Last Updated on October 21, 2025 by Karl Thompson
Surveys are one of the most common research methods used in education studies. This post explores how and why sociologists use surveys to investigate educational issues, considering practical, ethical, and theoretical strengths and limitations
Both teachers and students will be relatively used to filling in questionnaires as part of providing feedback to improve lessons and school procedures, and they are relatively quick to complete compared to interviews, so they should cause relatively little disruption to the school day.
Practical Factors When Using Surveys in Schools
Surveys are a good choice of method if you wish to collect data from large samples in a short space of time, and because students (when they’re in class) are a ‘captive audience’ this could make this a very time efficient method for researching in schools.
If a researcher can gain access and consent they could, with the co-operation of a head teacher, get hundreds of students to complete the same questionnaire in multiple class in one day, or on smaller scale, a researcher could work with a few teachers to get a slightly smaller sample.
If the researcher puts a survey online, management might give teachers more flexibility when they get their students to complete the survey – say in one tutorial session over a two-week period.
A closed-question questionnaire might be a good method for researching teachers, given their tie constraints.
Parents would be the most difficult group to research using the questionnaire method, as they spend less time in-school, so gaining access to them would be difficult, this would probably have to be done via the school, who could direct parents to questionnaires via newsletters, or may parents evenings could be used by the researcher to administer surveys.
Gaining access when using surveys in education research
Because surveys are relatively quick for respondents to complete and it’s obvious from the outset what questions are being asked (which wouldn’t be the case with interviews), then it should be easy to convince schools to gain access to students, teachers or parents, compared to more intensive qualitative methods.
Theoretical Factors
Representativeness
Schools have ready made lists of students, which would include details of their gender, ethnicity, FSM and SEN status, address (as a proxy of broader class status) and prior educational achievement.
IF a researcher could thus gain access to such a sampling frame, it would be very easy for them to get a representative sample of different students, or to select only one type of student (all boys for example), depending on the purpose of their research.
However, getting access to such a list with all of the above details may not be possible because of GDPR (data protection) issues, unless researchers work with school staff who select a representative sample on their behalf.
Response rate
Biased samples might mean a low response rate for some types of respondent
Questionnaire research might suffer from selection bias – pro-school pupils are much more likely to take them seriously, but more rebellious students who do not like authority might either not fill in a questionnaire or deliberately lie out of spite against the system.
Working-class parents might be less willing to fill in a questionnaire truthfully about their parenting practices, whereas for middle-class parents this would be more a positive affirmation of their ‘good parenting’
Non-native English speakers might not be able to understand the questions if the questionnaire is not in English. Although today there might well be programmes online that can translate online questionnaires.
Validity
Because questions are written in advance, this does not allow for an in-depth exploration of respondents’ thoughts and feelings, hence validity may be limited for some topics.
Researchers also must be careful that concepts (such as cultural capital) are operationalised in such a way that children (especially young children) can understand them.
As mentioned above, the formal nature of questionnaires may not yield valid data from rebellious students – and the more formal and more test-like the conditions of completing a questionnaire, the more likely this is to be the case.
Reliability and making comparisons
Questionnaires do allow for excellent reliability, which is useful if findings are to be used to inform educational policy – it allows the research to be scaled up and generalised to more areas easily.
This is also a good method for exploring differences between students from different social class, ethnic backgrounds, as well as gender differences, which is a huge topic in the sociology of education
Ethical issues and questionnaires
A big strength of questionnaires is that it is easy to make them anonymous and so to keep pupil, teacher and parent data confidential, so they’re good for exploring sensitive topics.
🧠 Strengths and Limitations of Using Surveys in Education Research
| Category | Strengths | Limitations |
|---|---|---|
| Practical | • Can collect data from large numbers of students, teachers, or parents quickly and cheaply. • Easy to distribute (online, paper, or via schools). • Enables comparison between schools or social groups. | • Low response rates or incomplete questionnaires reduce representativeness. • Questions may be misunderstood, especially by younger pupils. • Limited opportunity for follow-up or clarification. |
| Theoretical | • Favoured by positivists who value objectivity, reliability, and quantifiable data. • Produces data suitable for identifying patterns and correlations in education (e.g. between gender and achievement). | • Criticised by interpretivists for lacking depth and validity. • Does not capture the meanings or experiences behind pupil behaviour or teacher attitudes. • Responses may be influenced by social desirability bias. |
| Ethical | • Usually low-risk and non-intrusive — participants can remain anonymous. • Informed consent can easily be obtained. | • Must take care with vulnerable groups (e.g. minors in schools). • Issues of confidentiality if asking about sensitive topics (e.g. bullying, teacher relationships). • Need school and parental permission for under-16s. |
📊 Contemporary Examples of Surveys Used in UK Schools
Surveys and questionnaires remain a vital research method for studying education in real school settings. The examples below show how sociologists, government departments, and research organisations use surveys to explore behaviour, technology, and student attitudes in contemporary British schools. These studies illustrate the practical application of survey methods discussed above, helping students connect theory with real-world research.
| Year | Study | Description | Relevance to Education Research |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023–2024 | National Behaviour Survey (Department for Education) | Large-scale survey of teachers, pupils, parents and school leaders exploring behaviour culture, misbehaviour frequency and school policy in England. | Demonstrates how questionnaires can be used to study school climate and behaviour management — gathering perspectives from multiple stakeholders. |
| 2022–2023 | Technology in Schools Survey (Department for Education) | Investigated schools’ use of digital technology, staff confidence, hardware access and cybersecurity practices. | Shows how surveys can assess practical and organisational factors affecting learning and teaching. |
| 2023 | Science Education Tracker (The Royal Society & EngineeringUK) | National survey of secondary school students about their experiences of science education and attitudes to STEM subjects. | Illustrates how questionnaires can explore student attitudes and engagement with school subjects. |
These recent studies highlight how surveys can generate valuable large-scale data on issues such as behaviour, technology use and student attitudes. They show that questionnaires are especially useful for collecting information from many respondents quickly and at relatively low cost — making them ideal for government and educational research. However, they also reveal some of the method’s limitations: response bias, lack of depth, and the difficulty of understanding the meanings behind students’ answers. These are important considerations when evaluating the practical, ethical and theoretical factors influencing the use of surveys in education research.
Signposting
Before considering how you might use surveys in education research, you should be familiar with the basics of this quantitative method, and the general strengths and limitations of social surveys too.
For how to apply this material in the exam you might also like this example of a methods in question context which got 18/20.
This material is mainly relevant to the research methods aspect of A level sociology