The Ethical Dimension in Educational Research: A Dilemma?

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue VIII, August 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

The Ethical Dimension in Educational Research: A Dilemma?

Paul Makocho
Malawi University of Science and Technology, Malawi

Abstract: – The paper provides a landscape of some of the main ethical concerns in educational research. The review argues that the ethical procedures not context-free but are dictated by considerable contextual judgement by the researcher. The paper therefore highlights some of the ethical dilemmas inevitably encountered when one intends to enact educational research on one hand, and reflects on some of the possible strategies to circumvent the ethical challenges, on the other. In discussing these strategies, I have illustrated that the achievement of a utopia of a fully ethical educational research is not only controversial but also an unresolved matter.

Key words: Informed consent, Anonymity, Confidentiality, Deception

I. INTRODUCTION

Any research that involves people has the potential to cause harm although this may not be intended. In that respect, educational research involving human subjects has the potential to cause harm and therefore needs to be guided by research ethical guidelines just like other areas of study. Ethics have to do with the application of moral principles in order to prevent harming or wronging others, while at the same time being respectful, good and fair [1]. Simply put, ethics is a matter of adopting a sensitive stance to the rights of others [2]. It entails the determination of what is good or bad, right or wrong and being fully aware of the wrong standards and sub-standards [3].Such a stance inevitably dictates our choices in searching for truth. Although morals underpin ethics, the former and the latter are not synonymous. An`ethic` is a moral principle or code of conduct which governs peoples’behavior [4]. It is therefore concerned with how people act or behave. In this sense, ethical considerations in this paper refer to a set of moral principles held by educational researchers. It is also important to point out that there is no dichotomy between what is ethical and that which is unethical [5]. It is therefore healthy to conceptualize a continuum with one extreme having clear ethical principles and the other with clear unethical principles [5]. In most cases there are no clear-cut and context-free guidelines and it is important to realize that the same are not to be applied without deliberation and judgment [6].

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