For this assignment, you will analyse data for a qualitative research study and prepare a 3000-word study report. Each week, you will be guided through the steps you need to take to complete your report.
The assessment gives you the opportunity to explore an area of human development through the lifespan in detail, whilst gaining important qualitative research skills.
The data for the qualitative study have already been collected and comprise essays written by school leavers living on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent in 1978. The 141 original essays were collected as part of a broader ethnographic study of life on the island, which cumulatively built a complex picture of island life at the time (Pahl, 2012). In terms of methodology, Pahl (1978) asked teachers at a comprehensive school on the Isle of Sheppey to set an essay for those students taking English lessons just before they left school. The young people were asked to imagine they were close to the end of their life, and to think back to the time when they left school, then write an essay describing their life over the next 30-40 years. Thus, the students’ essays offer a unique insight into the aspirations and hopes of young people living on the island during the late 70s. Students’ original essays were anonymised, and later transcribed into a digital format.
