Education research ethics integrate rigorous standards and fairness-promoting principles that take each learner and their backgrounds into account, making them fundamentally inseparable. Various organizations globally, including the American Educational Research Association, the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity, and the British Educational Research Association, have developed comprehensive ethics policies for conducting educational research.
Ethical Education Research Practices
Maintaining high ethical standards and fostering a respectful environment is crucial for everyone involved in the research process. Navigating ethical dilemmas can be challenging, as they often involve balancing guidelines, community expectations, and legal requirements. Our guidelines serve as an introduction to ethical considerations, providing a foundation that all researchers should reflect on when planning their research activities (Swauger, 2009; Wallace, 2003).
We’ve organized ethics-specific guidelines by research phases where appropriate, ensuring they align with each stage of the research process. This section contains general ethical principles that apply across all phases of research and didn’t fit into other sections.
Understanding Ethical Research Guidelines
Ethical research guidelines provide a clear and comprehensive framework for conducting research responsibly (British Educational Research Association, 2018; Finnish National Board on Research Integrity, 2023; German Research Foundation, 2019). A researcher’s ethical responsibilities can be viewed from five key perspectives (British Educational Research Association, 2018):
- Participants: Ensuring their rights and welfare.
- Data Integrity, Privacy, and Storage: Safeguarding data accuracy and confidentiality.
- Sponsors, Clients, and Beneficiaries: Meeting obligations to those who fund or benefit from the research.
- Publication and Dissemination: Sharing findings honestly and transparently.
- Well-being and Development of Researchers and Staff: Supporting the growth and health of everyone involved in the research.
Researchers also have responsibilities to the broader community, including addressing concerns and complaints, considering the well-being of the community (including other researchers), and avoiding negative or aggressive behaviors (British Educational Research Association, 2018).
Strategies for Adhering to Education Research Ethics
Recognize the values of all participants, relevant parties, and the communities to which they belong. Individuals and communities can hold values that are not aligned with equitable values and researchers must reflect on what this means to engage in research with them.
Some communities may choose not to engage in research or choose not to engage in research with researchers from outside of their communities (Smith, 2021). Respect their choices.
Develop competency (e.g., qualified to collect and protect data, qualified to choose and use an appropriate methodology).
Develop knowledge and application of research ethics. This includes the researcher as an individual and as belonging to a broader community of researchers where opportunities like sharing knowledge of ethics, engaging in mentoring, and engaging in peer review with an equity-lens can build research ethics knowledge and application throughout the community.
Respond to concerns and complaints as appropriate, including responding to unanticipated problems related to risks to participants or others and complaints. Be aware that complaints and noncompliance may result in suspension or termination of the study.
Comply with laws, regulations, and formal and informal agreements, recognizing that these may be “minimal standards” and may even run counter to protecting participants’ well-being and safety.. Ethics in research typically require a higher standard, particularly when protecting vulnerable participants (German Research Foundation, 2019).
Additional Research Ethics Resources
- “Ethics Review” section in Practicing and presenting social research. Full text available online.
- Ethical guidelines from the British Educational Research Association
- Guiding principles for ethical research from the National Institutes of Health
- Ensuring ethical standards and procedures for research with human beings from the World Health Organization
- Considering positionality: the ethics of conducting research with marginalized groups by Parson
- Culturally Responsive Research Ethics by Lahman
References
British Educational Research Association. 2018. Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research, fourth edition (2018) (4 ed.). British Educational Research Association. 1–48 pages.
Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK 2023. (2023). The Finnish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and Procedures for Handling Alleged Violations of Research Integrity in Finland. Retrieved September 1, 2023 from https://tenk.fi/sites/default/files/2023-05/RI_Guidelines_2023.pdf
German Research Foundation. 2019. Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice. https://www.htwg-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pub/forschung/Forschungsreferat/Guidelines_for_Safeguarding_Good_Researche_Practice_DFG__2019.pdf
Smith, L. T. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Swauger, M. (2009). No kids allowed!!!: How IRB ethics undermine qualitative researchers from achieving socially responsible ethical standards. Race, Gender & Class, 63-81.
Wallace, D. (2003). Informed dissent: Beyond IRB ethics in research. Writing on the Edge, 13(2), 31-44.
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