Week 22

In week 21, the second week of the “Learn” phase of our Spiral of Inquiry, we started the journey of developing an action plan by discussing what actionsyou need to take for your Teacher Inquiry. In this third week of the “Learn” phase, we will consider the professional learning and the professional relationships you need to engage in ethically, when doing educational research and the use of Kaupapa Maori approaches to teacher inquiry.

Professional Learning for Your Teacher Inquiry

Your goal is to make meaningful changes in your professional practice by implementing your Teacher Inquiry. So far, in the earlier phases of the spiral of inquiry, you have developed your thinking about what is happening (Scanning) and why this is happening (Focusing and Developing a Hunch), these are all important learning processes (Kaser & Halbert, 2017).

In this “Learn” phase of spiral of inquiry, your new learning should be motivated by and connected to changing the learning experiences of learners; it should also be directly linked to the focus identified in the second phase of the spiral; it should help you gain a good understanding of why the new ways of doing things in your teacher inquiry are better than previous practices; and how your new learning could be sustained and supported over time (Timperley, Kaser and Halbert , 2014).

Before you leap straight to action, you need to stay curious about current research evidence that you have evaluated and how it applies to learners in your context (Kaser & Halbert, 2017). To be able to respond to the learning needs of students within the unique context of your teacher inquiry, it is time to consider what can be done - what do you need to learn? why is it important? and how do you learn?

Ethical Issues in Your Teacher Inquiry

A new topic this week is to consider any ethical issues relevant to your Teacher Inquiry. Over the last few weeks, you have chosen your Teacher Inquiry topic and decided on your research question/s. This week, we will explore some key ethical principles in educational research and how they are related to your Teacher Inquiry.

Research Ethics

Do your students give an authentic answer when you interview them? Or do they just tell you what they think you would like to hear because they are afraid of the consequences? Are your students’ parents willing to give a response that isn’t positive about your pedagogical approach if they think that it could impact the way you treat their child? As a practitioner researcher, you need to consider these kinds of questions when you plan to conduct a study in your own classroom or in your school. As Blaxter, Hughes and Tight (2006) point out “all social research (whether using surveys, documents, interviews, observation, or computer-mediated communication) gives rise to a range of ethical issues around privacy, informed consent, anonymity, secrecy, being truthful and the desirability of the research” (p.158).

Our Research Ethics video (required) in the related media, discusses the need to avoid harm, distress, disadvantage or anxiety to your students. It gives examples such as disruption to learning from students missing part of a lesson, or lowering students’ self-esteem by highlighting perceived difficulties or deficiencies.

It is important, when you plan your Teacher Inquiry, that you are aware of these issues and think about how to minimise the potential harm you may cause to the participants in your Inquiry project.

The Key Principles of Research Ethics

Here are some key principles summarised from the New Zealand Association for Research in Education Ethical Guidelines (NZARE, 2010) :

• Seek at all times to avoid harm and do good.
• The rights and welfare of learners, research participants, and the public should take precedence over the researcher's self-interest.
• Have a specific duty of care to research participants: to avoid unnecessary anxiety or harm to participants, groups or communities by the research procedures that are used, by the details in the research reports, or as a consequence of participating in the research.
• Give participants a clear description of why the research is being undertaken, what it involves, how it will be reported, and the extent of public availability before participants make a decision about their involvement in a project. Their consent to being involved should then be sought without undue pressure or persuasion and they should have the right to withdraw at any time.
• Consider the capacity of each potential participant to give consent or assent to participate. In research that involves young children, parents or caregivers also need to be asked for their consent.
• Store confidential information securely and anonymise whenever practicable. Keep individual information or private matters strictly confidential.
• Make sure that the participants’ educational progress is not hindered when research projects take time away from regular teaching and learning activities.
• Give a report of research findings to participants to enable them to benefit, directly or indirectly, from their willingness to facilitate the research exercise (NZARE, 2010).

For a more detailed explanation of the responsibilities that educational researchers have to the participants in their research, see NZARE ethical guidelines for educational research (supplementary) in the related media.

The first eight slides of the Ethics in Educational Research slide set (supplementary) in the related media, provide an overview of the three key principles of ethics: protecting participants from harm, ensuring confidentiality of data, and minimizing deception, while the subsequent slides look at scenarios of studies conducted in classroom settings and discuss the potential situations that a practitioner researcher should take into consideration.

Another supplementary video, Research to Practice - "Ethical Teachers, Ethical Researchers", discusses the importance of integrating teaching, research, and ethics. The Canadian teachers featured in the clip also explore distinctions and similarities between the roles of teaching and researching, as well as the ethical use of data.

Be Sensitive Towards Cultural Differences

The guidelines of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) are underpinned by understandings of Aotearoa New Zealand as (a) locally, a linguistically and culturally diverse state; (b) regionally, in the Pacific; and (c) globally, part of an increasingly networked society (NZARE, 2010).

The Association asserts that educational researchers in New Zealand should have a specific commitment to encouraging and facilitating research by Māori, research in te reo Māori, and research that promotes the aspirations of Māori (NZARE, 2010).

If you plan to carry out research which involves whanau, this “Researching with whanau collectives” paper (supplementary) provides a whanau researcher guideline to serve as an ethical framework.

Ethical Considerations for Your Action Plan

For RESEARCH 2, criterion 3, you are asked to explain how you will collect data for your Teacher Inquiry from relevant members of your community/communities (this will be explained in more detail in the class notes of week 23) and to consider ethical principles/guidelines for this process. You need to check that your method(s) of data collection follow ethical procedures and education-relevant ethical guidelines such as those presented above.

As you are going to implement your Action Plan in the PRACTICE course, It is important that you think about the ethical implications early and explain how you will address possible ethical issues you may encounter when you collect data for your Teacher Inquiry.

The following table lists some example questions to help you to consider the ethical issues related to the data collection method, you can download the template and answer these questions after looking at the class notes of week 23. Note: You do NOT need to include this table in your Action Plan.

Table 1: Ethical consideration for your Teacher Inquiry project (template to download)

What are the possible ethical issues/questions that I need to deal with /answer?	Y/N	Related data collection method(s)	What are the possible solutions to mitigate the harm?	When would the mitigation be introduced?
Will the students lose any learning opportunities when they take part in this Teacher Inquiry?
Will you seek parental consent (e.g. to video their children)?		Observation by recording student interaction
Will personal data be collected? And if so will it be confidentially and anonymously?
Will you use students’ writing samples anonymously?
Will an interview or survey be imposed on students?
Will the participants be made fully aware of all intended uses of the information, for what period of time, and the potential effects of this use?
Will the respondents be given the content and purpose of the data collection (e.g. survey or interview etc. ) so that they may make an informed judgment about whether they wish to participate?

Integrating the Principles of Kaupapa Māori Research into Your Action Plan

As part of your ongoing professional learning, you need to consider what it takes to successfully carry out your Teacher Inquiry with Māori learners, and how to further develop your cultural competence while integrating the Principles of Kaupapa Māori in your Teacher Inquiry.

To help you fulfill criterion 4 of RESEARCH 2 (explain how you integrate Kaupapa Māori principles into your Inquiry) we have been providing example questions in each week’s class notes to link the weekly course content/topic at different phases of your Spiral of Inquiry model to relevant Kaupapa Māori approaches (principles of Te Noho Kotahitanga), and you have hopefully been recording your thoughts about the relevant principles and considerations to your eportfolio.

Again, this week, we ask you reflect one of the Kaupapa Māori approaches - Kia piki ake i ngā raruraru o te kāinga - The Principle of Socio-Economic Mediation, how could your inquiry addresses community needs or priorities of Māori students with socio-economic disadvantages? How can this Principle be applied to the ethical consideration of your Inquiry that have been discussed in the previous section?

As we mentioned in week 17’s class notes, according to the Katoa Ltd website the potential of Kaupapa Māori is based upon six intervention elements or principles:

• Tino Rangatiratanga - The Principle of Self-determination (Week 18 & 19)
• Taonga Tuku Iho - The Principle of Cultural Aspiration (Week 18 & 23)
• Ako Māori - The Principle of Culturally Preferred Pedagogy (Week 19 and 23)
• Kia piki ake i ngā raruraru o te kāinga - The Principle of Socio-Economic Mediation (Week 22)
• Whānau - The Principle of Extended Family Structure (Week 20 & 21)
• Kaupapa - The Principle of Collective Philosophy (Week 20)

To enhance our understanding of these principles and their application, there are publications from New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER). You may wish to revisit Indigenous epistemology in a national curriculum framework?” (MacFarlane, Glynn, Grace, Penetito & Bateman, 2008) (supplementary) about the key competencies and the values, beliefs and preferred practices that are embodied within an indigenous Māori cultural worldview.

Now it is the time to integrate your thoughts into your Action Plan by answering some questions such as:

• How would you apply a Kaupapa Māori approach to knowledge gathering?
• How would you apply a Kaupapa Māori approach in developing your research questions?
• How would you apply a Kaupapa Māori approach to identifying community priorities, plan data collection, or put your plan into action?

References

Blaxter, L., Hughes, C. & Tight, M. (2006). How to research. (3rd Ed.), Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.

Kaser, L. & J. Halbert. (2017). The Spiral Playbook: Leading with an inquiring mindsetin school systems and schools. C21 Canada. Retrieved from http://c21canada.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Spiral-Playbook.pdf

Kaupapa Māori Research [Web log post]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.kat oa.net.nz/kaupapa-maori

MacFarlane, A., Glynn, T., Grace, W., Penetito, W & Bateman, S. (2008). Indigenous epistemology in a national curriculum framework? Ethnicities, 8(1), 102-127.

New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE). (2010). NZARE Ethical Guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.nzare.org.nz/portals/306/images/Files/NZARE%20EthicalGuidelines2010.pdf

Timperley, H., Kaser, L., and Halbert, J. (2014, April). A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry. Centre for Strategic Education, Seminar Series Paper No. 234. https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/49.%20Spiral%20of%20Inquiry%20Paper%20-%20Timperley%20Kaser%20Halbert.pdf