The Important Stuff

            In the K-12 educational setting, there are many ethical standards relative to researching students that must be heavily considered. First and foremost, there must be parental consent for the students to participate in any type of study. Also, the participants, as well as the participant’s guardians, must be informed of every part of the research. Last but not least, all information regarding participants should stay confidential. All of these ethical matters seem extremely important when working with school aged children.

           

When it comes to obtaining consent for a research study, in the educational system it is likely that your hopeful participants are under age. This means that it is important to include the parents or guardians in the research process and gain consent from them as well as the child. This touches on another ethical issue of not coercing any students into participating, but allowing them to volunteer. Even with parental consent, the students should not be forced to participate if they do not seem willing.

           

Included in the consent form for the parents or guardians, there should be an explanation of what the research will entail. The explanation must be detailed and include everything that their children will be asked to do and why the research is being done. Also, a detailed summary should be given to the participant as well. If the participant is in elementary school the researcher should take care to give a summary that can be as understood as possible to that age group. It is important for the children to know what they are getting themselves into.

           

Lastly, everything should stay confidential. This is something that you will have to explain to the students and parents as well. This means that any information received about a student is not disclosed, not even to the parents. The student should feel safe to tell the truth in any situation being researched, and that truth is more likely to come out if they are not worried about anyone finding out. This is most important to students when it comes to their parents and peers finding out. Students are very concerned with what their peers think, and they would put on a face if they had any thought that others would know what they said. Therefore, confidentiality is helpful to the student as well as the validity of the research.

           

These are just a few of the many things that a researcher must keep in mind when working with school aged students in the educational system. It is the researcher’s responsibility to study the ethical standards and work within their parameters for every research study they perform.