‘Giving Voice’ to Students: Using the Internet for Data Collection

Abstract

This article explores the use of a web-based survey as a means of data collection with over 450 adolescents in an American school district with approximately 50 percent visible ethnic minority students. After describing the context of the study, I explore issues related to the ease of data collection, the potential challenges and promise of the web-based format, and the quantity and quality of data collected. I demonstrate that the data collected were extremely rich, and that students appeared to be more comfortable with the electronic data collection than with an in-person interview. Moreover, the inherent issues of power differential related to race, class, and position may be overcome using this strategy for data collection.