Find a dataset

Use this catalogue of Education and Social Work datasets available for secondary data analysis.

This catalogue was created for postgraduate Education and Social Work students in the hope of reducing the time-consuming and stressful ethics and data collection processes in a context where time to complete a qualification is limited.

Masters and honours students, especially, will find the resources here an opportunity to focus more quickly on theory, analysis, and interpretation.

How to use the catalogue:

The Excel spreadsheet below is a searchable digital catalogue. We recommend you read the data dictionary (also below) first, as it provides descriptive information about each column or variable in the catalogue. It also supplies supplementary information on some of the databases. The spreadsheet has 4 sheets:

1. Data sets (n=104) that are fully open access or only require a simple registration (what we call partially restricted).

2. Data sets (n=173) that only provide summary data rather than full item or case information.

3. Data sets (n=72) that are restricted to qualified researchers. Note we have not attempted to register for these sources, but it seems research supervisors should be able to access them.

4. Data sets (n=10) that are highly restricted (usually research academics, not students) and which have complex qualification restrictions. We have not attempted to access these but your supervisor may consider these are essential and will have to help you access them.

Please note: This catalogue attempts to show databases which capture the diversity of educational and social work research areas. Despite the curator's best efforts, most of the social work databases are either economic or health related. The educational data is dominated by international large-scale assessments or tests.

These limitations are a reflection of the data that tends to be released for secondary data analysis. By no means should it be taken that other types of social work data or knowledge are less important or valid.

This data set was created during the summer of 2020-21 by a University of Auckland Summer Scholar (Eddy Grant) supervised by Prof. Gavin Brown and Dr. Kane Meissel. Please note that the URL links were correct at the time of creation, but things can change. If you find a broken link, please let Gavin (gt.brown@auckland.ac.nz) know.