Overview

• Minimize risk. In our work, research should be seamlessly folded in to teaching/learning; Ed’ research, especially as it occurs in the classroom, is not product-testing.

• -What risks might participants experience in your work?

• -What will you do to minimize the risks?

Institutional Review Board (IRB)• Every institution where an individual might conduct

research has an IRB committee

• Federal Government reviews IRBs and if finds problems will order cease and desist– All research must be halted until further notice (exceptions

are made for studies that would be harmful to abruptly stop)

– Main goal is to protect the rights of research participants

Harm

• Participants must be protected from harm.• Participants must be fully informed about

potential costs and benefits resulting from any possible harm.

• Research that is physically or psychologically dangerous is considered unethical.

• Care needs to be taken with subjects who are considered powerless.

Harm (cont)

Benefits must outweigh the costs

– How will you minimize harm in your study?

Deception

– Omission: withhold information – Commission: provide false information – Establishing false intimacy: subject feels a high

degree of comfort because he/she does not know is “on the record”

– Using accomplices: someone helping the researcher that the subject doesn’t know is helping

Deception cont.

• Sometimes a degree of deception is necessary– IRB needs to regulate

• When it is, subjects MUST be debriefed after the study– Dehoaxing: researcher convinces (tells) each subject who

was deceived that they were, in fact, deceived– Desensitization: a systematic process of demonstrating

that there was deception• Suggest that behavior was a result of the circumstances• Point out that subjects’ behavior was not abnormal or unusual

Is deception always wrong?

• If its harmless? MTV?• If subjects are debriefed?• If the researcher obtains subjects’ consent to deceive

or conceal? • If the study is very important and well designed?• If deception is the only way important knowledge can

be gained?There is probably not much agreement on answers to

these questions. Values, prior experience, and perspective will determine point-of-view.

Consent

• Informed consent– Subjects must know potential risks, benefits, conditions of

participation, and ability to withdraw without penalty– If consent is not informed, it can be as bad as (or worse than)

not getting consent at all

• Two types– Direct or Substitute (3rd party)– If the person has a legal guardian, need substitute

• When in doubt, ask for permission• Consent should always be obtained in writing & kept.• Whose consent will you need for your study?

Elements of Consent

• Capacity– Ability: individual is competent enough to understand, evaluate,

and make a decision of whether to participate or not– Age: > 18 or emancipated minor

• Information– Is it complete/comprehensive and fully understood?

• Voluntariness– Subjects have the choice to participate or withdraw and are

aware of this choice

Institutional consent if researching in a school (principal/head of school)

Informed Consent: a Checklist

• Information about inquiry and its purposes• Explanation of what participation entails: time

involved, risk, benefits; • Guarantee and description of confidentiality

and anonymity• Contact Information: Yours, mine, (and

possibly, school official’s).

Privacy

• Sensitivity of topic &/or data– Can responses/results affect the subject’s life if

known by others• How public/private is the setting?• Public display of the data– Personally identifiable information should be

removed or changed – de-identificationHow will you ensure your participants’ privacy?

Professionalism

• Cyril Burt– http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/burtaffair.shtml

• Forging– Reason why public presentation of data/results is

important– Trimming: smooth the data (change results for some

subjects or eliminate them altogether)– Cooking: only report findings that are supportive of the

hypothesis

Publishing

• Same results/study should not be submitted/published in more than one place– Dual publication: in more than one place– Partial publication: parts of a single study as if they were

separate studies

• Portions of one publication should not be reprinted in another without permission– Copyright laws are in effect

• Authorship—inclusion and order should be based on contribution

Belmont Reporthttp://www.bop.gov/news/BelmontReport.jsp

Basic Ethical Principles• Respect for Persons– Respect for autonomy– Protection of persons with reduced autonomy

• Beneficence– Maximize benefits and minimize harms or risks

• Justice– Equitable distribution of research costs and

benefits

Beneficence - maximizing benefit, minimizing harm or wrong

• Is the research kind to subjects?• Is the design acceptable?• How can the risks be minimized?• How can the benefits be maximized

• Beneficence: Maximize benefits to all or as many individuals as possible. -What benefits may accrue on account of your work? -To whom? How may you “distribute” benefits?

Types of benefits

• Relationships• Knowledge/education/experience• Material resources• Training opportunity• Opportunity to earn esteem of others• Empowerment• Effective treatment• Equity/justice: If there is a benefit to participation

within research study, it should be equitably distributed to all kinds of people.

Types of risks

• Inconvenience & hassle• Emotional or psychological risk• Social risk• Physical risk• Economic risk• Legal risk

How can you. . .

• How can you ensure that recruitment targets the population that will benefit from the research?

• How can you ensure that recruitment will not unfairly target a population?

Circling back: The harm in research

“And this is where, in Buck’s view, the lesson fell apart.” As soon as Buck’s class and my observation ends, Buck disappears to “cool off.” I find him

“doing laps” through the hallways. He’s not happy. “I am so mad at myself. That lesson sucked. I wanted to get to the political points, I had this vision of how I wanted it to go. But I ran out of time. I didn’t use the time right. I wanted you to see all of that. I made it too hard, I asked them to do too much.”

“Buck,” I try, “You let them talk and make sense of the poem. That seems really important to me. If you had just jumped into your agenda, they wouldn’t have understood the poem you were trying to work with.”

Buck walks faster. I have to jog to keep up. “It was too complex, what I was asking them to do. It was a stupid lesson.”

“Do you want to take another day to work through the rest of your lesson? “No. I want to be done with it. I’m sorry I let you down. I let you down. I wanted that to be so good for you. All that work I put into it. I wanted your dissertation to be amazing. It sucked.”

This is one example I am not likely to forget, of the harm that can come to someone when they agree to let you research in their classroom.

Consent form for adult and minor participants

March 1, 2010

Dear Members of the Poughkeepsie Day School Community, I, ______, have designed a school-wide study of the faculty and their students for a study,

________________. I will begin collecting data for this study in March, 2010, and will collect data for the remainder of the school year ending in June, 2010. For this study, I will be making observations in classes, interviewing teachers, making observations in staff planning meetings, recording interview sessions with faculty, and examining student work related to this study. Please read through this consent form and if you agree to participate in the study, give your consent. For parents with students whose words and work I will include in this study, please sign on behalf of your child. All participants in this study will be de-identified as I will change the names and gender of all who are referenced in this work. Thank you very much for your participation, and please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.