Pitfalls and promises: The use of secondary data analysis in educational research

British Journal of Educational Studies

Volumn 56, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 323-339

  Smith, Emma ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Educational research; Political arithmetic; Research methods; Secondary data analysis

Indexed keywords

EID: 50249178182     PISSN: 00071005     EISSN: 14678527     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8527.2008.00405.x     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. BERLINER, D.C. (2002) Educational research: the hardest science of all, Educational Researcher, 31 (8 18 20.
2. BOOTH, C. (1886) Occupations of the people of the United Kingdom 1801-1881, Journal of the Statistical Society of London, 49 (2 314 444.
3. BULMER, M. (1979) Introduction. In M. BULMER (Ed.) Censuses, Surveys and Privacy (London, Macmillan).
4. BULMER, M. (1980) Why don't sociologists make more use of Official Statistics? Sociology, 14 (4 505 524.
5. BURKHARDT, H. SCHOENFELD, A.H. (2003) Improving educational research: toward a more useful, more influential and better-funded enterprise, Educational Researcher, 32 (9 3 14.
6. CAMPBELL, J.P., DAFT, R.L. HULIN, C.L. (1982) What to Study: Generating and Developing Research Questions (Beverley Hills, Sage).
7. COOK, T.D. (1974) The potential and limitations of secondary evaluations. In M.W. APPLE, M.J. SUBKOVIAK H.S. LUFLER (Eds) Educational Evaluation: Analysis and Responsibility (California, McCutchan).
8. CUTLER, S.J. (1978) Instructional uses of the general social surveys, Contemporary Sociology, 7 (5 541 545.
9. DALE, A., ARBER, S. PROCTER, M. (1988) Doing Secondary Analysis (London, Unwin Hyman).
10. DORLING, D. SIMPSON, S. (1993) Those missing millions: implications for social statistics of undercount in the 1991 Census, Radical Statistics, 55, 14 35.
11. EISENHART, M. TOWN, L. (2003) Contestation and change in national policy on 'scientifically based' education research, Educational Researcher, 32 (7 31 38.
12. ESRC (2006) Economic and Social Research Council Delivery Plan 2006. Available at http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Images/ ESRC_Delivery_Plan_06_tcm6-15443.pdf (accessed April 2007).
13. FEUER, M.J., TOWNE, L. SHAVELSON, R.J. (2002) Scientific culture and educational research, Educational Researcher, 31 (8 4 14.
14. GLASER, B.G. (1962) Secondary analysis: a strategy for the use of knowledge from research elsewhere, Social Problems, 10, 70 74.
15. GLASER, B.G. (1963) Retreading research materials: the use of secondary analysis by the independent researcher, The American Behavioural Scientist, 6 (10 11 14.
16. GLASS, D.V. (1950) The application of social research, British Journal of Sociology, 1 (1 17 30.
17. GLASS, G.V. (1976) Primary, secondary and meta-analysis of research, Educational Researcher, 5 (10 3 8.
18. GOLDTHORPE, J.H., LLEWELLYN, C. PAYNE, C. (1980) Social Mobility and Class Structure in Modern Britain (Oxford, Clarendon Press).
19. GORARD, S. (2002) The role of secondary data in combining methodological approaches, Educational Review, 54 (3 231 237.
20. GORARD, S. (2005) Academies as the 'future of schooling': is this an evidence-based policy? Journal of Education Policy, 20 (3 369 377.
21. GORARD, S. SMITH, E. (2004) An international comparison of equity in education systems, Comparative Education, 40 (1 15 28.
22. GORARD, S. with TAYLOR, C. (2004) Combining Methods in Educational and Social Research (Maidenhead, Open University Press).
23. GORARD, S. REES, G. SALISBURY, J. (1999) Reappraising the apparent underachievement of boys at school, Gender and Education, 11 (4 441 454.
24. GORARD, S., TAYLOR, C., RUSHFORTH, K. SMITH, E. (2003) What is the Research Capacity of the UK Education Research Community? Reconsidering the Shortage of Quantitative Skills Phenomenon, Occasional Paper Series, Paper 56 (Cardiff, Cardiff University School of Social Sciences).
25. GORARD, S., SEE, B.H., SMITH, E. WHITE, P. (2006) Teacher Supply: the Key Issues Workforce (London, Continuum).
26. HAKIM, C. (1982) Secondary analysis and the relationship between official and academic social research, Sociology, 16 (1 12 28.
27. HARGREAVES, D.H. (1996) Teaching as a Research-based Profession: Possibilities and Prospects (London, Teacher Training Agency).
28. HARROP, M. (1980) Social research and market research: a critique of a critique, Sociology, 14, 277 281.
29. HEATH, A. (2000) The political arithmetic tradition in the sociology of education, Oxford Review of Education, 26 (3/4 313 331.
30. HOGBEN, L. (1939) Sir William Petty and political arithmetic. In Lancelot Hogben Dangerous Thoughts (London, Allen and Unwin).
31. HUFF, D. (1973) How to Lie with Statistics (London, Pelican Books).
32. HYMAN, H.H. (1972) Secondary Analysis of Sample Surveys: Principles, Procedures and Potentialities, London : John Wiley & Sons.
33. JACOB, H. (1984) Using Published Data: Errors and Remedies (Beverly Hills, Sage).
34. rd edition (Glasgow, Harper Collins).
35. KAESTLE, C.F. (1993) The awful reputation of education research, Educational Researcher, 22 (1 23, 26 31.
36. LAUDER, H., BROWN, P. HALSEY, A.H. (2004) Sociology and political arithmetic: some principles of a new policy science, British Journal of Sociology, 55 (1 3 22.
37. MILES, I. IRVINE, J. (1979) The critique of official statistics. In J. IRVINE, I. MILES J. EVANS (Eds) Demystifying Social Statistics (London, Pluto Press).
38. OLSON, L. VIADERO, D. (2002) Law mandates scientific base for research, Education Week, 21 (1 14 15.
39. NEWTON, P.E. (2005) The public understanding of measurement inaccuracy, British Educational Research Journal, 31 (4 419 442.
40. PAPASOLOMONTOS, C. CHRISTIE, T. (1998) Using national surveys: a review of secondary analysis with special reference to education, Educational Research, 40 (3 295 310.
41. PAYNE, G., WILLIAMS, M. CHAMBERLAIN, S. (2004) Methodological pluralism in British sociology, Sociology, 38 (1 153 163.
42. POWER, S. REES, G. (2006) Making sense of changing times and changing places: the challenges of the new political arithmetic of education. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Warwick, 6-9 September 2006.
43. REW, L., KONIAK-GRIFFIN, D., LEWIS, M.A., MILES, M. O'SULLIVAN, A. (2000) Secondary data analysis: new perspectives for adolescent research, Nursing Outlook, 48, 223 229.
44. SCHUTT, R.K. (2007) The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Sociology, Volume III (Ed. G. RITZER Oxford, Blackwell).
45. SLAVIN, R.E. (1989) PET and the pendulum: faddism in education and how to stop it, Phi Delta Kappan, 70, 752 758.
46. SLAVIN, R. (2002) Evidence-based educational policies: transforming educational practice and research, Educational Researcher, 31 (7 15 21.
47. SMITH, E. (2005) Analysing Underachievement in Schools (London, Continuum).
48. SMITH, E. (2008) Using Secondary Data in Educational and Social Research (Milton Keynes, Open University Press).
49. SOBAL, J. (1981) Teaching with secondary data, Teaching Sociology, 8 (2 149 170.
50. THOMAS, R. (1996) Statistics as organizational products, Sociological Review Online, 1 (3 1 13. Available online at http://www.socresonline.org.uk/ socresonline/1/3/5.html (accessed June 2007).
51. TOOLEY, J. with DARBY, D. (1998) Educational Research: A Critique (London, Office for Standards in Education).
52. VULLIAMY, G. WEBB, R. (2001) The social construction of school exclusion rates: implications for evaluation methodology, Educational Studies, 27 (3 358 370.
53. WILES, P. (2004) Policy and sociology, British Journal of Sociology, 55 (1 31 34.