Researching the Wider Benefits of Learning

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Researching the Wider Benefits of Learning

• Dr. John Preston
• University of East London

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STAGE 1
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STAGE 2
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Defining Longitudinal Data

• Longitudinal data tells us about what has
  happened to a set of research cases over a series
  of time points
• The majority of longitudinal data take individual
  people as the unit of analysis
• Longitudinal data therefore commonly record
  change at an individual or micro level
• In contrast, cross-sectional data provide a
  snapshot of the circumstances of individuals at
  one point in time

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Nature of Longitudinal Data

• Can use existing longitudinal studies
• Can create own longitudinal data sets
• May be quantitative or qualitative in nature
• May be mixed method

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The Value of Longitudinal Data

• Provide a better representation of social
  processes and individual experiences
• Enable us to get closer to understanding causal
  effects
• Allow investigation of duration effects i.e. how
  time itself influences some processes and
  outcomes
• Retrospective data is flawed by faulty recall

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Racism age 33
Adult Education 33
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Adult Education 33
Racism age 42
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Adult Education 33-42
Racism age 42
Racism age 33
Change
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Racism age 33
?
Adult Education 33
Racism age 42
Adult Education 33-42
Racism age 42
Racism age 33
Change
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Racism age 33
?
Adult Education 33
Racism age 42
Adult Education 33-42
Racism age 42
Racism age 33
Change
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Recall

• Kinsey A Biography
• (a) potential flaw in Kinseys method was
  faulty memory. He would, for example, ask a
  forty-year old woman, for example, about her
  sexual behaviour when she was 15 and when she was
  married at 20, and again at 35 as well as when
  she was forty (Gathorne-Hardy, 2005, pp. 147)

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British Birth Cohort Studies

• Existing UK/GB National Studies
• 1946 National Survey of Health
  Development
• 1958 National Child Development Study
• 1970 1970 British Birth Cohort Study
• MCS Millennium Cohort Study the first national
  birth cohort study for 30 years (2000-1)

British Birth Cohort Studies
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1958 Birth Cohort Study

• Representative sample of over 17,000 infants born
  in March 1958 (perinatal mortality study)
• Sample followed at ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42, 46
  (prospective study)
• Multipurpose study family life education
  employment skills housing health finances
  citizenship
• Focused bio-medical study at age 44 (MRC funded)
• Approximately 11,000 individuals are still
  participating
• Now funded by ESRC with data collected every four
  years

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Hypothetical life history
Age 16
2000
2004
1991
1981
Age 42
Age 46
Age 23
Age 33
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NCDS 2004 Sweep

• Telephone Interview (30 mins)
• Housing
• Partnerships current and former
• Births and other pregnancies
• Periods of lone parenthood
• Absent children
• Children and the wider family
• Family income
• Employment status/employment history
• Academic education/vocational training/other
  courses
• Access to and use of computers
• Basic skills
• General health
• Smoking. Drinking and exercise
• Experience of crime
• Social participation
• Identity

Postal questionnaire for those who cannot be
interviewed on phone
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Attrition NCDS, Sweeps 0 to 6.
The observed sample - the data available to
analyse - differs from the target sample because
of various forms of non-response. The observed
sample declines as a proportion of the target
sample up to sweep 5 but not thereafter. The
response rate falls sharply between sweeps 3 and
4, corresponding to the change from parental
response to cohort member response.
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Can adult education change extremist attitudes?

• John Preston (University of East London), Leon
  Feinstein (Institute of Education, London) and T.
  Marion Anderson (Institute of Education, London)

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OR

• Take the skinheads bowling.
• Take them bowling
• (Camper Van Beethoven Take the Skinheads
  Bowling)

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Reason for research

• Education makes people more tolerant BUT little
  known about adult education OR whether it changes
  extremist views (and nothing on both of these!)
• Policy in terms of Cantle report and rise of
  extremist parties (eg BNP).
• Treasury is adult education worth the
  expenditure it gets?

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Mixed race marriage is okay I wouldnt mind if
family of a different race moved next door I
would mind kids going to school with different
races I wouldnt mind working with people from
other races I would not want a person of another
race as my boss?
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The death penalty is necessary for some
crimes Censorship is needed to uphold morals We
should give law breakers stiffer sentences Young
people dont have respect for traditional
values Schools should teach children to obey
authority
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Research Design

• Group at 33, group at 42
• Ranked groups racist-authoritarian (least
  desired cluster 7), authoritarian (not
  necessarily desired clusters 4,5 and 6) and
  neither (other clusters)
• Ordered probit for transformation and sustaining
• Controls for previous education, social class,
  gender

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Conclusions

• Adult education does not change the views of
  extremists WHY?
• Adult education may have an inoculation
  quality (Côté and Levene, 2002 142) in
  protecting individuals from adopting an extremist
  position in terms of racism and authoritarianism

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Mixed Methods

• Using quantitative research as sampling frame for
  qualitative
• Diagonals and off diagonals from NCDS
• Allows triangulation of data

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Qualitative Research

• CHARLES There were about 12 or 15, a very mixed
  bag I think. I think probably the sort of people
  on it werent looking at it in the same way, or
  werent, didnt have the same interest in it that
  I had, or wanted, so .
• I In what way?
• CHARLES They were a bit more uneducated, I
  suppose, about it, I suppose it was a bit more
  basic really. I dont know, their general
  background and knowledge or what I picked up on
  it. I think they were after the qualification
  more than the knowledge.

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• CHARLES I think it was a very diverse group of
  people, which, I dont think helped and didnt
  gel, I didnt get involved in it as I might have,
  I dont know.

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Conclusions

• Policy based research does not always have
  intended consequences
• Mixed methods examination of mechanisms
  (iteration)
• Wider benefits of learning other levels of
  research (eg macro)