RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

62 THE ETHICS OF EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL RESEARCH
unknown, unforeseen problems and difficulties
lying in wait (Kimmel 1988). Baumrind (1964),
for example, warns of the possible failure on
the researchers’ part to perceive a positive
indebtedness to their subjects for their services,
perhaps, she suggests, because the detachment
which investigators bring to their task prevents
appreciation of subjects as individuals. This kind
of omission can be averted if the experimenters
are prepared to spend a few minutes with subjects
afterwards in order to thank them for their
participation, answer their questions, reassure
them that they did well, and generally talk to
them for a time. If the research involves subjects
in a failure experience, isolation or loss of selfesteem,
for example, researchers must ensure that
the subjects do not leave the situation more
humiliated, insecure and alienated than when
they arrived. From the subject’s point of view,
procedures which involve loss of dignity, injury
to self-esteem, or affect trust in rational authority
are probably most harmful in the long run and
may require the most carefully organized ways
of recompensing the subject in some way if the
researcher chooses to carry on with those methods.
With particularly sensitive areas, participants
need to be fully informed of the dangers of serious
after-effects. There is reason to believe that at
least some of the obedient subjects in Milgram’s
(1963) experiments (see Chapter 21) came away
from the experience with a lower self-esteem,
having to live with the realization that they were
willing to yield to destructive authority to the
point of inflicting extreme pain on a fellow human
being (Kelman 1967). It follows that researchers
need to reflect attitudes of compassion, respect,
gratitude and common sense without being too
effusive. Subjects clearly have a right to expect that
the researchers with whom they are interacting
have some concern for the welfare of participants.
Further, the subject’s sensibilities need also to
be taken into account when the researcher comes
to write up the research. It is unacceptable for
researchers to show scant regard for subjects’
feelings at the report stage. A related and not
insignificant issue concerns the formal recognition
of those who have assisted in the investigation, if
such be the case. This means that whatever form
the written account takes, be it a report, article,
chapter or thesis, and no matter the readership for
which it is intended, its authors must acknowledge
and thank all who helped in the research, even
to the extent of identifying by name those whose
contribution was significant. This can be done in
aforeword,introductionorfootnote.Allthisis
really a question of commonsensical ethics.
Ethical problems in educational research can
often result from thoughtlessness, oversight or
taking matters for granted. Again, researchers
engaged in sponsored research may feel they
do not have to deal with ethical issues,
believing their sponsors to have them in hand.
Likewise, each researcher in a collaborative
venture may take it for granted, wrongly, that
colleagues have the relevant ethical questions in
mind, consequently appropriate precautions go by
default. A student whose research is part of a course
requirement and who is motivated wholly by selfinterest,
or academic researchers with professional
advancement in mind, may overlook the ‘oughts’
and ‘ought nots’.
Arelatedissuehereisthatitisunethicalfor
the researcher to be incompetent in the area
of research. Competence may require training
(Ticehurst and Veal 2000: 55). Indeed an ethical
piece of research must demonstrate rigour in the
design, conduct, analysis and reporting of the
research (Morrison 1996b).
An ethical dilemma that is frequently discussed
is in the experiment. Gorard (2001: 146) summarizes
the issue as being that the design is
discriminatory, in that the control group is being
denied access to a potentially better treatment
(e.g. curriculum, teaching style). Of course, the
response to this is that, in a genuine experiment,
we do not know which treatment is better, and
that, indeed, this is the point of the experiment.
Ethical dilemmas
Robson (1993: 33) raises ten questionable practices
in social research:
involving people without their knowledge or
consent