The more I think about my ideas, the more I talk myself out of all of them. However, I have been thinking about the practical aspects of surveying ninth grade world history students and their teachers about the meaning of studying history. My two concerns deal with the actual survey itself and then the subjective nature of the questions I am interested in asking.
Honestly, surveys are not my favorite. I had to participate in some psychology studies in undergrad and was always sent links to online surveys for various other groups. The online surveys always annoyed me a little, but I always tried to do them knowing that I would feel guilty for not giving my feedback and helping out the researchers if I decided otherwise. With that said, I can understand why I might not get the response I desire from students and teachers if I decide to use a survey. I also relate to why researchers often revert to surveys to obtain information because of its practicality.
My other concern would be the truthfulness of students' responses. Would they be honest if they really do not believe that world history has any application to their lives and think it is pointless? Giving a survey to students in a classroom environment, even if the teacher is not in the room, might lead them to think their teachers are going to read the responses.
I still am interested in knowing the percentage of students who believe that history is pointless, somewhat applicable to the real world, and those who, like all history lovers, think history pervades every aspect of our lives. I have also had trouble finding related research literature. It could be that my search terms need to be expanded. I may have a completely new topic next week.
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4 comments:
I think that the dilemma's you raise are so relevant and I agree with what you expressed. I hated taking surveys but now that we are the researchers, understand how relevant they may be. You may want to, as Dr. McCoy stated, work with the teachers in the classrooms and see if the teacher can give extra credit or something for filing out the survey. Your topic is interesting. What do you think your survey will look like? Are you simply interested in knowing if students think world history is important or will you be trying to find out why/why not they think it is relevant? Just wondering. Sounds good!
Sarah, this is an interesting topic, still!! If you can construct a good survey, you can use it to get good data from a number of students. They will get a cover letter assuring them of anonymity, and they won't give their names, so I would think they would be pretty honest. If they complete it in class and don't take it home, you will get good returns.
Another possibility would be interviews, or focus groups (group interviews). A focus group of 4 to 6 kids might be very interesting because they will (hopefully) become involved in conversation on the topic and you can get some good deep information. You could do multiple focus groups.
Are you searching for attitude and history? There ought to be a gazillion of those....
Sarah, when I worked in a social psych lab, students were surprisingly forthcoming and honest when giving survey responses. This is not to say, of course, that everyone would be completely honest, but I think as a researcher you have to set aside such concerns as something you cannot really control. You can still make comparisons, suggest explanations, and definitely propose ideas for further study.
I agree with Jessica, this is a very important topic, not also for history teachers, but for all of us! While I could wax poetically about the value of history and school in general for a fairly good amount of time, I can remember griping about the "necessity" of plenty of classes in high school and even some in college, especially ones that I felt focused on trivial and overly picky information.
It would be interesting if your study somehow turned up data which indicated if the type of class (ones with more or less participation, ones with more or less analytical thinking vs rote memorization) influenced students comments.
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