The philosophy behind sampling in educational research

Muleke Paul¹, Mwangu Alex Ronald², Maurice Tamale B³, Nalule Rebecca⁴

[1] Lecturer Department of Arts Education, School of Education, Bugema University –Uganda

2 PhD Student, School of Education, Makerere University

3 Lecturer, Department of Humanities and Language Education, School of Education, Makerere University

⁴Lecturer Department of Mathematics, Busitema University

*Corresponding author Email: pmuleke@yahoo.com

Accepted 02 July, 2013

Abstract

The article lays emphasis on incorporating sampling techniques in a research work in order to save money and other resources. In many cases, a researcher is unable to cover the whole population of interest in which case, a sample that is part of the population is taken. When a researcher uses only part of a given population, we refer to the study as a sample survey and in the case where a researcher uses the whole population in a given research; we say that researcher is carrying out a ‘census’ or mass survey. The purpose of this article is to guide researchers understand the philosophy behind sampling in educational research.

Keywords: Philosophy, Sampling, Educational research, Population