Expecting the Unexpected: How Novice Researchers Negotiate Unexpected Ethical Issues

Abstract

Conducting ethical research extends far beyond a compulsory ethics application form completed prior to research beginning, especially when using iterative qualitative methodologies. Ethically responsible researchers must constantly ponder how to deal with unpredictable ethical moments that occur in the field. This thesis draws together the stories of ten novice researchers, who researched with qualitative methods within the social sciences, to explore the unexpected ethical issues that arose post procedural ethics, and how these unexpected ethical issues were negotiated. Using thematic analysis, this thesis identifies that all ten participants experienced what Guillemin and Gillam called “ethically important moments” and had to revise their “procedural ethics” once in the field, in three common areas. First, researchers had to negotiate getting past gatekeepers and into research sites. Second, researchers could not predict the limits confidentiality would place on their research. Third, researchers found that managing their own moral compass, and researching with integrity was particularly when practitioner or virtue ethics clashed with research ethics. The thesis that argues unexpected ethical issues are likely to occur during ethics in practice for qualitative researchers, and novice researchers therefore need to employ a variety of techniques to successfully negotiate these ethically important moments in order to complete their research. Alongside this, ethics committees and graduate advisors could do more to prepare graduate students for the unexpected.