Ethical Issues In Research Ethics

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Behi and Nolan (1995, p. 712) said that “ethical considerations influence and relate to many aspects of the research process and help researchers to decide whether a field of study or a specific investigation is ethically acceptable”. Since the research will be qualitative and action research, there are certain ethics that I will need to adopt in order for my research to be an authentic and valid one as well as make my research ethically acceptable to the school, my participants, the teachers and also for my degree. When using the qualitative method, I need to be confident about the quality of the data, its interpretation and then the data will be to generalise research findings. Guba and Lincoln (1989) in order to “judge the trustworthiness…show more content…
Since my participants will be Grade 10 students (16 year old students), I will have to take into consideration the ethical implications which protects underage participants while using the qualitative approach for my research. Finch (1985, pp.116-117) also agrees with me saying that there are ethical issues which might come up from how the data collected are used by the researcher and towards the trust that the participants have place in the researcher to use those valuable data appropriately and in the interest of the participants. Many researchers (Moody, 1990; Morse, 1991; Polit and Hungler, 1991; Howe and Moses; 1999) have discussed about the ethical issues related to it, one of which involves the violation of human rights. Consequently, I must guarantee that my participants’ data collected from the participants will be kept confidential, anonymous and the research will be done through informed consent to the school and the parents of the participants and voluntary participation on the part of the students. Researches undertaken by professionals (Couchman and Dawson, 1990; Polit and Hungler, 1991) have shown that informed consent is the right of every participant who is going to be part in the research process and there are some criteria to be followed for it as it requires the prospective…show more content…
Through an informed consent, the participants are given the opportunity of weigh the benefits and the risks related with participating in the research and it is up to them to decide whether to be part of the research or not. In this way, their autonomy is protected. The informed consent allows parents to be involved in the research as it is through their approval that their children can take part in the research as the children are in a compromising position to be able to make their own decisions. In doing so, I need to assure the privacy of the data to be collected to the parents concerned in order to preserve the anonymity of the participants. It is to be noted that permission from the rector, through an official letter, also needs to be sought for me be able to conduct the research as the school is a government establishment and the resources that I will be using is found in the school premises (participants, classrooms, computer room, and other

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