1st Edition

Ethical Dilemmas in Qualitative Research

By Trevor Welland, Lesley Pugsley Copyright 2002

    This title was first published in 2002.The connectedness and degree of intimacy that forms between researcher and the researched in qualitative inquiry generates a range of ethical issues. Many professional associations have produced their own sets of ethical guidelines for members as a result of these issues. This edited collection explores and critically reviews the range of ethical dilemmas and issues that confront qualitative researchers in the field including: respect for privacy, establishing honesty and openness in the relationship formed, and guarding against misrepresentation. The contributors offer reflexive and confessional accounts of the process of negotiating the inevitable tensions that arise when applying the ethical principles expressed in the statements of professional and research bodies to the material situations encountered in the field. The diversity of settings and projects explored in this book testify to the fact that prescriptive templates often provide an inadequate picture of the ethical dilemmas encountered in researching the social and life worlds of the participants. The volume reflects the diversity of qualitative research currently being undertaken and provides a text which deals with the ethical realities of doing such research. The book will be an important resource for students, teachers and researchers.

    Contents: Introduction, Lesley Pugsley and Trevor Welland; Is action research good for you?, Brian Davies; Putting your oar in: moulding, muddling or meddling?, Lesley Pugsley; They told me I couldn’t do that: ethical issues of intervention in careers education and guidance research, Patrick White; Telling tales on technology: the ethical dilemmas of critically researching educational computing, Neil Selwyn; Sex in the field: intimacy and intimidation, Amanda Coffey; Roles and responsibilities in researching poor women in Brazil, Bani Dev Makkar; Your place or mine? ethics, the researcher and the Internet, Kate Robson and Mark Robson; Reflections on fieldwork in criminal justice institutions, Catrin Smith and Emma Wincup; Privacies and private: making ethical dilemmas public when researching sexuality in the primary school, Emma Renold; Research and the ’fate of idealism’: ethical tales and ethnography in a theological college, Trevor Welland; Whose side are we on? revisiting Becker’s classic ethical question at the ’fin de siecle’, Sara Delamont; Endword, Trevor Welland and Lesley Pugsley; Index.

    Biography

    Trevor Welland, Lesley Pugsley

    ’This is a fascinating collection of papers that expose the ethical dilemmas and tensions that qualitative researchers experience...every qualitative sociologist will find something of direct relevance and value...will offer great insights to undergraduate and postgraduate students and to academics.’ Geoffrey Walford, University of Oxford, UK ’This collection of essays is essential reading for students, teachers and researchers engaged in qualitative research. The authors shed new light on ethical problems in a range of social settings. It is recommended very strongly.’ Professor Robert Burgess, University of Leicester, UK