Informed consent

This is a central element of ethical research with humans. It is based on the principle that any

individuals taking part in a research project should:

- know that the research is taking place

- know what the focus of the research is

- know what the risks of the research are (if any)

- know what the data gained from the research will be used for,

- know what they will be asked to do,

- know that they can change their mind concerning their involvement at any time,

- know the degree of confidentiality and anonymity they will be afforded.

To do this, participants must be able to understand what is being suggested, and this will therefore

require them to have access to the above as clear information. This might be in the form of an

information sheet, or can be part of a single letter which also incorporates a consent form which

they are required to sign. In the case of research with children, it is generally expected that the

signature of a parent or guardian will be sought. However, best practice would suggest that the

signature of both a parent/guardian and the child would demonstrate that the child has a voice in

their own right. For the present research, letters were sent home asking for consent to be involved

in questionnaires at points during the year (Appendix 5).

The above highlights the need to gain consent from those taking part in the research. It is not

often be critical, for example, you cannot bypass the consent of a head teacher if you want to carry

out research in their school, but it is not enough to gain this consent and then assume that the staff

or students with whom you want to work can therefore be assumed to have given their consent

also. The issue of consent should also be seen as a process rather than a hurdle, so that even when

individuals have agreed to take part in research their continued participation should not be

assumed.

In giving consent, there should also be no incentive given (unless there is a clear reason for this, and

it is very much token) as this might encourage individuals who would otherwise not want to

participate to be included in research.

3.7.2 Autonomy of participants

It must be remembered that participants in research have given their voluntary consent to be involved. As a consequence they are free to withdraw at any time from the research, and this should be made clear to them at the start of the research. Additionally, they should not be asked for a reason for deciding to terminate their involvement.

3.7.3 Anonymity and confidentiality

The level of anonymity within a project needs to be clearly defined to all concerned before the research begins. In many cases, it is crucial to ensure that those involved cannot be identified in any subsequent writing. This may include the use of false names, or proxies, e.g. ‘student x’ or ‘teacher y’, as well as not making explicit other pieces of information, such as job titles and/or gender. In the case of organisations, it also includes not using school

names and specific geographical information which could be used to pinpoint location. It can be difficult to find the correct balance as it is often important in the context of research to give background socio-economic information, but a balance must be struck; it might even be useful to ask a colleague to read a description of a school to see if they can identify the school, before publishing the description to a wider audience. The importance of this is that it is sometimes possible to piece together elements of information which can then be used to identify an individual or groups of individuals. This should be carefully considered by the researcher when writing, but also together with participants when considering consent, and research design. However, on occasion individuals actually want to be identified, and if this is the case, then this should be taken into consideration, but should be handled sensitively, particularly through the checking of the extent of any identification with the subject.

Confidentiality relates to the protection of any data collected during a project. All

researchers should ensure that they understand the content of the data protection act and again they should inform participants of their intended method of ensuring data are secure.

3.7.4 Research with vulnerable groups

It is important that researchers consider ethical issues focusing on vulnerable groups. In the case of educational research this is particularly important in relation to children (generally defined as an individual below the age of 18).

The present research, being positioned within the action research tradition, needs to take especially careful account of research ethics issues, as the relationship between the researcher and subjects is much closer than in traditional forms of research (Campbell and

Groundwater-Smith, 2007). In the case of the present project, a number of systems were put in place to ensure an ethical approach. Firstly, students were informed at the start of the period covering the main action research Cycles that I was involved in developing their curriculum by introducing new styles of learning, but that this was in keeping with the approach of the course, and that I would have carried out such developments anyway, even had I not been recording the experiences involved for research purposes. I informed

students that I would like to gain their insights and opinions periodically, but that this would be optional, and that they need not take part in this if they did not wish to do so.

The students who had agreed to keep a reflective journal or to be involved in interviews were asked to take a letter home to read with parents (Appendix 6 and 7) and if they were then willing to take part, sign the letter together with their parents and return to myself. In the letter it not only outlined the reasons for completing the research and the precautions taken with respect to confidentiality and anonymity, but also makes it clear that the students can withdraw from the process at any time.

At subsequent points of the research, for example before starting an interview, students were again asked if they would like to be involved or withdraw from the process. When periodic questionnaires were completed, students in the groups involved were asked not to put their names on the questionnaire, not to complete it if they did not want to, and that the results would be used to inform further development of the course, my own research, and possibly published academic articles. In the case of those only completing

questionnaires, letters were not sent home asking for permission. It was assumed that as the students ranged in age from 13 to 15, and given the uncontentious nature of the questionnaires in that they focused on learning approaches rather than personal issues, it

was felt that the knowledge and agreement of the head teacher, together with the choice of students was more than enough to see this element of data collection as ethical.

Finally, as the cycles unfolded, interim findings were shared with the groups informally to gauge whether intended developments in the interventions were deemed to be a positive step, so that the student body as a whole had a level of input concerning the development of their learning.

3.8 Conclusion

The research methodology adopted for this thesis could be considered to include both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The approach, whilst being mixed, was essentially both interpretive and critical, in that it acknowledged that the nature of the data collected could not be value free, and was hence subjective in nature, in some cases being developed through ‘mutual agreement’. Hence, the techniques used were those which were believed to be the most appropriate for the collection of the relevant research data. As such, the research question ‘To what extent does the Pilot GCSE in geography act as the basis for an emergent, active learning environment for students?’ lent itself to the use of

questionnaires, diaries and interview techniques.

Through the use of the above research tools, three Cycles of action research were eventually undertaken, based upon the results of a large scale baseline study used to identify and frame the initial development foci. It is to these results which we now turn.