Hitchcock, G. and D. Hughes (1995). Research and the Teacher: A Qualitative Introduction to School-based Research.

Chapter 3: Access, ethics, and school-based research
Mary Beth LeFaivre
April 30, 2009
The chapter begins by looking at access issues in teacher research and what concerns need to be addressed before a research study commences, in the research design phase. Given the hierarchy and politics in school structures, the researcher will need to gain permission from the school site administrator early on. And by nature of action research, the work is likely to be conducted a context in which the teacher-researcher currently practices, causing potential areas of conflict that should be addressed explicitly, such as the goal and purpose of the research, confidentiality of the research subjects, and how the data will be collected and used. These concerns are particularly salient when a sponsor or researcher is involved, when outside pressures (e.g., management), or gatekeepers might create tensions and prevent the researcher from working independently, which would lead to more open outcomes. Skeggs (1992) illustrates the social dimension of access by example of how a decision-maker's moral beliefs about sexuality and gender were operationalized and enforced when supported by the power of an institution.

Qualitative research gives rise to ethical issues. It is impossible for the teacher-researcher to hold a "value free" perspective when engaged in thick descriptions of the values, ideas, beliefs, and practices of the subjects. Hitchcock and Hughes make the point that ethical and methodological issues are linked in qualitative research, especially in teacher research where the teacher is likely part of the situation being studied. An important part of qualitative research is effective field relations - trust, confidence, and relations between the subject and the researcher. The teacher has a dual role as researcher and informant at the same time; it's hard to be a 'non-participant observer' and 'participant observer' in your own classroom/practice. Covert roles are possible, but an open approach is recommended.

In the aims of the researcher to protect the anonymity and privacy of research subjects, and to maintain value-free judgements, professional associations have developed ethical rules and standards for school-based research, such as the British Sociological Association. On the other hand, Feminist researchers do include value judgements in their work, as they are concerned with a feminist ethic in qualitative research and seek to use research as tool for women's empowerment. (See Chisholm, 1990 for feminist critique of action research.)

The last section of this chapter raises the issue of objectivity in social science given the observer-researcher's beliefs, values, history, and sociocultural context. Positivism is a view that theories or claims can only be verified by true facts. Objectivity is the goal and criteria for good research. "This is the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake" however its power can be limited as demonstrated in Project Camelot in the early 60s when the intentions of the sponsor (in this case the US army) run counter to that of the researcher. Max Weber argues that values cannot be derived facts because "'ultimate evaluations' were so important, they were not to be reduced to purely factual judgement.'" In other words, Weber upheld the researcher and his/her ability to give meaning to facts. This view of 'absolute freedom of the researcher to pursue one's activities as fit' was called the enlightenment model. Critics thought this position was nieve to the inherent social and political power in the society. Alternatively, the phenomenological and interpretive position values the subjective experience, and is dedicated to documenting "how individuals and groups of individuals define and perceive their worlds". The positivists' preference for surveys and structured interviews are limiting in the type of information collected and might be more prone to bias in the design. Gouldner (1968) encourages researchers to reject the notion of moral neutrality or "ombudsman sociology", and be honest and forthright on their values, assumptions, and frame of reference in the research.

Soltis (1989) offers examples of ethical problems that arise in four areas of qualitative research:
Soltis argues the central ethical question is how you know, and establish either.


Jeremy Szteiter
April 6, 2008

Chapter 5:
Main themes:
-use of a continual "dialogue" cycle, both internally, and with others
-be aware of "biases" in several standard computer-based research approaches (skewed toward North American research, resources that are lesser quality)
-substantive,methodological,theoretical, key author types of lit. reviews
-validity,reliability,representativeness - are these sufficiently appropriate for qualitative research, where small samples and personal interactions are important?
-validity - match between measurements, what is reported to be measured (descriptive, explanatory, instrument)
-reliability - can research results be replicated?
-representativeness - has sampling been done appropriately and sufficiently? do the research participants represent the population? are participants archtypes of the population?
New insights:
-consider research question in terms of "fit" with research methology
-refer to "Frame-work for a critique of a research paper (p.94) for a list of ways to evaluate own paper
-give consideration to the eventual audience of the AR; what is helpful/useful/novel to the audience?
Remaining questions:
-What is a "Feminist" research design?
-Tension: whether to collect data first in way that is unbiased as possible, or form theory along side of data collection as a way to improve both.
Applications to own project:
-think about "levels" of reflection during own journaling and notetaking during my AR - am I reflecting on the process? on my feelings? on my assumptions? on my expectations?
-in a small scale, consider that I am using a small sample size, and so the scope of interest may be small