ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ethics of pedagogic participatory research in general, and how to approach ethics for a specific project in a pedagogic and participatory way. On a philosophical level, some of the ethical debates on issues such as confidentiality and anonymity need to be contextualized with the different underpinning ethical paradigms. Therefore, ethical consideration should also be given to the settings for research, and interviewees' expectations of research processes, with an aim to redress issue of power. Considerations could be extended to a consideration of the quality and diversity of the responses a piece of research will elicit – an ethical issue in itself. Ethics within participatory research can be considered either as a minefield or an illumination of the conceptual contradictions within research ethics. It exemplifies how ethics has been constructed with positivist science in mind, and through a lens of western ethics.
