Qualitative Research Methods - Essay Example

The theoretical framework provided by the Bernstein theory has been used to analyze the impact of social class on the performance of pupils. The research methodology employed by the author in carrying out the study used Bernstein’s theory to provide a foundation for the research. Other qualitative methods including interviews from pupils were taken to provide qualitative data as recorded in the transcripts. Since the subject of the research involved information specific to a particular social class therefore the research tool provided an effective way of assessing learner identities within the social context of the populace of middle class and working class students.

The research aimed to investigate the impact of teacher-student relationship on the children’s perception of themselves as learners (Hempel-Jorgensens 2009). Bernstein identified two forms of discourse, instructional and regulative that can be adequately used to fathom the impact of testing culture and pedagogy. The idea of instructional and regulative discourse together constructs the concept of pedagogic discourse in backgrounds that have been molded by performative pedagogy. According to Bernstein, performative pedagogy involves a strong connection between a student’s adjustment to learning and his performance in didactic discourse.

Since testing provides an effective structure for pedagogic control, it has been used as a helpful instrument throughout the research. The concept of ideal pupil provides a useful way of creating a methodology for assessing the interplay between social classes and testing impacts a specific approach of pedagogy either performative or competence related (Hempel-Jorgensens 2009). In performance mode, teahcer-setudent relationship as well as student-student relationship is important in determining a child’s position with respect to the ideal pupil.

This is because in performance mode uses performance in assessments for example tests as a determinant of success. The concept of pedagogic discourse along with its modes has been central in providing a theorectical framework for the investigation of how social class composition affects learner identities in wokring class schools and middle class schools. A multi-method program running over a period of three years was used to analyze how student achievement and the school’s mechanisms are affected by social class composition.

Ethnographic methods of collecting data were used that involved observation, interviews, and document collection. The categorization of the social class composition was done based on a survey carried out to find out the social backgrund and the family arrangement (Hempel-Jorgensens 2009). The use of ethnographic approach enabled the author to gain a very detailed understanding of the impact of social classes on learning identities. The identification of similar students allowed the comparison of students with those of the other school.

The selected students from all the schools had an average achievement scores and belonged to a similar socio-economic backgrund. The students with a mediocre achievement did not necessarily have friends that had the same level of achievement. The use of semi-structured interviews prvided an added advantage in the research as it allwed pen-ended questions to be asked from participants. This allowed free responses that were not restricted by fixed feedbacks. A structured interview is formulated around a topic guide, that is a topic or subject that has to be examined as the study advances (Mason 2004).

In this case, the author used the topic guide to aid the comparison of a particular pupil’s involvement across schools. By allowing the participants to give unrestricted responses, a semi-structured i