There are a number of strengths and limitations to using unstructured interviews to investigate the effects of streaming. Unstructured interviews are advocated by Anti-Positivists, which was founded by Max Weber. He believed in empathy and using research methods that helped to understand the individual, which he believed was essential to then understand society. Unstructured interviews enables the researcher to ask a variety of open and closed questions to the respondents. One strength of using this method to investigate streaming is, as stated in Item B, the researcher ‘can explore pupils’ feelings and reactions’.
This ties in with the idea if empathy, as the researcher can build a rapport with the respondents and by using this method is able to talk about sensitive issues. For example by talking to the pupils in the lower band, using unstructured interviews allows the pupil to feel at ease and not judged by the researcher. This may mean the pupil opens up and could explain if they have feelings of low self esteem and why etc. Willis did a study on boys who formed an anti-school subculture. He used different methodologies, one being unstructured interviews.
He found unstructured interviews helped him build a relationship with the boys, so they trusted him and would give fairly in depth answers as to their behaviours. This shows unstructured interviews can help to build rapport between respondent and researcher. However Positivists like Durkeim would argue unstructured interviews lacks objectivity. This means the researcher can become biased towards the respondents and so can make the study biased. Positivists advocate empirical evidence with high objectivity, so their studies don’t become biased.
The Essay on Why Unstructured Interview Have Low Predictive Validities?
The unstructured interview is the interview without any set format but in which the interviewer may have some key questions formulated in advance. Unstructured interviews allow questions based on the interviewee’s responses and proceeds like a friendly, non-threatening conversation. However, because each interviewee is asked a different series of questions, this style lack the reliability ...
Other sociologists would also argue unstructured interviews can be impractical, as the interviews are time consuming and can be costly. Also due to the fact there are open questions, the interview may go off topic, which adds to the time for the researcher to discard useless information for their investigation. Another strength is validity. Unstructured interviews have high validity as they are primary data, so have been collected by the researcher which means the data will contain a high amount of truth. However a limitation is nterviewer effect or halo effect. This is when the respondents say what they think the researcher wants to hear. This can therefore lower validity of the investigation. One effect of streaming as Item B states is individuals may experience the self fulfilling prophecy. This is where the pupils being to fulfil the label or stereotype they are given. In this case pupils put in higher streams achievement improve, but those in lower streams achievement deteriorates. Rosenthal and Jacobson did a study of Pygmalion in the classroom.
They did a placebo test on a group of primary school children. They highlighted some children to be ‘intelligent’. When they returned a year later, the children they falsely classified as ‘intelligent’ were in higher streams and were achieving highly. This clearly showed the self-fulfilling prophecy and teacher expectations came true. Another strength is unstructured interviews are very ethical. This is because each respondent must give/have permission to take part in the interview.
This makes sure the investigation doesn’t break any confidential/ethical boundaries. However a limitation as Item B states is the practical problems ‘in arranging and carrying out a large enough number of unstructured interviews’. As said previously the interviews are already time consuming. Also having a low number of respondents, decreases the reliability of the study, as it is based on opinion, so the same opinons may not be the same if the experiment was repeated again, especially elsewhere.
The Essay on Journal: Mock Interview
The mock interview was a great chance for me because it was the real process of how in the real world interviews are conduct. In this interview I took a time to observe myself how I actually did it for example my body language and how I behaved during the interview. This was the first time for me to sit in front of the professional who asked me question about my strength and weakness at first it ...
This also decreases the representativeness of the investigation. In conclusion, unstructured interviews are a good way of investigating the effects of streaming if the researcher wants opinions and to empathise with the respondents. However it is time consuming and reliability can be low, so it may be better for the researcher to take a quantitative research approach, especially if they want a more reliable and representative result.
