Think of a situation that you might face in conducting your research that conflict with

research ethics. Describe your situation, what decision you make & why. Give
justifications on your decision
Ensuring understanding
What happened?
An inexperienced researcher was carrying out a study that involved doing developmental tests
with children in schools. By prior arrangement, she would visit the family home, and would seek
consent to arrange to visit the child at school.
On one occasion, the researcher visited a family for whom English was an additional language.
Both parents and their children were at home, and their English was limited, but the researcher
judged they had understood, and consented. They signed consent for the school visit, and made
the researcher very welcome even insisting that she stayed for lunch.
A week or so later, as arranged, the researcher visited the school to see the child. On arrival, the
head teacher explained that the childs older sister had said her parents were very worried about
the visit they didnt know who the researcher was, and that a neighbour (who spoke the familys
language) had read the information leaflet and told the parents that the researcher was probably
a social worker. It was clear that they hadnt understood when they consented to the school visit.
What did the researcher do?
She ended the research interaction. She asked the head teacher to explain to the children, and
apologized for the misunderstanding. She talked through next steps with the head teacher, and
the head arranged for someone who spoke the familys language (a worker in the school, who
was known to the family) to contact them and apologies, and explain the misunderstanding. The
researcher also removed the familys data from the study, and the school worker told the family
that was being done.
She terminated the research interaction because she was concerned about the participants
understanding. She knows it is better to come back when she is better prepared than to muddle
through and jeopardize informed consent.