The Written Paragraphs about Choosing a Sample

First, I have to decide what I mean by the local area. I would choose a part of the local town or city, as a sample of girls to interview and collect qualitative data will have to be quite small. If I use a larger area, I will have a larger target population.

There is a sampling frame of young people aged 15-18, although it is not completely representative. The local authority will have a list of people who are still in education. This is my target population. If I choose older people (18 or over) I will only have access to those who have registered to voew. I have chosen this sampling frame because it is representative of most young people in this age group, and because I can choose a sample to which I can gain access through schools or colleges.

I will need to use multi-stage sampling here: first, I will need to choose a sample of schools and colleges, and then a sample of pupils inside those schools/colleges. I am going to choose 4 schools with different characteristics to try to make sure that I interview different sorts of girls - from different classes, with different levels of achievement and different ethnicities. This is important because these factors may affect whether they take part in informal music-making. For example, white middle class girls may be more likely to join a drama group or a band than Muslim girls. I am going to choose schools with different characteristics to try to get different sorts of girls, because there are public records of achievement and ethnicity. To cover different social classes, I will choose schools in different areas.

To gain access to the schools I choose, I will have to go through a gatekeeper - the Head, who will make arrangements for me to interview girls and will have a list of all pupils. The Head will negotiate with any teachers necessary and can put me in touch with parents if I need their permission. I will use a systematic sample of pupils because this is easy to choose. I will choose fifth year pupils, as all 15 year olds are still in education, and this will make my sample more representative. I do not need to stratify my sample, as I have already chosen different types of school. In each school I will interview 10 girls, and will try to do this in the lunch hour in a quiet place.