Research Ethics in Second Language Education

Universal Principles, Local Practices

Roger Barnard, Yi Wang, Roger Barnard, Yi Wang

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000337471
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Research in Education

This book makes a fresh contribution to the field of research ethics by considering research issues through relatable autobiographical narratives. The book's core offers narratives by novice second language education researchers who are completing PhD degrees using data from international research participants. These narratives expose challenges regarding the ethical identity of researchers working across diverse value and belief systems. The narrative chapters are followed by four chapters of commentaries from a line-up of international scholars with various academic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds.

The case study approach reports the experiences and reflections of research students before, during, and after the data collection phase of their projects, and offers insights into the recruitment of participants; acquiring and maintaining access; interpretations of the notion of informed consent; incentivising participants; the implications of ensuring anonymity and confidentiality; the right to withdraw participation and data; the positioning of the researcher as insider or outsider; potential conflicts of interest; the potential harm to participants and researcher; and the dissemination of findings.

This practical and relatable book is aimed at research students and their supervisors in fields such as applied linguistics and education, as well as those following methods courses, to help illustrate the ethical challenges faced by researchers in the process of collecting qualitative data.

1
ORAL CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK

Ethical issues in researching Vietnamese lecturers’ beliefs and practices

Huong Thi Nguyen

Introduction

The study on which this chapter was based focused on teachers’ beliefs and their practices in giving oral corrective feedback (OCF) in a blended learning environment in the Vietnamese university where I was, and still am, employed as a lecturer. Blended learning is an innovation recently introduced throughout the university and has been operationalised as a combination of structured online language learning and face-to-face interaction intended to practise and consolidate the new learning. The lecturers were expected to spend little or no time in class teaching language knowledge and skills and more time improving communicative competence with their students. This was a radical shift of learner and teacher roles, as previously the teachers spent much classroom time explicitly teaching language patterns and developing relevant skills. Each of the participants in my study was involved in the following data collection procedures: an initial semi-structured interview; three 90-minute classroom observations; three post lesson discussions (PLDs) following each of the observed lessons; a focus group discussion at the end of the data collection period; and the completion of a narrative frame at the end of the researcher’s fieldwork.

In the three sections which follow, I have adapted Farrell’s (2013) cycle of reflective practice to form the basis of the research journal I maintained throughout my research project. The first section, ‘Reflection for Action’, presents and discusses extracts from the journal before I started my fieldwork. The second, ‘Reflection in Action’, includes narratives of ethical events that I experienced in the fieldwork. The third, ‘Reflection on Action’, is composed of my thoughts about the ethics-related experiences after I had collected the data.

Reflection for action

The following reflections were prompted by the requirements of my study university’s Human Research Ethics Committee pro forma, which I needed to complete for ethical approval of my research project. However, I was aware that the macroethical principles and procedures articulated in the university’s regulations would need to be reconsidered in the field to deal with the microethical “every day ethical dilemmas that arise from the specific roles and responsibilities that researchers and research participants adopt in specific research contexts” (De Costa, 2015, p. 246). Thus, having read the advice given by Rallis and Rossman (2009, p. 270), I realised that I needed to be “vigilant and thoughtful” regarding ethical issues throughout the entire research cycle.

Gaining access: Gatekeepers

“Identifying a gatekeeper at a research site and winning his or her support and trust may take time. You may be required to submit written information about the project in order to proceed” (Creswell, 2005, p. 209). However, I did not anticipate any problems with this as I was in receipt of a scholarship and study leave from the university to conduct my PhD project there. However, I followed Creswell’s advice and made the following entry in my journal:

When I return to Vietnam, I will make personal contact with the Dean of the Faculty where my research is to take place. I will mention the purposes and activities of my study and ask for his permission and support as well as his signature on the information letter. Once the Dean’s approval has been gained, I will ask for his signature on the information letter. Finally, I will meet the Rector with the signed letter from the Dean and the Head and ask for his approval and signature in the information letter.

(21/12/15)

Recruiting participants and informed consent

According to Cohen et al. (2007), gaining the informed consent of participants is crucial for the ethical conduct of research, and De Costa (2015) has pointed out that it is necessary for consent forms to be easy to understand. Thus, I translated an information letter and consent form into Vietnamese because, although the lecturers were all experienced teachers of English, I wanted to make sure they could understand the research purpose and activities thoroughly before they made a decision to join.

This was my plan to gain informed consent from the lecturers after they had received and read the letters and consent forms:

I will meet lecturers in a faculty staff meeting or via personally arranged appointments to talk about my research intent and invite them to participate in the project. Potential lecturer participants will have opportunities to ask any further questions about their involvement in the research. The expected number is six to ten full-time lecturers teaching second-year students. If the number of lecturers is lower than my expectation, I will recruit from two other faculties.

(22/01/15)

However, although gaining the consent of students – as well as teachers – was stipulated in the ethical regulations, I knew I did not have to do this for my research:

Each participant will need to inform students about the presence of the researcher in the class; however, it is not necessary to gain their formal consent as, in Vietnam, teachers are traditionally regarded as in loco parentis. If students are aware that their teachers have allowed the researcher to become the observer of the class, they will take it for granted.

(22/01/15)

My role as insider

Breen (2007) defined insider researchers as those who choose to study a group to which they belong, and this certainly applied to me as an English language lecturer in the faculty. As has been pointed out, being a cultural insider has a number of advantages, such as speaking the same language and knowing how to best approach people (Bonner & Tolhurst, 2002; Coghlan, 2003; Herrmann, 1989; Tedlock, 2000). Furthermore, being also an institutional insider meant that I was very familiar with the policies, customs, and practices of the university setting of my research, as well as my colleagues, some of whom would be research participants.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Endorsement Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Notes on the Editors and Contributors
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Prologue
• Chapter 1: Oral Corrective Feedback
• Chapter 2: Academic-Related Brokering Practices Among International Students
• Chapter 3: Ethical Challenges in Conducting an Action Research Project
• Chapter 4: Ethical Issues in Researching Peer Observation of Language Lecturers in a University in Pakistan
• Chapter 5: Language, Identity, Culture, and Ethics
• Chapter 6: Research Ethics From a Malay–Muslim Perspective
• Chapter 7: Research Ethics From the Viewpoint of a Japanese Qualitative Researcher
• Chapter 8: Engaging with Ethical Research Practices in China
• Chapter 9: Justice and Educational Research
• Afterword
• Index