Circumnavigating the Revolving Door of an Ethical Milieu

Abstract

This paper reflects on an Ethical Review Board’s (ERB) established structure of practice throughout a student-led project. We use the research project as a means of exploring the three questions set by the Editors, Fox and Busher, regarding the role of ERBs throughout the research process. We gained full university-level ethical approval in October 2020. This project initially focused on collecting data from students, from a UK university. The participatory way we collaborated with both undergraduates and postgraduates illuminated their individual unique perspectives and successfully facilitated their agentive contributions. This required on-going simultaneous negotiation of predetermined ethical procedures through the ERB. We termed this iterative process ‘circumnavigating the revolving door’ as it summarised revisiting ethical approval in the light of requests from our student participants. The participants were also invited to be part of the analysis and dissemination phase of this research. Original data collected related to personalised experiences of learning during the on-going global pandemic. The philosophical approach adopted was through an adaptation of Photovoice. That is, with limited direction by the researchers, the participants were invited to construct images (photos or hand drawn pictures), with captions (written text or voice), to explore their own educative circumstances. With this in mind, this paper explores the students’ participatory agency throughout this visual methods project through three lenses: namely, the appropriateness of ethical practices within a contextualised scenario (i.e., researching learning during lockdown in a higher educational institution); how the ethical process of an educational establishment supported the dynamic and iterative nature of participant-led research; and finally, how the original researchers’ experiences can inform ethical regulations and policy, both nationally and internationally. The circumnavigation of the revolving door of participatory ethics has proved invaluable during this research. This iterative cycle was necessary to incorporate the students (or co-researchers) suggested contributions. One example includes gaining the ERB’s approval, post full approval, for participants to audio record their own captions for a public facing website. From originally welcoming the students as participants, to facilitating them to become agentive co-researchers, it became increasingly important to provide them with opportunities to be actively involved in all parts of the research process. The reciprocal iterative relationship developed between co-researcher, researchers and the ERB served to strengthen the outcomes of the project.

Editorial for Special Issue on Regulation and Ethical Practice for Educational Research

“…Capewell et al [1] gathered real time understandings of Higher Education students' responses to learning during the pandemic by collecting students' on-going reflexive experiences about issues that they considered to be of personal importance. They put the participants at the centre of their research using a form of Photo-voice methodology that developed through negotiation with the participants.…”

“…Several of the papers in this Special Issue recognise the agentic nature of research project participants, especially in participatory research. Capewell et al [1] perceive them as knowledgeable others who need to become co-researchers to create ethical appraisal of and practices in research projects. Their own participants, they explain, wanted their voices to be heard narrating their own images and captions and were willing to attend conference presentations to share their experiences of participation.…”

“…A world in which smartphones and easy access to the internet worldwide has changed the world of research, according to Capewell et al [1]. Research participants now can and want to play an increasingly active role.…”

“…Capewell et al [1] think that it is difficult for researchers to navigate an institution's ethical landscape especially when doing participatory research. While ethical codes of practice are necessary, they argue, their implementation is not always appropriate for projects that need a research team to respond to the findings, debates and suggestions made by participants.…”

“…The first two questions can be considered under six headings, three relating to the first question: The authors of articles in this Special Issue discuss a variety of contexts and foci for their research studies. Capewell et al [1] undertook research during the COVID lockdown which meant that enforced social distancing required different modes of learning, as well as adapting research methods to be able to examine the experiences of the learners remotely. The study noted how greater isolation and changes in society associated with COVID, especially those affecting their education, created greater senses of student uncertainty about their immediate and longer-term futures.…”