Chapter 2: Ethics in Educational Research

The ethics of social and educational research has been significantly complicated over the last several decades as a consequence of the interpretive turn and the ever-increasing use of qualitative research methods that have accompanied it. In this chapter, we identify what came before and after the interpretive turn with the traditional and contemporary approaches to research ethics, respectively. The distinction is a heuristic one. We do not mean to suggest that the interpretive turn occurred at any precise point in time or that it has completely won out. In this vein, the traditional approach is no doubt still in currency. Embedded in the distinction between traditional and contemporary approaches is another between the protection of research participants (research subjects in the traditional vocabulary) and research misconduct. This, too, is a heuristic distinction, because it involves significant overlaps. In particular, research mis-conduct largely subsumes the protection of research participants. Nonetheless, it is a distinction that has the virtue of familiarity, since it parallels the way federal regulations and universities divide the issues in research ethics.