StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Ethical Issues with Research on Lack of Parental Involvement and Childrens Education - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Social research is both theoretical and empirical. This paper looks at the ethical issues related to research work on the lack of parental involvement and its effects on the education of their children. A social research project on this topic involves a wide range of skills and activities…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER91.4% of users find it useful
Ethical Issues with Research on Lack of Parental Involvement and Childrens Education
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Ethical Issues with Research on Lack of Parental Involvement and Childrens Education"

Ethical Issues with Research on Lack of Parental Involvement and Children’s Education Social research is both theoretical and empirical. It is theoretical because it is concerned with developing, exploring, or testing theories or ideas that social researchers have about how the world operates, for example, the effects of parental involvement on children’s education. It is also empirical, because it is based on observations and measurements of reality, on what the researcher perceives about the world. Social research is essentially comparing theories based on observations about how the world works. However, since the subject of the research is the observed behavior of human beings, social research also requires the practice of ethical behavior. This paper looks at the ethical issues related to research work on the lack of parental involvement and its effects on the education of their children. A social research project on this topic involves a wide range of skills and activities. It requires the ability to work well with people of a wide variety, not to mention having a good understanding of the specific methods and techniques of conducting research. The researcher must understand the subject matter under study to properly craft an appropriate hypothesis and design methods to investigate it. Once the experiments are conducted and the results are out, the researcher has to publish the findings to contribute to the body of knowledge. This is one main reason why ethical issues need to be considered; for the research findings to be considered a genuine contribution to science, it has to be objectively arrived at, using methods that are objective. A researcher cannot manipulate tests to prove his/her hypothesis; neither can they publish false results. This demands the highest behavioral standards of ethics, which concerns the doing what is right and avoiding doing harm to others. Ethical considerations influence the research design because, by definition, conducting a research study scientifically may require the researcher to do things s/he does not normally do, such as controlling program implementation, asking research study participants some questions that may be inherently confidential and extraordinary. Budgets for research studies may also be limited, so researchers need to find the best tradeoff between the rigor and practicality, i.e., between the objectivity of results and the availability of funds and time. A researcher should, in addition to deciding on the feasibility of the research and the costs involved, question whether there are important ethical constraints that need consideration. However, the main reason why social research must consider ethical issues with the research topic per se and the research process is that the subjects are human persons and, more specifically on the topic of studying the effects of parental involvement or the lack thereof, children of minor age. As a complicating factor, research on this topic demands the challenge of isolating the hypothetical cause (lack of parental involvement) from another plausible cause (poor performance of the teacher in school). Each potential subject cause – parent or teacher – would have a human tendency to blame the other for the child’s poor performance. This is why in previous studies on the topic, researchers had to isolate the quality of teachers or school instruction. Feinstein and Symons (1999) argued that children achieve more when they have parents who show high levels of interest in their schooling, regardless of the quality of the teachers or instruction. On the other hand, Henderson (2007) testified that close and regular communications between teachers and families is an effective strategy to improve student achievement, assuming that classroom teaching is effective in the first place. There would be no problem with the objectivity of research results provided the assumptions, or the tests for their veracity, are clear. However, dealing with human subjects and investigating the behavior of minors, would bring about a number of ethical issues in the research study investigating the effects of lack of parental involvement on children’s education. Besides, the research study topic presents a direct challenge to some of its subjects: parents and teachers whose duty includes the proper education of children. This is one reason for valuing the American Psychological Association (APA) Code of Ethics, which provides guidelines on ethical behavior for psychology professionals who carry out research and practice. The latest version of the Code (APA, 2002) has a Preamble and a set of General Principles that provide aspirational goals guiding psychologists toward the highest ideals of psychology. Although the Preamble and General Principles are not enforceable rules, psychologists consider them in arriving at ethical courses of action. The Ethics Code is not exhaustive but is written broadly enough to apply to the activities of psychologists as part of their scientific, educational, or professional roles. In relation to the study of the effects of a lack of parental involvement in the education of children, what key ethical considerations are associated with the study? In addition to the key ethical issues related to research design discussed briefly earlier, there are those related to informed consent, confidentiality, deception and accuracy, and multiple relationships. One central problem related to the research topic is how to measure parental involvement, both in its quantity (minutes or hours per day?) or quality (what takes place during those minutes or hours the parent and child are together?). Some children need more, while others need less, and not only because some children and parents are smarter than others, but because some teachers may be better than others. Comparing data from interviews of parents with those derived from interviews of children would establish objectivity and scientific rigor. At the same time, teachers and their performance need to be taken into account, and unless the terms of research reference are clear, the information gathered would be deceptive and of doubtful integrity (APA, 2002, §8.07). This is where informed consent is important because it clarifies the research hypothesis to everyone involved: what is the study trying to prove? The study attempts to establish a causal link between two variables: (1) degree of parental involvement and (2) children’s performance (past research shows a positive correlation between the two). Offhand, the study is neither judgmental towards teachers and, more delicately, towards the quality of parenting, but the findings can be inaccurately interpreted as such. While the teacher’s full and objective participation is important, the study could hold the variable of teaching quality constant by involving only those subjects (children and parents) who belong to the classes of teachers that have been objectively judged as being of high quality (unless, like the 1999 study of Feinstein and Symons, teacher quality is deemed irrelevant). The role of parents would be more difficult to isolate because their involvement is a direct variable. When obtaining informed consent as required by the APA Code (2002, §3.10 and §8.02), “the psychologist must inform participants about (1) the purpose of the research, expected duration, and procedures; (2) their right to decline to participate and to withdraw from the research once participation has begun; (3) the foreseeable consequences of declining or withdrawing; (4) reasonably foreseeable factors that may be expected to influence their willingness to participate such as potential risks, discomfort, or adverse effects; (5) any prospective research benefits; (6) limits of confidentiality; (7) incentives for participation; and (8) whom to contact for questions about the research and research participants’ rights. They provide opportunity for the prospective participants to ask questions and receive answers”. In the case of the involvement of minors in the research, the researcher must apply §3.10 (b) of the APA Code which applies to “persons who are legally incapable of giving informed consent”, which applies to the case of the children-subjects. All these must be clearly stated in the consent letter for the subjects or legal guardians in the case of children, as in this study. The other ethical issue is that of confidentiality (APA, 2002, §4.02) arising from the relationships among the different subjects: parents, teachers, and children-students. For the research results to be objective, each party should be assured that their responses would be held in strict confidence for the obvious reason that other parties to the research study exercises undue power over the other. Teachers can decide to fail students who provide negative feedback, or the parents can punish their children, who are the most helpless of the three and need protection. The researchers must ensure the protection of privacy but at the same time inform subjects of the limits of confidentiality. There are risks involved that the researcher must realistically minimize, especially when using e-mail or keeping digital files, or when these channels are used to send or receive research data which could be compromised and affect the study’s objectivity. Lastly, ethical issues of accuracy affect the whole study, from establishing parameters for measuring parental involvement and school performance to the interpretation and publication of the research findings. How would parental involvement be measured? This would require both objective (such as attendance to school activities or parents’ meetings) and subjective (degree of attention or participation in these gatherings) measures, and direct (tutoring for so many hours each day) and indirect (cooking nutritious meals and taking them with the children) methods of involvement. To add to the complexity of the topic, can a full-time parent who can tutor his son for an hour or two a day be ethically and objectively compared to a working parent who may not have the time and whose involvement is limited to sending her child motivational mobile phone messages a few minutes each afternoon? And given that each child’s level of intelligence is unique, how would the research accurately measure their educational performance? Accuracy of interpretation is an ethical issue because biases affect research judgment and conclusions based on situational, personal, linguistic, and cultural differences with the subjects (APA, 2002, §9.06). Reference List American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. (Adopted August 21, 2002). Washington, DC: Author. Feinstein, L. & Symons, J. (1999). Attainment in secondary school. Oxford Economic Papers, 51(2), p. 300-321. Henderson, A.T. (2007). Testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on NCLB Reauthorization: Effective strategies for engaging parents and communities in schools, 28 March 2007. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Ethical Issues with Research on Lack of Parental Involvement and Essay”, n.d.)
Ethical Issues with Research on Lack of Parental Involvement and Essay. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/education/1541193-ethical-issues-with-research-on-lack-of-parental-involvement-and-childrens-education
(Ethical Issues With Research on Lack of Parental Involvement and Essay)
Ethical Issues With Research on Lack of Parental Involvement and Essay. https://studentshare.org/education/1541193-ethical-issues-with-research-on-lack-of-parental-involvement-and-childrens-education.
“Ethical Issues With Research on Lack of Parental Involvement and Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/education/1541193-ethical-issues-with-research-on-lack-of-parental-involvement-and-childrens-education.
  • Cited: 1 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Ethical Issues with Research on Lack of Parental Involvement and Childrens Education

Why are Schools and Children Failing

There are different reasons to understand this rising question; low parental involvement, poor education system, lack of funding, poor focus on the development of teachers, curriculum, and lack of interest in students are the emerging factors contributing to low-quality education.... Similarly, high school dropout rates are mostly the outcome of low parental involvement, keen involvement of students in other social activities, poor understanding of course material, financial issues, problems in understanding the language, social pressure, and different psychological disorders....
8 Pages (2000 words) Research Paper

Mothers - Living with Mental Illness and their Children

the study also focuses on the ethical issues surrounding the personal accounts of affected mothers to allow sufficient analysis.... Some ethical issues surrounding the topic will also be tackled while some personal accounts of affected mothers will be raised to allow sufficient and fair analysis of the situation.... issues of the incapability to fulfill their parenting responsibilities have to lead to incidences of separation of the children....
17 Pages (4250 words) Research Proposal

Educational Achievement of Looked After Children

It adds that they further compromised with the lack of placements available.... The report also called for plans to be more specific, and for educational and health planning to reflect the parental responsibility of the authority concerned in the study, it was found that on one hand, care plans did perform their function of giving courts the information they needed to consider before making an order (NCB, 2011).... hellip; An investigation into the educational achievements of the looked after children is an equally wide research field that: - will expose a further area of research work and the research will also help in the production of the recommendations that are likely to further help in supporting the looked after children....
12 Pages (3000 words) Research Proposal

Middle-Class Secondary School Pupils Achieve More Academically Than Lower Class Students

However, several researchers strongly believe that every student has similar ability irrespective of the class, which signify that differences in academic achievement are subjected to other factors of society such as low expectations, low ambitions and lack of deferred indulgence among others that are quite apparent amid lower-class students (Ford, 2013).... Basically, lack of money combined with the absence of skill and good attitude contributes to the academic performance of pupils (Barry, 2005)....
16 Pages (4000 words) Research Proposal

Communication between Hearing Parents and Their Deaf Children in Saudi Arabia

The paper "Communication between Hearing Parents and Their Deaf Children in Saudi Arabia" states that there is a lack of literature devoted to the topic of methods of communication that work best for hearing parents in interactions with their deaf children.... hellip; Part of the initial permission-gathering phase in the case of this data collection procedure will be to obtain permission from parents to have the written survey sent to their permanent address for them to complete in the convenience of their own home and to avoid inconveniencing parents and disrupting children's education....
13 Pages (3250 words) Research Proposal

Parental Involvement in Childrens Education: Why Does It Make a Difference

The paper "parental involvement in Children's Education: Why Does It Make a Difference" describes that 4 groups of participants will be identified for the study.... When parents are actively involved in the life of children, especially in aspects concerning education, their children are more likely to see the benefits of education and develop positive attitudes towards learning.... However, the degree of parent involvement in education varies immensely....
11 Pages (2750 words) Research Proposal

Does Parental Involvement in Homework Assist Children in Achieving Academic Grades

… The paper “Does parental involvement in Homework Assist Children in Achieving Academic Grades That Qualify Them for University?... The paper “Does parental involvement in Homework Assist Children in Achieving Academic Grades That Qualify Them for University?... parental involvement can be defined as parental figure participation in both the academic or social growth and progress of their children.... The research, therefore, seeks to investigate whether parental involvement in homework or academic work enhances the academic performance of their children/students (Basit 2010)....
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Proposal

Parental Engagement - Key Step to Improving Student Performance and School Reputation

To come up with effective strategies, it is important to understand the impacts of parental engagement and the barrier that hinders parental engagement in schooling and learning activities.... The impact of parental engagement in the learning activities of their children in the school.... Therefore, time constraints and lack of proper strategies by many schools have led to reduced parental engagement in learning and schooling activities.... … The paper “Parental Engagement - Key Step to Improving Student Performance and School Reputation” is an engrossing variant of a research proposal on education....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Proposal
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us