The ethics and integrity of research with schools, families and communities

This paper aims to offer the reader an overview of how Research Circles (RC), as a tool for Participatory Action Research (Persson, 2009), can be used as an ethical research methodological approach with educational settings, families and communities. Research Circles provide the distinct advantage of navigating and mitigating common ethical issues and maintaining the integrity of the research process - starting from the initial research idea and including the report writing phases and dissemination. Our current RC explores the impact of a newly implemented specialist autism provision within a UK primary school. Therefore, it is essential that viewpoints, actions and the effectiveness of the provision include all stakeholders’ honest voices. This collaborative and participatory nature helps to ensure that all ethical issues such as the lack of obtainment of a truly informed participant consent, confidentiality breach (Cohen et al., 2007) or the research itself being imposed onto all participants (Coghlan & Brydon-Miller, 2014) are sustained. For example, the RC principles of the ‘circle as a collaborative space’ aid all stakeholders in understanding and adhering to the research integrity principles, such as openness, sensitivity, and scientific impartiality (Cohen et al., 2007). A brief introduction of the RC methodology's main principles of democracy, agency and power of knowledge (Holmstrand et al., 2017) and examples of its employment are provided. Lastly, aspects as how RC methodology helps to support ongoing ethical issues, preserves research integrity, and provides research participants, schools, families, and communities the role as active agents are highlighted.