week 24 - Ethics and Research

'All social research (whether using surveys, documents, interviews, observation, or computer-mediated communication) gives rise to a range of ethical issues around privacy, informed consent, anonymity, secrecy, being truthful and the desirability of the research’ (Blaxter, L., Hughes, C., Tight, M. 2001, How to Research (2nd edn.), Oxford, UK: OUP.)

While as a teacher-researcher (undertaking research in your own classroom or school) you are not required to go through any formal ethics process, it is still critical that you think about the ethical implications of your research.

Research ethics are important for:

• Protecting others (particularly the participants in your study) and minimising harm
• Ensuring trust from those we work with
• Promoting integrity of the research
• Reconciling the responsibilities to participants, research and other communities involved

The British Educational Research Association (BERA) states that all education research should be conducted within an ethic of respect for:

• The person
• Knowledge
• Democratic values
• The quality of educational research
• Academic freedom

The key principles of research ethics are:

• Voluntary informed consent. That is participants have the right to opt in and opt out of the research and may not be forced or coerced into participating. Issues of consent are particularly important when working with children and generally require more rigorous consent procedures (often including a parent or guardian giving consent on behalf of the child).
• Avoid deception. The aims and nature of the research must be clearly and accurately articulated to those involved.
• The right to withdraw. All participants must have the right to withdraw from a study at any stage. If a participant withdraws, none of the data previously collected on them can be included.
• Avoid detriment to participants.
• Respect Privacy. This often includes ensuring anonymity for participants.
• Consider disclosure.
• Aim to debrief participants.

Ethics in your own work

Miles and Huberman (1994) suggest that to mitigate ethical issues it is not only necessary to follow the ethical guidelines of your particular institution but also to consider why the study is worth doing and how it will contribute in some significant way to the broader domain. Tracy (2010) further advocates ensuring the worthiness of the topic of study and considering the significance of the contribution it will make to the research field or to practice.

Therefore, when planning any inquiry projects in your own practice it is helpful to think carefully about the purpose of your inquiry. Think about what your research might be able to contribute and to whom, and also how you will disseminate and share the findings of your research.

Further Information

For further information on research ethics have a look at the BERA Guidelines uploaded to the portal as well as the following websites:

British Educational Research Association (BERA) https://www.bera.ac.uk/researchers-resources/resources-for-researchers

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/about-esrc/information/framework-for-research-ethics/

Tasks for this week

1. Read the class note on ethics and research.

2. Two readings have been uploaded to the platform, each focusing on a different approach to research in education.

Improvement Science: The Carnegie Foundation has been involved in developing a new form of research in education called improvement science. For more information on Improvement Science have a look at the Carnegie Foundation website:http://www.carnegiefoundation.org

Shonkoff’s Three Cultures: Shonkoff is a researcher in child development at Harvard University. He is interested in how research knowledge, what he terms science, can better inform policy and practice. He suggests the development of three knowledge typologies:

i). Established knowledge – the types of validated knowledge established by researchers in academic settings.

ii). Reasonable hypotheses – knowledge, developed by researchers, practitioners or policy makers, which may not be validated by scientific knowledge but could be used as a basis for responsible action based decision-making.

iii). Unwarranted assertions – these are essentially myths, ideas that are not supported by research and often result from misrepresented or misinterpretation of research.

(The article is also available from: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irpweb/initiatives/trainedu/igrfp/readings05/Shonkoff2000.pdf)

3. If you are interested in research and in particular in becoming more involved in using and undertaking research, Unitec offers several opportunities to you. To find out more about these have a look at the presentation materials uploaded to the portal.

References

Miles, M. and Huberman, A. (1994). An Expanded Sourcebook: Qualitative Data Analysis (2nd edn.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Tracy, S. (2010). Qualitative Quality: Eight ''Big-Tent'' Criteria for Excellent Qualitative Research. Qualitative Researcher, 16 (10) 837–851.