Interviews in educational research | AQA A-Level Sociology
Updated: 2 days ago
For Specification 7192
AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes
Estimated study time: 60–75 minutes
Interviews are one of the research methods AQA requires you to understand and apply to the study of education. In Methods in Context, the key challenge is not simply describing interviews, but explaining how useful they are for investigating particular educational issues. AQA requires students to apply sociological research methods to education and to consider the theoretical, practical and ethical factors influencing research. This Interviews in educational research A-Level Sociology revision page builds on researching education [Researching education] and develops the skills needed to evaluate interviews in context.
Learning Objectives 🎯
By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:
Explain how interviews can be used as a source of sociological data.
Apply interviews to different educational issues identified in the AQA specification.
Examine practical considerations affecting interview research in education.
Examine ethical considerations involved in interviewing educational participants.
Analyse the relationship between interviews, positivism and interpretivism.
Evaluate the usefulness of interviews for different educational research situations.
Revision Notes 📚
What are interviews in sociological research?
An interview is a research method in which a researcher obtains information by asking participants questions and recording their responses.
AQA identifies interviews as one of the sources of data that students must examine, alongside questionnaires, participant and non-participant observation, experiments, documents and official statistics. Students must also understand quantitative and qualitative research, research design and the theoretical, practical and ethical considerations affecting sociological research.
In educational research, interviews might involve people such as pupils or teachers, depending on the research question.
The important Methods in Context question is:
What can interviews reveal about this particular educational issue, and what practical, ethical and theoretical problems may limit their usefulness?
Interviews as primary research
When a sociologist conducts interviews specifically for their own investigation, the responses collected are primary data.
This is because the researcher has gathered the evidence for that particular research project rather than using data that already existed.
Interview responses may provide qualitative evidence about participants':
views
experiences
interpretations
relationships within education.
Depending on the way the research is designed, interviews may also generate information that can be compared across participants.
This links directly with quantitative and qualitative research [Quantitative and qualitative research].
Applying interviews to education
AQA requires sociological methods to be applied to the study of education. The specification identifies educational processes and issues including:
differential educational achievement by social class, gender and ethnicity
teacher-pupil relationships
pupil identities
pupil subcultures
the hidden curriculum
the organisation of teaching and learning
educational policies and their effects on access, experience and outcomes.
Interviews may be more suitable for some research questions than others.
For example, a researcher investigating pupils' interpretations of teacher-pupil relationships may value the opportunity to obtain participants' own accounts. A sociologist mainly interested in identifying broad numerical patterns of educational achievement might place greater emphasis on other forms of evidence.
The usefulness of interviews therefore depends on the research question, not simply on the method itself.
Interviews and teacher-pupil relationships
AQA specifically requires students to understand teacher-pupil relationships.
Interviews could be used to investigate how teachers or pupils understand these relationships.
For example, a researcher may want to explore:
how pupils describe their interactions with teachers
how teachers understand their relationships with pupils
whether teachers and pupils interpret the same educational experiences differently.
Why interviews may be useful
Teacher-pupil relationships involve social interaction and people's interpretations of that interaction.
Interviewing participants allows the researcher to collect evidence directly from the people involved.
This could help the sociologist understand how a relationship is experienced rather than only identifying that a particular pattern exists.
Possible limitation
An interview records what participants say about their relationships.
This is not necessarily the same form of evidence as directly studying teacher-pupil interaction.
A sociologist must therefore decide whether participants' accounts provide the evidence needed for the research question.
This creates a useful comparison with observation in educational research [Observation in educational research].
Interviews and pupil identities
Pupil identities are another specified part of relationships and processes within schools.
Identity concerns people's social experiences and how they understand themselves within those experiences.
Interviews may therefore be particularly relevant when a sociologist wants to investigate pupils' own interpretations.
A pupil may be able to describe:
their experiences within education
how they see themselves within school
their relationships with other people
how educational experiences connect with their identity.
An interview can therefore provide evidence about meanings that may not be visible from numerical data alone.
However, the researcher still needs to decide whether participants' accounts provide sufficient evidence to answer the research question.
Interviews and pupil subcultures
AQA also identifies pupil subcultures as an important process within schools.
Interviews could allow pupils to explain:
their experiences of different pupil groups
their attitudes towards aspects of education
relationships between pupils
how they interpret their own position within school.
This may be valuable for research concerned with meanings and experiences.
However, interview evidence remains participants' accounts of social life. If the research aim concerns what pupils actually do in interaction with others, another research method may provide different evidence.
A good evaluation therefore asks whether the researcher wants to investigate:
participants' interpretations, or
the educational interaction or behaviour itself.
Interviews and the hidden curriculum
The hidden curriculum forms part of AQA's required study of relationships and processes within schools.
A sociologist might interview pupils about their experiences of schooling or teachers about processes within education.
This could provide evidence about how participants interpret aspects of school life.
However, interviews may have limitations if participants do not identify or describe all of the processes the sociologist is interested in.
The important issue is therefore not simply whether interviews are capable of producing detailed responses, but whether those responses provide evidence about the specific educational process being investigated.
Interviews and the organisation of teaching and learning
A researcher investigating the organisation of teaching and learning might interview pupils or teachers about how they experience education.
For example, interview evidence might show differences between:
pupils' interpretations
teachers' interpretations
experiences within different educational situations.
This could provide detailed evidence about how educational organisation is understood by participants.
However, it would still be evidence based on what participants report. Other research methods might provide different information about how teaching and learning are actually organised.
This demonstrates why research methods should be selected in relation to the research aim.
Interviews and differential educational achievement
AQA requires students to understand differences in educational achievement according to:
social class
gender
ethnicity.
Interviews could contribute to research into these differences by investigating the experiences of pupils or teachers.
For example, statistical evidence might establish that differences in achievement exist, while interviews might be used to investigate how people experience processes associated with education.
This shows how different research methods can answer different sociological questions.
A researcher interested mainly in identifying the extent of a pattern may judge interviews differently from one interested in understanding participants' experiences of that pattern.
Interviews and educational policy
The specification requires study of educational policies including:
selection
marketisation
privatisation
policies intended to achieve greater equality of opportunity or outcome
globalisation and educational policy.
Interviews could be used to investigate people's experiences of educational policies.
For example, researchers may investigate how pupils or teachers understand changes affecting educational experience.
However, interviewing participants would provide one type of evidence. A study concerned with the broader effects of a policy may also need other sources of data.
This reinforces an important principle:
A research method is useful when the evidence it produces matches the particular question the sociologist wants to answer.
Practical considerations in educational interviews
AQA requires students to understand how practical considerations affect the choice of topic, choice of method and conduct of research.
Practical considerations should always be applied to the actual educational investigation.
Reaching suitable participants
An interview study depends on being able to include people who can provide relevant evidence.
For example:
research into pupil identities requires appropriate pupil participants
research into teachers' interpretations requires teachers
comparing teachers' and pupils' perspectives requires evidence from both.
This matters because the usefulness of interviews depends partly on whether the researcher can obtain evidence from people relevant to the research question.
Conducting interviews in an educational setting
The researcher must consider whether interviews can be carried out effectively within the particular educational context.
The practical demands may vary according to:
who is being interviewed
what educational issue is being studied
the kind of information required
the research design.
A general claim such as "interviews have practical problems" is therefore not enough.
The practical issue needs to be explained in relation to the particular educational research.
Amount and type of evidence
Interviews may provide detailed evidence from participants.
This can be valuable when a researcher wants to investigate meanings and experiences.
However, the researcher must consider whether this type of evidence matches the purpose of the study.
A research question requiring detailed accounts may make interviews attractive. A research question primarily concerned with broad patterns may create different practical priorities.
These issues build on practical considerations in sociological research [Practical considerations in sociological research].
Ethical considerations in educational interviews
AQA requires students to consider ethical issues influencing both the choice of method and the conduct of research.
When conducting interviews in education, the researcher needs to consider:
who is being interviewed
what participants are being asked to discuss
how the research may affect the people involved
how information obtained from interviews is handled.
The nature of the educational topic
Some educational topics involve people's:
identities
relationships
experiences
attitudes towards education.
Interview questions may therefore ask participants to discuss aspects of their social lives.
The researcher must consider whether the way these questions are asked and the way the information is used are ethically appropriate.
Relationships between participants
Interview research may involve accounts of relationships between different people.
For example, pupils may discuss teachers or other pupils.
Teachers may discuss their experiences of pupils.
The sociologist therefore has to consider the ethical implications of collecting information about social relationships within an educational setting.
Ethics can affect research design
Ethics should not be treated as an isolated paragraph added to the end of an answer.
Ethical considerations may shape:
what the researcher asks
who is included
how interviews are conducted
whether a particular design is appropriate.
This is why ethical considerations form part of the wider research design rather than being separate from it.
You will examine the general principles further in ethical considerations in sociological research [Ethical considerations in sociological research].
Theoretical considerations in educational interviews
Theoretical considerations concern what kind of evidence sociologists believe is important and how they believe society should be studied.
AQA explicitly requires understanding of the relationship between:
positivism
interpretivism
sociological research methods
the nature of social facts.
These debates are particularly important when evaluating interviews.
Interpretivism and interviews
Interpretivism emphasises understanding people's meanings and interpretations.
Interviews may therefore be useful to an interpretivist researcher because participants can provide their own accounts of social experiences.
In education, this could be relevant when studying:
pupil identities
pupil subcultures
teacher-pupil relationships
experiences of teaching and learning.
For example, an interpretivist studying pupil identity may be less interested simply in counting different responses and more interested in what pupils believe their experiences mean.
Interviews can therefore fit closely with a research question focused on social action and meaning.
Positivism and interviews
A positivist researcher is more concerned with the systematic investigation of observable social patterns and social facts.
Interviews may still provide evidence, particularly where responses are collected in a way that makes comparison possible.
However, a positivist might question whether detailed individual accounts provide the type of evidence needed when the main aim is to identify broader social patterns.
This is especially relevant to research into:
differences in educational achievement
differences between social groups.
The theoretical issue is therefore not:
"Do positivists use interviews?"
Instead, ask:
Does this interview design produce the kind of evidence that fits the researcher's theoretical aims?
Interviews and meanings
One of the main reasons interviews may be useful in educational research is that education involves people interpreting their own experiences.
For example, the specification requires study of:
identities
subcultures
relationships.
These cannot always be fully understood simply by identifying numerical patterns.
Interview responses may help sociologists investigate what educational experiences mean to participants.
This is a particularly strong Methods in Context point because it connects:
a feature of the method
a feature of the educational topic
a theoretical perspective.
Interviews and participants' accounts
An important limitation is that interview evidence consists of participants' accounts.
Suppose a pupil tells a researcher that a teacher-pupil relationship is positive.
That provides useful evidence about the pupil's interpretation.
It does not automatically provide complete evidence about everything that occurs within the relationship.
Similarly, a teacher's account of a classroom is evidence about that teacher's perspective.
This does not make interview data useless. It simply means researchers must be clear about what their evidence actually allows them to investigate.
Interviews and comparison
If several participants are interviewed about the same educational issue, researchers may be able to compare their responses.
For example, researchers could compare:
pupils' accounts
teachers' accounts
experiences of different educational groups.
This may help identify similarities and differences.
However, researchers interested mainly in large-scale numerical patterns may consider whether another method or source of data would suit that aim more directly.
This comparison is important when reviewing questionnaires in educational research [Questionnaires in educational research].
Comparing interviews with questionnaires
Both interviews and questionnaires can obtain information from participants, but their usefulness may differ according to the educational research question.
Research issue | Interviews may be particularly useful when... | Questionnaires may be particularly useful when... |
Teacher-pupil relationships | The researcher wants participants to explain their experiences | The researcher wants to compare responses from participants |
Pupil identities | Meanings and interpretations are central to the study | The researcher wants to identify patterns in responses |
Pupil subcultures | Pupils' accounts of their social experiences are important | Comparable information is required |
Teaching and learning | Researchers want detailed accounts of experiences | Researchers want responses concerning the same educational issue from a number of participants |
Differential achievement | Researchers want to investigate experiences associated with differences | Researchers want to identify and compare patterns in reported experiences |
This does not establish that one method is always superior.
The correct choice depends on the research aim.
Comparing interviews with observation
Interviews and observation provide different forms of evidence.
An interview allows the researcher to investigate what participants say about their social experiences.
Observation allows researchers to study aspects of social interaction or behaviour more directly.
Consider teacher-pupil relationships.
An interview might reveal:
how a pupil interprets the relationship
how a teacher understands the same relationship.
Observation might instead provide evidence about interactions as they occur.
Which is more useful depends on the research question.
If the sociologist wants to understand participants' meanings, interviews may be particularly valuable.
If the sociologist wants to study interaction itself, observation may offer different evidence.
This will be developed further in observation in educational research [Observation in educational research].
Strengths of interviews in educational research
The importance of each strength depends on the research context.
Interviews can generate primary data
The researcher can ask questions designed specifically for the educational issue being investigated.
This may make the evidence closely connected to the research aim.
For example, a sociologist studying pupil identities can ask participants directly about their experiences within education.
Interviews can investigate meanings
Participants can provide accounts of their own educational experiences.
This may be especially useful for studying:
identities
subcultures
teacher-pupil relationships
experiences of teaching and learning.
This makes interviews potentially attractive to an interpretivist researcher.
Interviews can investigate different perspectives
Education involves different social actors.
A sociologist could investigate how:
pupils interpret an issue
teachers interpret the same issue.
Comparing these accounts may reveal different understandings of the same educational situation.
Interviews can provide detailed evidence
Where the research aim concerns experiences and interpretations, detailed responses may provide information that simple numerical patterns do not.
However, this becomes useful only if the evidence answers the research question.
Limitations of interviews in educational research
Participants' accounts are only one form of evidence
An interview tells researchers what participants report.
It does not provide exactly the same evidence as observation, documents, official statistics or other sources.
This may limit interviews when researchers want to investigate the educational process itself rather than participants' interpretations of it.
Interviews may be less suited to some research questions
If the main aim is to identify broad quantitative patterns of educational achievement, interview evidence may not be the most direct way of answering the question.
Other research methods or secondary sources may provide different evidence.
The research design remains crucial
The usefulness of interviews depends on:
who is interviewed
what questions are asked
what information is required
whether the evidence matches the research aim.
An interview is therefore not automatically useful simply because participants can provide detailed answers.
Ethical and practical considerations still affect the research
Educational interviews involve real participants and particular educational settings.
The researcher therefore needs to consider whether the method can be conducted appropriately in that context.
Matching interviews to the research question
Consider three different educational investigations.
Research question A
How do pupils understand their identities within education?
Interviews may be highly relevant because the study concerns pupils' meanings and interpretations.
Research question B
What differences exist in educational achievement between social groups?
Interviews might contribute evidence about people's experiences, but the researcher may also need evidence that establishes the broader pattern.
Research question C
How do teachers and pupils interpret their relationships differently?
Interviews could be particularly useful because the research question explicitly asks about participants' interpretations.
These examples show that you should never evaluate interviews separately from the purpose of the research.
Building an applied Methods in Context paragraph
A useful five-stage structure is:
Identify a characteristic of interviews.
Apply it to a specific educational issue.
Explain why that creates a strength or limitation.
Connect it to a practical, ethical or theoretical consideration.
Judge how much this affects the usefulness of the method.
For example:
Method feature: interviews obtain participants' own accounts.
Educational context: the researcher is studying pupil identities.
Application: pupils can explain how they interpret their own educational experiences.
Theoretical significance: this may suit an interpretivist interest in meanings and social action.
Evaluation: however, an interview provides pupils' accounts rather than direct evidence of all educational processes affecting their identities.
This is much stronger than merely stating that "interviews give detailed answers".
Avoiding generic evaluation
A weak answer might state:
Interviews are useful because they produce detailed information.
The problem is that this does not explain why detail matters for this educational research.
A stronger answer would state:
Interviews may be useful for investigating pupil identities because pupils can explain how they interpret their experiences within education. This may provide evidence relevant to an interpretivist researcher interested in meanings. However, these accounts represent pupils' interpretations and may not provide the same evidence as directly studying interactions within school.
The second response demonstrates:
knowledge
educational application
theoretical understanding
evaluation.
That is the level of reasoning Methods in Context requires.
Making a final judgement about interviews
Do not conclude that interviews are simply "good" or "bad".
Instead, ask what kind of evidence the research needs.
Interviews may be particularly useful when:
participants' meanings are central to the research
researchers want pupils' or teachers' own accounts
the research concerns identities, relationships or educational experiences
detailed qualitative evidence helps answer the question.
They may be less sufficient on their own when:
the main research aim is to identify broad quantitative patterns
the researcher wants evidence of interaction rather than participants' accounts of interaction
practical or ethical considerations make the proposed interview design unsuitable.
The best conclusion is therefore conditional:
Interviews are most useful in educational research when participants' interpretations and experiences are central to the research question. Their usefulness is more limited where the researcher primarily needs evidence of broad patterns or direct evidence of educational processes.
Making this kind of comparison prepares you for choosing methods for researching education [Choosing methods for researching education].
Key Words 🔑
Key word | Student-friendly definition | How it may be used in an exam |
Interview | A research method in which a researcher asks participants questions and obtains their responses. | Apply interviews to a particular educational issue and evaluate their usefulness. |
Primary data | Data collected specifically for the researcher's own investigation. | Explain that interviews carried out by the sociologist can generate evidence directly relevant to the educational study. |
Qualitative data | Non-numerical data concerned with meanings, experiences and qualities. | Link interviews to research into pupils' or teachers' interpretations. |
Research design | The way a sociological investigation is planned to answer its research question. | Explain why the interview design must match the educational issue being researched. |
Practical considerations | Factors affecting whether and how sociological research can be carried out. | Apply to the particular participants, setting and conduct of an educational interview study. |
Ethical considerations | Issues concerning the responsible conduct of sociological research involving people. | Explain how interviewing participants about educational experiences may affect research decisions. |
Positivism | An approach emphasising systematic investigation of social patterns and social facts. | Evaluate whether interview evidence suits research focused mainly on patterns. |
Interpretivism | An approach emphasising people's meanings and interpretations of social life. | Explain why interviews may be useful for researching identities, relationships and experiences. |
Social facts | Social phenomena treated as realities beyond individual people and open to sociological investigation. | Use when explaining the relationship between positivism and sociological methods. |
Methods in Context | Applying research-method knowledge to a specific substantive setting such as education. | Make every strength and limitation relevant to the educational issue in the question. |
Common Mistakes ⚠️
Mistake: Writing a generic essay about interviews
Why this is incorrect: AQA requires students to apply sociological research methods to the study of education. A discussion that could be used unchanged for any sociological topic therefore misses the central Methods in Context requirement.
How to improve: Connect every methodological point to the pupils, teachers, relationships, identities or educational processes named in the question.
Mistake: Assuming interviews are always the best method for understanding people
Why this is incorrect: Different educational research questions require different kinds of evidence. An interview provides participants' accounts, but another method may be more suitable if the researcher wants evidence about patterns or interaction itself.
How to improve: Begin by identifying exactly what the researcher wants to discover.
Mistake: Saying interviews automatically provide the truth about education
Why this is incorrect: Interview evidence shows what participants report and how they interpret their experiences. That is not necessarily the same as direct evidence of every educational process involved.
How to improve: Be precise about what interview data can establish.
Mistake: Treating interviews as automatically interpretivist
Why this is incorrect: AQA requires understanding of the relationship between sociological perspectives and methods. The important issue is the purpose and design of the research.
How to improve: Explain why an interpretivist may value participants' meanings, while also recognising that interviews can be designed for different research purposes.
Mistake: Listing ethical issues without applying them
Why this is incorrect: An ethical consideration only becomes a Methods in Context point when it is related to the particular educational research.
How to improve: Explain who is being interviewed, what they are being asked about and why this creates an ethical consideration.
Mistake: Comparing methods without answering the question
Why this is incorrect: Mentioning questionnaires, observation or statistics is only useful if the comparison helps evaluate interviews.
How to improve: Use another method briefly to show what different evidence it would provide, then return to the usefulness of interviews.
Exam-Style Questions ✍️
Question 1
Identify one educational process that sociologists could investigate using interviews. (1 mark)
Question 2
Explain one reason why interview data collected by a sociologist for their own study are primary data. (2 marks)
Question 3
Outline two educational issues for which interviews may provide useful sociological evidence. (4 marks)
Question 4
A sociologist wants to interview pupils about their identities within school.
Explain one theoretical strength of using interviews in this research. (4 marks)
Question 5
A researcher plans to interview teachers and pupils about teacher-pupil relationships.
Explain one practical consideration and one ethical consideration that may influence this research. (6 marks)
Question 6
A sociologist wants to investigate differences in educational achievement by social class, gender and ethnicity.
Explain one strength and one limitation of using interviews for this research. (6 marks)
Question 7
A researcher is considering either interviews or observation to investigate pupil subcultures.
Explain two reasons why these methods might produce different kinds of evidence. (6 marks)
Question 8
Item A
A sociologist wants to investigate pupil identities within a school. The researcher is considering interviewing pupils because interviews may allow them to describe their experiences and explain the meanings they attach to school life.
However, pupil identity develops within educational relationships and processes. What pupils say in interviews may therefore provide different evidence from directly studying interaction within the school. The researcher must also consider practical and ethical issues when conducting interviews.
Using material from Item A and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the strengths and limitations of using interviews to investigate pupil identities. (20 marks)
Answers and indicative mark scheme
Question 1
Award 1 mark for one relevant educational process, such as:
teacher-pupil relationships
pupil identities
pupil subcultures
the hidden curriculum
organisation of teaching and learning.
Question 2
Award up to 2 marks.
A suitable answer would explain that the sociologist is collecting the interview responses specifically for their particular investigation, so the evidence is primary rather than pre-existing secondary data.
Question 3
Award up to 2 marks for each appropriate outline, to a maximum of 4 marks.
Possible answers include:
teacher-pupil relationships
pupil identities
pupil subcultures
organisation of teaching and learning
experiences connected with educational achievement
experiences of educational policies.
The answer should show how interviews could provide relevant participant evidence.
Question 4
Award up to 4 marks for a developed theoretical strength.
Indicative content:
pupil identities involve pupils' meanings and interpretations
interviews allow pupils to provide their own accounts of educational experiences
this may fit an interpretivist interest in social action and meaning
interviews may therefore provide evidence particularly relevant to a study concerned with how pupils understand their identities.
Question 5
Award up to 3 marks for the practical consideration and 3 marks for the ethical consideration.
Indicative practical content could include:
the researcher needs appropriate access to both teachers and pupils
the interviews must be organised so evidence can be collected from relevant participants
the research design needs to produce information that actually addresses teacher-pupil relationships.
Indicative ethical content could include:
participants are being asked about social relationships involving other people
the researcher needs to consider how asking about these experiences may affect those involved
the way information about teachers and pupils is collected and handled must form part of the ethical conduct of the research.
Answers should remain explicitly applied to teacher-pupil relationships.
Question 6
Award up to 3 marks for the strength and 3 marks for the limitation.
A possible strength is that interviews could help researchers investigate pupils' or teachers' experiences associated with differences in educational achievement.
A possible limitation is that if the main aim is to establish broad patterns of achievement between social classes, genders or ethnic groups, interview evidence may not provide the most direct evidence of the extent of those patterns.
Strong answers distinguish between understanding experiences and identifying patterns.
Question 7
Award up to 3 marks for each developed reason.
Indicative content:
Interviews provide evidence about what pupils say and how they interpret their experiences, whereas observation can provide evidence about social interaction as it occurs.
Interviews may therefore suit research focused on pupils' meanings, while observation may provide a different perspective on relationships and behaviour within pupil subcultures.
Comparing the two illustrates how research design affects the kind of sociological evidence produced.
Question 8
A strong answer should evaluate interviews specifically for researching pupil identities, not simply describe general advantages and disadvantages of interviews.
Indicative content could include:
pupil identity involves meanings and interpretations, so interviews may allow pupils to explain how they understand their educational experiences
this may make interviews particularly relevant to an interpretivist approach
researchers can collect primary data designed specifically around pupil identity
pupils may provide detailed accounts of relationships, experiences and their position within education
interviews can reveal differences between pupils' interpretations
interview evidence represents participants' accounts rather than direct evidence of every educational process affecting identity
observation could provide different evidence about interaction within pupil groups or between pupils and teachers
practical considerations affect whether appropriate pupils can be included and whether the interviews can be conducted effectively in the educational context
ethical considerations arise because the research concerns pupils' identities, experiences and relationships
the usefulness of the method depends on whether the researcher's main aim is to understand meanings or identify broader patterns
the theoretical position of the sociologist may influence how useful they regard interview evidence.
A high-level response should continually connect the method to pupil identity, develop practical, ethical and theoretical analysis and make a reasoned judgement.
A suitable conclusion might argue that interviews are particularly useful when the research aims to understand how pupils interpret their own identities and educational experiences. However, interviews may be less sufficient on their own where the sociologist wants evidence about the broader social patterns or interactions through which those identities are formed.
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