PLAN

Ethics

Consider ethical issues that may arise in your research
Make sure you are abiding by legal frameworks
Design an ethical process for your research and follow it throughout

Introduction

The ethics of your research project need to be considered throughout the process, from designing your research question, through collecting and analysing data, and in reporting. The main consideration is that your research is not causing harm to its participants. In addition to treating all of your participants fairly and with respect, this means:

Being transparent about your research – i.e. letting all of your potential participants know what the research is about, and what their potential role in it includes
Asking for participants’ consent to participate – this includes any colleagues who are involved, and for students includes asking both students and their parents / guardians.
Giving all participants the right to withdraw at any time, with accompanying processes of data removal
Keeping participants’ data secure and confidential: letting them know how you will store it, use it, share it, and letting them know when you will delete it. Participants should always be anonymous.

You also have an ethical responsibility towards your school (and your multi-academy trust or other governing body), so even if you are only researching your own practice, you should agree your research plan with a senior member of staff in your school before you begin.

In this section, we will take you through the ethical process. In making your ethical plan, consider how you would like to disseminate your research: some, but not all, journals require ethical permission from a university ethics committee. In this case you will likely need to work in partnership with a university who can support you in this process – it is likely some budget will be needed for this. If you are conducting this research as a research-informed reflective process focused on your own practice, the demands will be less formal, but ethical issues should still be considered. Please note that the University of Exeter is not responsible for ethical decisions made by schools when using this resource.

Activity: Making an ethical plan and having it reviewed

Find out if your school has an ethics or other research policy. If it does, then you should follow this policy.
Complete the Research Journal Ethical Plan Template provided. This helps you to consider what permissions you may need to collect, and how you will securely protect your data, in line with the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR. It will also help you to consider any further ethical implications of your research.
Prepare an information and consent form for participants. You can use the example provided or design your own. You need to ask for the consent of all those potentially participating, including colleagues; for students, both the student and a parent / guardian need to give consent.

What needs to be included if I design my own documents?

The information and consent form should provide a brief introduction to the research, explain why the student or other participant is being invited to participate, that this is voluntary and that the participant can withdraw from the research at any time, with appropriate removal of their data from your study. It should describe what participating in the research will involve, explain what will happen to the data including if it will be shared with anyone, and describe how the research will be reported. For adults, and for parents / guardians of students, this should be in writing, and include a request for written consent. For students, this can be a spoken process.

Have your ethical research template and information sheets reviewed.

If you are working with a University, your University partner should take this forward to formal review by an ethics committee. If you are working in a school, you should ask your dialogue partner (in this instance, ideally a senior colleague) to review your work at this stage.
Seek consents and follow your ethical research plan! This may be stating the obvious, but ethics is not completed once your plan is in place: It is important that you follow your plan, make others aware of it, and stay alert to any unexpected ethical issues that may arise. Make a note of ethical issues in your Research Diary and seek support from other colleagues. Remember, you must NOT collect any data until all your ethical consents are in place.

FAQs

What should I do if some students in my class consent to participate and others do not?

Remember that the Creative Action of your research is likely part of your regular teaching, so students and their parents do not need to consent to be part of this – this is their regular school day. Permission is needed to collect data in relation to this – i.e. to be included in observation notes, to complete a survey, to take part in an interview etc. If you are observing your class and some students have consented and others have not, then you should restrict your observation notes to those who have consented: this can include their interactions with non-consenting students. You should only ask those who have consented to take part in interviews and surveys.

I am reflecting on my own practice – do I need to collect consent from my students for this?

If you are researching your own practice, and the only participant is yourself – i.e. the only data you collect are observations or reflections on your own teaching practice – then you do not need to seek any further consents. If you plan to collect information about anyone else – observations of students or colleagues, interviews, examples of work, survey responses – then you need to ask for their consent as well.

Ethics module

PLAN

Ethics

Introduction

Activity: Making an ethical plan and having it reviewed

Further reading

FAQs