Ethical Considerations in Educational Research

Introduction

The introductory aims and areas of concerned that were highlighted within the section of literature review needs to be further worked upon both in the real work setting and also on the basis of research and developments. The literature review section also determined the need for a structured methodology which would assist to assort a wide range of information on the topic of concern. In particular as expressed by the opinions and thoughts of varied educational psychologists to educate the children with disabilities with the aid of certain specified strategies as discussed within the section of literature review needs to be worked upon thoroughly to view their effectiveness (Krawec, et al, 2013; Klingner, et al, 2015). As per the policy of Ofsted and SEN Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years and also based on the thoughts and beliefs of Vygotsky’s (1978) the varied scientific evidence based strategies that could be used to read and write children with vulnerabilities so that they can find pleasure throughout the process and also could achieve good grades in their academic curriculums that would definitely provide them with a hope of better future to forestall the poverty, will be able to battle with the negative attitudes of the surroundings and in turn can win over their feeling of embarrassment which are considered to be the potential confounding factors for their set back (Verenikina, 2010). Another important feature along with the successful strategy adoption is the mindset of the understudies towards inclusive education and also their own inspiration to accomplish success in the field of academics (Reading for purpose and pleasure, Ofsted; Policy, 2019). Therefore, it is essential to consider all these things within our mind while structuring a methodology which would definitely incorporate all the ideas and thoughts into its inner core.

The aspect of ethical considerations plays one of the most important roles in the field of research based development (Gajjar, 2013). It is a fundamental step in any research project which involves surveys based on interviews or questionnaires and observations (Gajjar, 2013). The informed consent has to be obtained from all the participants and they should be made aware of all the strategies that will be utilised within the research experimentation and their opinion will be seen as an independent query that will be addressed by the tutors or the examiners (Nishimura, et al, 2013). As per the stringent guidelines of British Education Research Association (BERA, 2011) which clearly stated about the keeping up the confidentiality of the participants, giving options to the participants to withdraw from the investigation at any point of time which will be absolutely free from any financial expenditure and independent of any impact upon the research study are the central points of the guidelines. Moreover, the researchers must show empathetic attitude towards the participants and their aspect of anonymity and while comprehending their decisions to abstain their participation within the investigation (Gajjar, 2013).

For the purpose of assortment of findings for this investigation which should be free from bias both from the side of understudies and educators, it is necessary to involve both the qualitative and quantitative findings (Roulston, et al, 2015). This particular paradigm is also referred as mixed method paradigm (Terrell, 2012). This methodology is highly significant as it takes into consideration of the quantitative or numerical outcomes which offers a vivid and precise analysis whereas the consideration of the qualitative or general form of findings helps in the process of interpretation and offers a overall aspect from a varied assortment of participants though it is susceptible to bias. Therefore, it is beneficial from all aspects to use the mixed method paradigm as it offers the researchers a wide range of outcomes that helps to formulate an accurate and enriched conclusion (Terrell, 2012).

As mentioned by the authors Cohen, 2011 triangulation is considered to be the methodology for the assortment of information with the aid of more than two strategies. As explained earlier this methodology is considered to be significantly better than the others as it allows varied information to be gathered and investigated from varied points of views (Howe, 2012). Moreover, again according to the belief of author Creswell, 2011 dependence on one single methodology allows bias to crop in which eventually results in the misapprehension of the findings. However, the author also mentioned that the approach of triangulation can result in the development of erroneous conclusion and this is in accordance to the belief of another author named Bell, 2010 who also stated that findings assorted by varied methods may differ and this could result in the questionable analysis of the findings or the outcomes of the research conducted (Refer Fig: 1).

As highlighted within the review of literature regarding the importance of pleasurable reading among vulnerable children along with the varied factors that acted as barriers to comprehensive joyful reading for instance the lack of confidence, misspeaking a few words and omitting others entirely and feeling of embarrassment, it demands interventions in the form of research (Jaeger, 2012; Milsom, 2010). Therefore, the strategies mentioned within the review which should be adopted within the learning practices that could encounter this problem were also discussed such as specifically the direct guidance and technique guidance strategies as suggested by few educational psychologists (Berkeley, et al, 2011; Shamir, et al, 2012). The study of Farrell, et al, 2010 stated that the learning grades of the pupils can be enhanced with the aid of effective support form efficient teachers. Moreover, studies of Leonard, et al, 2017, Miller, 2008 and Grek et al, 2003 have clearly mentioned that the quality of interventions offered by teachers were much better in comparison to teaching assistants. Therefore, this type of intervention based research where the working relationship between the educators and pupils will be investigated and the strategies that will be adopted for pleasurable reading will be effectively judged will require the utilization of questionnaires. This particular mode of research will offer quantitative findings within a short period of time as the participants or the focus groups will have constrained time limit for individual interviews. In this regard, it must be mentioned based on earlier encounters while using questionnaires for interviewing participants of the Key stage 1 pupils at the time of Work Based Enquiry method related level of caution must be addressed while choosing the target audience (Costley, 2010). This is because it has been noticed that the participants are little children and most of them have a tendency to tick the answer “yes” for maximum of the questions without giving any thinking to it (Costley, 2010). Moreover, it must be mentioned that there are number of factors that influences the answering of the questionnaires by the little participants such as the time it is taking, what time of the day it is, the quality of relationship of the child with the adult supporter during the procedure and also upon their comprehension of the question raised to them (Frontczak, 2012). Author Cohen, 2011 also highlighted that another significant trouble faced by them while allowing some of the participants to answer the questionnaires are they just write anything without any relevance rather than finishing the questionnaire in a structured manner. Moreover few researchers also suggested about an important feature of human psychology that plays a pivotal role during this process which is the propensity of human beings to agree rather than disagree (Weems, et al, 2003; Churchill, 1984). Both these studies highlighted that there is propensity of the participants to disagree with a negative statement in comparison to a positive statement.

According to the thoughts and beliefs of Vygotsky’s (1978) the benefits of interactive forms of sessions among the educators and pupils are immense which allows the students to learn and talk things loud and internally (Darling-Hammond, 2020). Moreover, the approach of inclusive education is considered to be a better procedure to enhance the self regulation and inspiration of students with learning disabilities (Darling-Hammond, 2020). Therefore, depending on the past encounters and the strategies that had been adopted by the teachers to expand the pleasure and motivation of pupils while reading, a decision was taken to supply relevant questionnaires to the staff educators, but not to the pupils, with an objective to assort quantitative outcomes out of the investigation. Following the questionnaires session a personal interview will be conducted with the pre decided focus group to apprehend their perspective. As it was necessary to send the questionnaires to all the staff members therefore a pilot study was conducted involving the head teacher, SENCO and two teaching assistants (TA) for their valuable suggestions before incorporating the whole group. They responded positively as they felt that the whole process was a concise one with an excellent collection of questions which can be considered very relevant to the objectives and scaled to effectively judge the perspective. Among the questions few of them demanded written illustration from the participants as according to the stated concept of authors Lydeard, 1991 and Bowden, et al., 2002. Another interesting feature of using the mixed questionnaire process is that it takes a short span of time for the participants to complete it instead of detailed illustrations which dispirit them to participate within the process. However, it should also be noted that written illustrations are open ground for proper interpretation as it excludes the bias of the interviewer to probe the answer. This is considered to be major drawback for the process as bias can easily be introduced via the person who is analysing the data with a preconceived idea about the participants and may misapprehend the answers of the questionnaires. Moreover according to Lydeard, 1991 statement “open ended questionnaire” are considered to be easy to ask but it is difficult to answer and comprehend or analyse. However, this methodology allows the person with an opportunity to illustrate in much more detailed form on the aspect they choose. On the other hand the closed questionnaires are considered to be easy and simple to answer and also demonstrate reliability due to the rigid representation of the answers that dismisses the chances of the respondent to alter or mould down their wordiness.

Though with the utilisation of questionnaires one can accomplish their precise objectives and results, however the approach of interviews will endow with more comprehensive forms of findings. Interviews can be variedly categorised such as focus groups which are conducted with pre decided participants to accomplish a particular outcome. Similarly the category of structured and semi structured interviews could be manoeuvred to achieve the particular findings. However according to Gratton, 2004 an unstructured form of interview is set with a preconceived notion but it offers the interviewee to take the lead part during the discussion. This approach allows the interviewer to gain a detailed aspect of the interviewee’s opinions and beliefs which opens up the scope for further detailing of the aspect (Newby, 2010). Therefore, questionnaires and observations allows initially to recognize and stress upon those areas that needs to be developed through an unstructured form of interview which are relevant to the topic or set objectives of the research conducted (Bell, 2010). This is the reason why questionnaire session is considered to be significant before conducting the interview particularly for the little or young children that usually show the propensity to go off the point. Interestingly it has also been noticed by Bell, 2010 that the time of interview also plays a role as this influences the enthusiasm of the participants to take part within the process. Similarly the place where the interview will be conducted is also a significant part as it has to be conducted in such a place where there is no scope of distractions. It is also essential that the interviewer should maintain precise notes which could sufficiently help in the process of interpretation later on (Bell, 2010). A cordial or familiar relationship between the interviewee and interviewer is very essential as it soothes down the surrounding environment but this process also has a draw back as the pre determined mind set of the interviewer may influence the process and their analysis. So it is extremely essential that the interviewer should be impartial and there must be enough clarity within the wordings at the time of questioning to avoid any sort of confusion. It should be noted that the way the responder will reply during the time of interview there are chances that the suppositions may crop in eventually leading to misapprehension of the findings and the information might be disfigured resulting in diminished transparency, later on at the time of transcription (Cohen, 2011). There might be argument that the procedure of interviewing also has its own limitations as the interviewee may just give an overall positive or negative response. Therefore after obtaining the feedback from the head teachers and the TA and also from the pupils with regard to their opinion about the process of interview and their beliefs, a huge range of qualitative findings can be assorted. Therefore, though the process is prolonged it could offer an exhaustive analysis of the perspectives of the participants.

Another approach namely the ethnographic method which involves the case studies offers a qualitative approach to the study (Denscombe, 2007). The procedure of observing the interaction in between the teachers and students in a real classroom setting and if the opportunity arises to be a part or becoming a co participant within the process definitely offers a beneficial personal exposure for the real life functioning practices (O’Toole, 2010). This methodology also provides the chance to stress upon any particular incident and to explore the relationship between the participants (Denscombe, 2008). Moreover, the doubts that will be encountered during the process of observation can be discussed at the interview session which would more essential findings that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. Therefore, according to the thoughts of author James, 2001 the ethnographic method offers the opportunity of exploring the voices of silent ones. Though this investigation was a small size examination, the utilisation of the approach of triangulation for the assortment of information offered beneficiary from the three crucial aspects required in a study of research for instance the reliability, justification of the study conducted and the validity. This is because no other methodology could offer data from such varied resources as this strategy. The findings that were gathered from the examination provided evidences that say again and offer significance to the information expanded within the section of literature review. Moreover, this methodology provided a collection of findings that could be utilised for the analysis of the data and formulating a relevant conclusion of the conducted examination.

Conclusion

Throughout the methodology varied strategies for the assortment of information along with their positive and negative outcomes have been analysed. The thorough study of the examination conducted by the government along with their literature had provided an idea along with the past encounters which offered a solid base for conducting the research investigation. Moreover, from the above section it could be comprehended that the approach of triangulation along with the utilisation of ethnographic case studies had provided a more structured and focussed way out for the collection of findings that is definitely reliable, credible and would justify the topic and objectives of the concerned research study.

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