Think of a situation that you might face in conducting your research that conflict with

research ethics. Describe your situation, what decision you make & why. Give

justifications on your decision

Ensuring understanding

What happened?

An inexperienced researcher was carrying out a study that involved doing developmental tests

with children in schools. By prior arrangement, she would visit the family home, and would seek

consent to arrange to visit the child at school.

On one occasion, the researcher visited a family for whom English was an additional language.

Both parents and their children were at home, and their English was limited, but the researcher

judged they had understood, and consented. They signed consent for the school visit, and made

the researcher very welcome even insisting that she stayed for lunch.

A week or so later, as arranged, the researcher visited the school to see the child. On arrival, the

head teacher explained that the childs older sister had said her parents were very worried about

the visit they didnt know who the researcher was, and that a neighbour (who spoke the familys

language) had read the information leaflet and told the parents that the researcher was probably

a social worker. It was clear that they hadnt understood when they consented to the school visit.

What did the researcher do?

She ended the research interaction. She asked the head teacher to explain to the children, and

apologized for the misunderstanding. She talked through next steps with the head teacher, and

the head arranged for someone who spoke the familys language (a worker in the school, who

was known to the family) to contact them and apologies, and explain the misunderstanding. The

researcher also removed the familys data from the study, and the school worker told the family

that was being done.

She terminated the research interaction because she was concerned about the participants

understanding. She knows it is better to come back when she is better prepared than to muddle

through and jeopardize informed consent.