Practitioner-Research and the Regulation of Research Ethics: The Challenge of Individual, Organizational, and Social Interests

Abstract

Graduate students who become practitioner-researchers in schools encounter ethical review regulations that highlight the contradictions among individual, organizational and social interests. This paper addresses the problem of practitioners who want to use ethical research methods within the educational organizations where they are employed. I identify how the regulation of research ethics works within networks of power/knowledge relations to restrict knowledge production, and I examine the political nature of the moral philosophical reasoning for these restrictions. In the current context, the regulatory process for the ethical review of human research provides a means for protecting organizational interests and for the self-protection of individuals. I propose that a greater emphasis on the ethical principles of individual human dignity, and justice and inclusiveness would provide moral ground for practitioner-researchers who want to explore the possibilities for social transformation in schools. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs050163