The Role of Participants in Education Research

Ethics, Epistemologies, and Methods

Warren Midgley, Patrick Alan Danaher, Margaret Baguley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136154430
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildungstheorie & -praxis

This book explores different perspectives on the role, influence and importance of participants in education research. Drawing on a variety of philosophical, theoretical and methodological approaches, the book examines how researchers relate to and with their participants before, during, and after the collection and/or production of data; reimagining the rights of participants, the role/s of participants, the concept/s of "participant" itself.

1 Imagining and Reimagining the Role of Participants in Education Research

Ethics, Epistemologies, and Methods

Patrick Alan Danaher, Margaret Baguley, Warren Midgley

INTRODUCTION

The ethics and politics of education research have long been recognized as a crucial dimension of the research enterprise (McNamee & Bridges, 2002; Simons & Usher, 2000). Yet, despite some specific earlier accounts (Bridges, 2002), an explicit focus on education research participants has emerged only relatively recently as a distinct and distinctive scholarly field in its own right. This and the subsequent chapters are intended to contribute to the enduringly significant task of analyzing current imaginings, and of promoting hopefully sustainable and transformative reimaginings, of the multiple roles of participants in contemporary education research.

Not surprisingly, much of the scholarship directed at participants in education research (with that domain being understood broadly and inclusively) has focused on individuals and groups who have been variously identified as members of communities that are marginalized and/or at risk of control or exploitation. These communities have ranged from ethnic minorities (Bishop, 2011) to children (Aldridge, 2012; Gallacher & Gallagher, 2008; Powell & Smith, 2009) to school “drop-outs” (Simmons, 2007) to vulnerable adolescents and youth (Peck, Roeser, Zarrett, & Eccles, 2008; Schwartz, 2011) to nursing patients (Cook, 2012; Mosavel & Simon, 2010) to nursing students (Bradbury-Jones & Alcock, 2010; Ridley, 2009).

Against the backdrop of these and other studies, this chapter delineates some of the contours of the field to which the book seeks to add selected foci and understandings. The chapter consists of three sections:

• Possible approaches to defining, conceptualizing, and constructing education research participants
• Ethics, epistemologies, and methods in (re)imagining education research participants
• Outlining the book's organizing questions, structure, and intended contributions to (re)imagining the role of participants in education research

DEFINING, CONCEPTUALIZING, AND CONSTRUCTING EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS

When commonly asked to define something in everyday conversation, we are expected to explain the meaning of the word or term being used in language that is not jargonistic, obscure, or complex. When we begin to conceptualize, however, we enter the first stage of being able to represent knowledge, either explicitly or implicitly, by using an abstract simplification of objects or concepts. From this process emerges construction, from which images, ideas, and/or theories begin to formulate to make meaning out of complex understandings.

An essential part of this process is the participant, who, in order to define, conceptualize, and construct to make meaning, has moved through important stages in her or his cognitive processes, commonly described as higher-order thinking skills. Bloom's Taxonomy (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956; Krathwohl, Bloom, & Masia, 1964) provides an important overview of the stages involved as people progress through knowledge and comprehension (defining), and then toward more complex and abstract states that include analysis, application, synthesis, and creation/evaluation (conceptualization/construction). High-quality research also follows this trajectory and provides important insights, using a range of methodologies, into issues and topics across a number of disciplines. Data are collected and often this stage involves participants who are an essential element of the research project.

In research, the ways in which participants are defined, conceptualized, and constructed are often contested and can be problematic, particularly if certain protocols are not followed. In order to provide consistency in the treatment of participants, many government-funded institutions abide by and implement ethical regulations in relation to research being undertaken, with training often being obligatory for researchers. In addition to ensuring the integrity of the research outcomes, ethical standards in research provide important guidelines for the behavior of researchers, especially in relation to participants who may be involved. If ethical standards are not maintained, significant emotional, physical, financial, and/or psychological harm may affect participants, researchers, and their institutions.

There are two cases that precipitated and later informed the conversation around research participants. One of these was the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study sponsored by the United States Department of Health (1932– 1972). This project studied the effects of untreated syphilis on 400 African American men. The ethical issue in this case was that the researchers withheld treatment even when penicillin became available. In addition, the participants were not informed that they were part of an experiment. The other was the research, including medical experimentation, that Nazi scientists conducted on concentration camp prisoners from 1939 to 1945. Shortly afterward in 1947 the Nuremberg Code for research on human subjects was adopted, with the Allies using this document to convict Nazi scientists of war crimes. The key issue of the voluntary consent of participants was an important aspect to emerge from the Nuremburg Code.

The complex issues regarding participants and their roles in research have been continually defined, conceptualized, and constructed since the writing of the Nuremburg Code. A number of countries have national statements of ethical principles of which researchers need to be aware and by which they must abide. For example, in Australia the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research Involving Humans (Commonwealth of Australia, 1999) contends that “the primary purpose of a statement of ethical principles and associated guidelines for research involving humans is the protection of the welfare and the rights of participants in research” (p. 1). This is an essential and incontestable statement for a democratic society. Interestingly, the definition of participants in this statement includes “not only those humans who are the principal focus of the research endeavour but also those upon whom the research impacts, whether concurrently or retrospectively” (Commonwealth of Australia, 1999, p. 7). This is an important point that emphasizes the impact of research on both individuals and the communities to which they belong.

There are three major principles in the statement that are intrinsically linked to the conceptualization and construction of participants. These include respect for persons and their inherent dignity and rights, including those with diminished autonomy who require protection. The second is beneficence, which is described as maximizing possible benefits and minimizing possible harm including physical harm, psychological or emotional distress, discomfort, and economic or social disadvantage. The final principle is justice, which considers the question of who should bear the cost of the research and who should benefit from it (Commonwealth of Australia, 1999, p. 4).

The statement also reveals the complexity of participants' roles in research, which can range from being a passive subject to being an active co-researcher. This change in the status of participants has been recognized in both the quantity and the diversity of research being undertaken in contemporary society. For example, the researcher can also become a participant in the research process by being centrally involved in the co-construction of knowledge arising from the project. Participants can also be children with their own rights and responsibilities, including providing consent to participate in research. This agentic view of the child sees research as being conducted with children rather than about them, with their voices being an important part of the research (Fasoli, 2001; Sorin, 2003). The reconceptualization of children as participants in research is in parallel with societal changes and understandings underpinned by ethical standards and expectations.

There have also been major developments in research disciplines, with new fields opening up and transdisciplinary areas being created. The increase in and the greater acceptance of qualitative research methodologies, in addition to the accepted and longstanding quantitative approaches, are also evidence of the value that the participants' knowledge, understanding, and expertise have in relation to research. Purely quantitative methods tend not to have the scope to deal with complex, human-centered issues and may inadvertently diminish the participant (Webster & Mertova, 2007). An increased interest in the human story reflects an important philosophical change in research toward participants and, significantly, their constructions of knowledge.

There are many factors that impact on the ways in which participants are viewed in research. However, how they are defined, conceptualized, and constructed relies on researchers' interpretations and applications of their own values, life experiences, and moral codes. Even with the most stringent ethical guidelines, there still continue to be cases where participants are treated in unethical ways. It is essential that participants are valued both in their own right and for the significant contributions that they make to research. Ensuring that ethical principles are followed in research subsequently protects and respects participants and the vital roles that they play. An ethical approach also assists individual researchers in defining, conceptualizing, and constructing the ways that they view research participants and alerts them to the great level of responsibility that they have in this process.

ETHICS, EPISTEMOLOGIES, AND METHODS IN (RE)IMAGINING EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS

Part of this volume's intended contribution to extending current understandings of how participants are defined, conceptualized, and constructed in contemporary education research, and hence an explicit focus of this chapter's account of that intended contribution, clusters around three distinct but closely interrelated concepts: ethics, epistemologies, and methods. These concepts have been selected because separately they are indispensable elements of any education research project and in combination they encapsulate many of the ongoing debates about educational policymaking and provision as well as about broader questions of life, meaning, and purpose in the early 21st century. Discussion of these concepts is illustrated by reference to relevant scholarly literature.

Approaches to education research ethics are inextricably and intimately interrelated with issues pertaining to participants in research projects (Mitchell, 2010). Competing discourses evident in the scholarly literature related to ethics and participants include vulnerability and agency with regard to individuals, groups, and communities (Ross et al., 2010), as well as to undocumented participants such as immigrants (Lahman, Mendoza, Rodriguez, & Schwartz, 2011), contradictory views of the utility and appropriateness of specific ethics review procedures (Chalmers, 2011; Gelling & Munn-Giddings, 2011; Halse, 2011; Moon, 2011; Sikes & Piper, 2010; Taylor, Plaice, & Perley, 2010), ambivalence about the search for knowledge impelling m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Imagining and Reimagining the Role of Participants in Education Research: Ethics, Epistemologies, and Methods
• PART I Ethics
• PART II Epistemologies
• PART III Methods
• Contributors
• Index