The UK Data Service now offers new open access teaching datasets from the British Social Attitudes survey. Each dataset, developed with NatCen Social Research, is designed to make teaching with data easier by making teaching data accessible and engaging. The open licence allows instructors and students to access data without registering with the Service and the topics included allow students to explore attitudes to the environment, politics and poverty.
The British Social Attitudes Survey
The British Social Attitudes survey has run nearly every year since 1983 exploring changing attitudes to many topics. Annual reports allow students to explore how attitudes to these topics have changed over time.
The British Social Attitudes Survey 2017: Environment and Politics: Open Access Teaching Dataset has been created from the original British Social Attitudes Survey, 2017 , which interviewed 3,988 adults aged 18 and over. It has been adapted for teaching with 25 variables on the theme of attitudes towards the environment and politics. Topics covered include:
- Views about climate change and actions related to the environment (car use, air travel, taxation).
- Interest in politics.
- Voting behaviour and party identification.
- Attitude scales – left-right ideology and libertarian-authoritarian scale.
- Demographic variables.
We have also put together some brief instructor notes with ideas for teaching different topics and methods.
In addition to the 2017 Survey, the UK Data Service also offers the British Social Attitudes Survey 2019: Attitudes to Welfare and Poverty: Open Access Teaching Dataset. This teaching dataset has been created from the original British Social Attitudes Survey, 2019 , which interviewed 3,224 adults aged 18 and over. It has been adapted for teaching with 26 variables on the theme of attitudes towards welfare and poverty. These include:
- views about poverty
- interest in politics and party identification
- trust
- government spending
- attitude scales: left-right ideology, libertarian and authoritarian scale and welfarism scale
- demographic variables.
Again there are also some brief instructor notes with ideas for teaching different topics and methods.
Other teaching datasets from recent UK surveys
In our collection, you can also find many more teaching datasets:
National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, 2010-2012: Teaching Dataset
The dataset includes data from the full sample in the original study with a reduced number of variables, a student-friendly user guide and a new continuous measure of sexual attitudes.
National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, 2010-2012: Open Access Teaching Dataset
The data includes 20 variables and a subset of cases. The dataset is accessible for teaching via an open data licence, which means instructors and learners do not need to register with the UK Data Service. Topics in the data include:
English Housing Survey, 2018-2019: Household Data Teaching Dataset
A household level dataset with 32 variables covering demographic details, housing characteristics and household characteristics.
Quarterly Labour Force Survey, July – September 2018: Teaching Dataset
Individual level data for respondents aged 16 to 65 years. The dataset includes 53 variables covering socio-demographics, employment, housing tenure, education, and health.
Crime Survey for England and Wales, 2017-2018: Teaching Dataset
A dataset with 114 variables covering demographic details, perceptions of crime. We have increased the number of continuous variables by deriving new variables with factor scores relating to worry about crime, effectiveness and fairness of Criminal Justice System and confidence in police.