ethical approaches

I recently read a book by Earl Babbie (2010) called The practice of social research which touched on qualitative and quantitive reasesrch and ethical issues. 

As I work through my module 2 assignment “inquiry project” I start to look at my research methods and approaches and how to be considerate within my research methods. One of the research methods I will be using is observation and questionnaires. As I continue to look at ethics and what it means to me, I think about the words  ‘considerate’ and ‘confidential’. I’m unsure whether I should lower my standards or opinion for working with people with and with out disabilities. I believe I shouldn’t change the way I teach or change my character. I think about interview approaches and questions I can ask with the thought of being ethical. I am ethical within my professional practise everyday but always push my students to the best of there ability with also thinking about ethical approaches and issues. 

Should I be lowering expections of my students ? I have always been aware of my language when teaching dance to different ages and abilities and think about how i can vary my tone and teaching methods but I always push my students to the best of their capabilities. I’m always considerate of different needs and very ethical within my practice. 

Babbie explains the ethical responses on social research. He mentioned that it’s ok to not agree and agree with social researchers. Since writing up my inquiry project I have found it difficult to link my theory and framework together as when reading different scholars perceptions has had a big impact on my own opinions and thoughts. I was struggling to disagree with many theories and didn’t think I had a strong argument and felt I wasn’t being critical which is something I need to work on from module 1 feedback. Since reading Babbie I have understood it is ok to not agree and or to disagree with social research and always be ethical when doing so as everyone has a equal opinion and there’s reason for scholars thoughts. It’s good to be influenced but don’t let people’s opinions have an impact on your own beliefs. What I’m trying to say is it’s ok to have a different opinion I suppose and still be right and ok with that. Reflecting on a previous Skype discussion this is what I spoke about and discussed how I was struggling with connecting the two.  “theories and framework” 

There’s so many ethical issues involved in writing research reports and the past 2 weeks this is something I have noticed when filling out my online ethics form, but Babbie points out there are also ethical issues at play in terms of reading the research literature. He says “ in reviewing the literature, you might gravitate toward reports that support a point of view you may be fond of, furthermore the power of the internet for fast and expansive searches, while wonderful in most respects can allow even more cherry-picking of supportive research literature”. (2010, p528) This has really helped me link my theory and framework and has helped me to become more critical rather than descriptive within my assignments. 

So far within the second module, I’ve learnt that I need to be mindful of my audience and readers, and considerate of other people’s opinions and views when carrying out my inquiry. I am really looking forward to connect my framework with my theory and learn more about ethical issues, approaches and data collection etc 

“All of us consider ours ethical- not perfect perhaps, but as ethical as anyone else and perhaps more so than most. The problem in social research, as probably in life, is that ethical considerations are not always apparent to us. As a result we often plunge into things without seeing ethical issues that be apparent to others and may even be obvious to us when pointed out”. (Babbie, 2010, p.63)