policy on choice must be understood within a consideration of the wider social and political context in which that policy has arisen. The article then documents the various new forms of selection that have accompanied increased choice and considers problems of social segregation. The article concludes with suggestions on how the system might be reformed.

Sponsored Grant-maintained Schools: Extending the Franchise?.

Abstract The 1993 Education Act introduced changes that encouraged the supply‐side of the quasi‐market of schools. As a result of that Act, since April 1994, it has been possible for groups of parents or independent sponsors to apply to the Secretary of State for Education and Employment in England or the Secretary of State for Wales to establish their own grant‐maintained schools. Additionally, existing faith‐based or other private schools are now able to apply to become re‐established as grant‐maintained schools. This article traces the attempts of various existing private schools and potential sponsors to establish new schools within the state system. Very few have so far been successful, and it is argued that the Funding Agency for Schools and the Department for Education and Employment are operating the new scheme in ways similar to those of a commercial franchise.