ABSTRACT
Application to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for the protection of human subjects has long been one of the first stops an educational researcher makes before embarking overseas. This chapter examines polices that are applied to working with marginalised populations and data collection outside the North American context. It considers how other countries view the protection of human subjects and examine the inherent Western ideology of the IRB and the compatibility of its requirements in research conducted in other cultural contexts. IRB committees review the researchers interaction with participants for the purpose of protecting those subjects physical, social, legal, and psychological well-being from any intended or unintended negative consequences of the research process. Institutional control of the research process is exercised in part through the IRB review of research proposals and is legitimised by published legalistic guidelines. The examination of the IRB in determining research protocol outside the United States challenges its institutional control of research processes.
