Doing research with teachers, parents and students: the ethics and politics of collaborative research

Mills, Carmen and Gale, Trevor (2004) Doing research with teachers, parents and students: the ethics and politics of collaborative research. In: Strategic uncertainties: ethics, politics and risk in contemporary educational research. Post Pressed, Flaxton, Australia, pp. 89-101. ISBN 1-876682-72-8

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Abstract

Truly collaborative research partnerships between universities and schools are seldom commonplace (Potter, 2001). Many schools – particularly those in disadvantaged communities – have long histories of being involved in research yet few see themselves with real investment in, ownership of and/or benefiting from the experience. In this chapter we discuss research conceived with more mutually beneficial researcher-researched relations, cognisant of the 'importance of respecting and ultimately giving more than we take to the communities we research' (Schultz, 2001, p. 1). The research involved teachers', parents' and students' engagement with schooling in a secondary school in regional Australia. Rather than conducting the research on others, we attempted to craft our project with them. Michelle Fine (1994) argues that a decision to work with those we once might have written about or for, necessarily changes our work, making it both more ethical and more explicitly connected to struggles for social justice. This chapter draws on the voices of the teachers, parents and students we worked with and alongside during the research to explore the ethics and politics of such an approach.

Statistics for this ePrint Item

Item Type:	Book Chapter (Commonwealth Reporting Category B)
Refereed:	Yes
Item Status:	Live Archive
Additional Information:	Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Author retains copyright.
Faculty / Department / School:	Historic - Faculty of Education
Date Deposited:	11 Oct 2007 01:06
Last Modified:	21 Sep 2016 02:41
Fields of Research :	16 Studies in Human Society > 1608 Sociology > 160809 Sociology of Education 13 Education > 1303 Specialist Studies in Education > 130304 Educational Administration, Management and Leadership 22 Philosophy and Religious Studies > 2201 Applied Ethics > 220107 Professional Ethics (incl. police and research ethics)
Socio-Economic Objective:	C Society > 93 Education and Training > 9399 Other Education and Training > 939903 Equity and Access to Education
URI:	http://eprints.usq.edu.au/id/eprint/2428

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