RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

54 THE ETHICS OF EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL RESEARCH
guiding principle, they advise that, while it is
desirable to lessen the power differential between
children and adult researchers, the difference
will remain and its elimination may be ethically
inadvisable.
There are other aspects of the problem of
informed consent (or refusal) in relation to young,
or very young, children. Seeking informed consent
with regard to minors involves two stages. First,
researchers consult and seek permission from those
adults responsible for the prospective subjects,
and second, they approach the young people
themselves. The adults in question will be, for
example, parents, teachers, tutors, psychiatrists,
youth leaders, or team coaches, depending on the
research context. The point of the research will
be explained, questions invited, and permission to
proceed to the next stage sought. Objections, for
whatever reason, will be duly respected. Obtaining
approval from relevant adults may be more difficult
than in the case of the children, but, being
sensitive to children’s welfare, it is vital that
researchers secure such approval. It may be useful
if, in seeking the consent of children, researchers
bear in mind the provisory comments below.
While seeking children’s permission and
cooperation is an automatic part of quantitative
research (a child cannot unknowingly complete a
simple questionnaire), the importance of informed
consent in qualitative research is not always
recognized. Speaking of participant observation,
for example, Fine and Sandstrom (1988) say that
researchers must provide a credible and meaningful
explanation of their research intentions, especially
in situations where they have little authority, and
that children must be given a real and legitimate
opportunity to say that they do not want to take
part. The authors advise that where subjects do
refuse, they should not be questioned, their actions
should not be recorded, and they should not be
included in any book or article (even under a
pseudonym). Where they form part of a group,
they may be included as part of a collectivity.
Fine and Sandstrom (1988) consider that such
rejections are sometimes a result of mistrust of the
researcher. They suggest that at a later date, when
the researcher has been able to establish greater
rapport with the group, those who refused initially
may be approached again, perhaps in private.
Two particular groups of children require
special mention: very young children, and those
not capable of making a decision. Researchers
intending to work with pre-school or nursery
children may dismiss the idea of seeking informed
consent from their would-be subjects because
of their age, but Fine and Sandstrom (1988)
would recommend otherwise. Even though such
children would not understand what research was,
the authors advise that the children be given
some explanation. For example, one to the effect
that an adult will be watching and playing with
them might be sufficient to provide a measure of
informed consent consistent with the children’s
understanding. As Fine and Sandstrom comment:
Our feeling is that children should be told as much
as possible, even if some of them cannot understand
the full explanation. Their age should not diminish
their rights, although their level of understanding
must be taken into account in the explanations that
are shared with them.
(Fine and Sandstrom 1988)
The second group consists of those children who
are to be used in a research project and who may
not meet Diener and Crandall’s (1978) criterion of
‘competence’ (a group of psychologically impaired
children, for example – the issue of ‘advocacy’
applies here). In such circumstances there may
be institutional or local authority guidelines to
follow. In the absence of these, the requirements
of informed consent would be met by obtaining the
permission of headteachers acting in loco parentis or
who have had delegated to them the responsibility
for providing informed consent by the parents.
Two cautions: first, where an extreme form of
research is planned, parents would have to be fully
informed in advance and their consent obtained;
and second, whatever the nature of the research
and whoever is involved, should a child show
signs of discomfort or stress, the research should
be terminated immediately. For further discussion
on the care that needs to be exercised in working
with children we refer readers to Graue and Walsh
(1998); Greig and Taylor (1998); Holmes (1998).