Ethical Considerations

The practice of educational research involves people within a context, and as the researcher interacts with the community, such research requires social and cultural considerations. In fact, all human behaviours and actions are subject to ethical principles, rules and conventions (Anderson, 2004). So, in order to minimize possible risks that the research process may cause in the community under study or to individual participants, there is a need to consider these obligations that the

researcher owes to them, which are known as the ethics of the research process (Bryman, 2004). According to Burns (2000), there are many potential sources of ethical issues in a research project, such as: the nature of the project itself (for example, gender difference in cognitive abilities); procedures to be adopted (the potential to cause anxiety); methods of data collection (covert observation and tests); the type of data collection (personal information, criminal records); and what is done with the data (participant embarrassment due to publication).

Further, Erickson (1998) argued that researchers are obliged ethically to anticipate what will be done in data collection, analysis and reporting, and to explain to those studied why it will be done that way rather than some other ways. According to Hennink, Hutter, and Bailey (2011) researchers must abide by the three core principles of ‘respect for persons, benefice, and justice’ for the ethical conduct of research. The application of these principles in the research will lead to ethical considerations such as informed consent, self-determination, minimization of harm, anonymity and confidentiality. According to Stangor (2011) and Silverman (2010), the following are five general standards of ethical research that most researchers would agree with.

Informed Consent. The first principle is that research subjects must be informed about the purpose, methods, and intended possible uses of the research, what their participation in the research entails and what risks, if any, are involved. Informed consent entails giving as much information as possible about the research so that the prospective participants can make informed decisions on their possible involvement (Silverman, 2011). This information should be provided in written form and signed off by the research subjects. The main objective is to conduct the research openly and without deception (research with consent).

131 Thus, participants involved in this research were provided with the sufficient information about it, with the researcher distributing participant informed consent forms (PICFs) or meeting them personally. The cover letters for seeking approvals and participant informed consent forms that accompanied research instruments also explained the purpose and intentions of the study. The researcher personally explained the purpose of the study to interviewees. The researcher tried to take optimum care in considering the opinions and beliefs of the respondents.

Voluntary participation and the right to withdraw. Research participants must participate in a voluntary way, free from any coercion. In all cases of research, researchers should inform subjects of their rights to refuse to participate or withdraw from the investigation whenever and for whatever reason they wish (Silverman, 2011). There should be no coercion of research subjects to participate in the research, and consent should be freely given in order to validate the research findings.

The participants’ informed consent forms outlined information about the freedom of their participation and their ability to withdraw at any stage of the study, and the withdrawal of informed consent forms were circulated among the participants. In this study, individuals had the right to determine their own participation in research, including the right to refuse participation without any consequences. So, the participants’ individual time, rights and convenience were respected throughout the research process.

Minimization of harm to research participants. This principle requires that research should be conducted in such a way that it minimizes harm or risk to social groups or individuals (Hennink et al., 2011). Participants’ interests or well-being should not be damaged as a result of their participation in the research study. Any researcher must ensure that he or she does not put his or her participants at risk of

any kind or intimidate them in the process of study (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007).

Protection of research participants. The independence and impartiality of researchers must be clear, and any conflicts of interest or partiality must be explicit (Hennink et al., 2011). The research must be conducted so as to ensure the professional integrity of its design, the generation and analysis of data, and the publication of its results. Be it any research instruments, such as self-administered questionnaires or interviews, or class observations, the researcher must take sole responsibility to protect participants and make them feel comfortable, protected, and not intimidated. This is because without assuring their maintenance of confidentiality and anonymity, the findings of the intended data may not be valid or reliable. Besides, the direct and indirect contributions of colleagues, collaborators, and others to the research process should also be duly acknowledged.

Assessment of potential benefits and risks to participants. The confidentiality of information supplied by research subjects and anonymity of the respondents must be respected (Silverman, 2010, 2011). In order to comply with this standard, the researcher tried to ensure that data and its sources remained confidential unless the research participants had consented to their disclosure, and, in the latter case, to ensure that plans had been made for their storage and access to them. In addition, the researcher also took sole responsibility to ensure that all data records of the project were kept confidential at all times, and will not be revealed to any other individuals, groups or organizations.

In addition, ethical considerations concern mainly three stages of the research process: pre-data collection, during data collection, and post-data collection (Namgyel, 2011). Firstly, in order to make a study valid and reliable and to fulfill the

133 University norms, it is important for the accrediting body to approve the study. As this research study was conducted under the auspices of Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and its research policy requires any researcher to seek prior approval. Thus, the QUT Human Research Ethics Committee accorded the ethics approval No.130000060 valid from June 10, 2013 to June 10, 2016 (For details of participant information and consent forms used see Appendix A).

Further, the researchers are morally obliged to apply for and receive consent of the other institutions and organizations that are responsible for the proposed research participants (Namgyel, 2011). Therefore, the approvals and permissions were sought from various organizations such as the Department of School Education, Ministry of Education, Bhutan; City Education Office, Thimphu, Bhutan and two District Education Offices, and from all school authorities (see Appendix B) before the start of the data collection.

Another ethical issue involved during the data collection, was concerning audio recording of the interview conversations. In order not to lose data and responses, the researcher audio recorded the interviews. Due permission was sought from each interviewee. The researcher supported audio recording by diligently engaging himself in note taking during the process of interviews.

The researcher is ethically obliged to the participants even after data collection is over, and it is as important as before and/or during data collection (Namgyel, 2011). During this stage, it mainly involves the storage of the data, access to them, analyzing them and to publish the same (Creswell, 2005). The researcher maintained the data that were collected using questionnaire, and interviews. They were stored in a filing cabinet under lock and key for ensuring their safety. The

researcher provided pseudonyms or, alternatively, identity code numbers to each participant when data were entered into the computer programs for analysis.

The next concern was access to the information. At the initial stage, only the researcher and his supervisory team could access the collected data. At a later stage, if necessary, the Office of Education Research, QUT may also have access to them. In consultation with the researcher, other researchers in the same field could also have access if the future study was to be carried out within two or three years from the time of this initial data was collected.

3.9 Chapter Summary

The chapter highlighted a wide range of practical procedures and methods, in most cases referring to theoretical perspectives to underpin the rationale behind making selection from a number of options. Both the positivist and interpretivist views were found appropriate knowledge claims to ground the current study. A mixed-methods research approach of ‘Quan-qual Model’ (Namgyel, 2011; Creswell, 2010) was selected for this study’s design because, firstly, it provided diversity of views, and, secondly it strengthened the validity and reliability of the findings of the study. More importantly, it required the researcher to have a certain level of competency in both the approaches of research and was considered useful at this learning stage.

Next, the discussion delved into concepts of research sites and samples, and the rationale behind selecting purposive sampling as an appropriate technique to draw various samples for the study. This was followed by a discussion of data collection methods used and the research procedures used in terms of the three phases of the study. The timeline for completion of each stage of the study was outlined. The discussion then presented how data were analysed including data cleansing and compilation, and the analysis procedures of both quantitative and

135 qualitative data. The use of descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, and effect size took precedence as far as the quantitative data analysis was concerned. The section also discussed on how qualitative data are analysed, including the process of transcribing, coding, categorizing, and thematic grouping.

The seventh section highlighted quality standards, with a discussion of criteria for ensuring quality standards. This included validity, reliability, objectivity, and generalizability for the quantitative survey. For the qualitative study, the criteria of credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability were discussed. Finally, the last section discussed the ethical considerations of the research and its potential problems and limitations. Ethical issues were mainly concerned regarding obtaining informed consent, voluntary participation and the right to withdraw from the study, harm to research participants, protection of research participants, and assessment of potential benefits and risks to participants. In conclusion, the research design chosen, research procedures employed, and ethics considered, all concentrated to address the issues of validity and reliability of the study.