RECOUP/Ethical issues

Understanding the many ethical concerns and dilemmas in conducting research

Ethical issues arise throughout any piece of social research, and we would encourage you to include a discussion of ethical issues as and when they arise, throughout any training workshop using this manual. Ethical issues often shade into political ones, and there are also close links between ethical concerns and issues around participation. Ethical issues also shade into questions of trust: since 'the researcher is the research instrument' in some important ways, the reader and/or user of qualitative research needs to be able to trust the researcher to have followed the appropriate procedures. In each of the other sessions we have tried to highlight such concerns. But you may also want to devote a specific session to considering ethical issues. It would be easy to spend a half day on this topic, and not difficult to programme a full day's activities. Here we have restricted ourselves to an introduction to ethical issues in a relatively narrow sense, with suggestions for further readings later.

Time: 60-90 minutes

Objectives

To introduce participants to key ethical concerns in the design or a piece of qualitative research, and in the processes of data collection, data management, data analysis and publication, with particular reference to:

• What is informed consent? When is it essential, and how should it be gathered?
• What are the benefits and costs of written consent forms, and when should they be used?
• How to avoid harm to respondents
• The uses of anonymising data and the maintenance of confidentiality
• Reciprocity in research relationships
• Reflexivity and ethics

By the end of this session, participants should have reflected on the various dilemmas that may be encountered in the field and how to manage them -- and be aware that for many of these dilemmas there is no 'right' or simple solution.

Preparation

Handouts of all (or extracts from) relevant research council and professional association guidelines or ethical codes. Some examples are available on line: for example the British Sociological Association http://www.britsoc.co.uk/equality/Statement+Ethical+Practice.htm;

Examples of 'consent forms' either to hand out or to show on a projector. Two from the UK are available as Handouts: Participant Consent Form_HO and Example consent form

Process

1. Brainstorm (either in small groups or in full session) about the kinds of issues that people think are important with respect to ethics in social research generally. Then go through the list that emerges and ask which of these raise special concerns in qualitative social research (10 minutes).
2. Hand out (or put up on a slide) examples of consent forms and ask people to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses for qualitative social research in your settings (10 minutes)
3. (If this session is near the end of the workshop): Review the suggestions for anonymising household census, interview, focus group and fieldnote data, and for ensuring the confidentiality of data in hard copy and in electronic versions. (10 minutes)
4. (If this session is near the beginning of the workshop): Raise the issues of how and when to anonymise data and how to ensure their security: (20 minutes)
5. Brainstorm on the experience of participants about whether or not to 'pay' informants (10 minutes)
6. Handout the Ethics paper from the Chronic Poverty Research Consortium (or another relevant summary statement) and give people time to read it and discuss it in small groups (10 minutes). Then take 15 minutes to discuss as a whole group any further issues that arise.

Further Reading

The UK's main social science funding body, the Economic and Social Research Council, has a detailed statement on research ethics with a checklist of things to do: this can be found at www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Images/ESRC_Re_Ethics_Frame_tcm6-11291.pdf

The Social Research Association web-site has a further discussion on ethical issues and current debates: http://www.the-sra.org.uk/ethical.htm

The Association of Social Anthropologists also has an active debate on ethical issues: see http://www.theasa.org/ethics.htm

For an example of an ethical review procedure that has been introduced in a British University, see SSPSEthicsPolicyAndProceduresMay08.pdf

---

Singal, N., and Jeffery, R. (2008). Qualitative Research Skills Workshop: A Facilitator's Reference Manual, http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/RECOUP, Cambridge: RECOUP (Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty, http://recoup.educ.cam.ac.uk/). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. (original page)