A number of ethical concerns exist in the research literature. One such is the fact that people should not participate in research by force. This is the principle of voluntary participation (Trochim, 2006). Allowing participants to choose to participate in a research study or not has some benefits including offering full information since they do not feel compelled to participate. Again, offering the participant to choose to participate in a research or not is important since it can help the researcher to know who is willing to participate in the research or not, and this is very influential to the outcome of the research. The researcher can move to engage participants who feel free to participate since they are more likely to render full information regarding the matter under investigation. This is necessary for a qualitative study, which deals with the exploration of the whole issue rather than grouping and categorization in quantitative research. I dealt with this concern by requesting permission for Grey to participate in my research. The participation included a situation or condition of him choosing to participate in the study or not. The idea of informed consent (Evans and Jabucek’s (1996) establishes that the participant is told the consequences and procedures of research and should give consent of participation. It is important to ensure respect for the rights of participants. In addition, this practice allows the notion that individuals are not means to an end in research. It allows researchers to respect the morality of individual self-perception and determination (Halasa, 2005). I asked for consent from Grey to participate and explained the need and purpose of the research. Research establishes the need for researchers to offer protection of participants from harm resulting from research participation (Bogdan and Biklen, 1992; Trochim, 2006). This is whether the harm is physical, psychological, or emotional. For this research, this was very necessary because Grey would suffer effects relating to the stabbing incidence. I achieved this by scheduling the research properly to the convenience of Grey and avoiding questions that can traumatize the client regarding the stabbing incidence he faced earlier on. Again, it was important to avoid raising questions that focused on blaming Grey regarding the occurrence of the stabbing incident. Confidentiality and privacy of the client participant are also important in any research. It is necessary to maintain privacy for clients. Covert research capitalizes on the idea that the public is told what would benefit them when they know it and hence argues there is no need to respect individuals privacy in such circumstances (Punch, 1986), but this idea receives rejection because of the need to ensure special relations between participant and the researcher (Halasa, 2005). I informed Grey of the confidentiality of the data and use of information. Almost all democratic authorities recognize the need for individual privacy as a right, and researchers respect and adhere to this. Privacy includes a limitation on what the public should know. I told Grey the intended purpose of the information or research and that I would keep private his name. The name used for the research was not the actual name of the participant, and this ensures client privacy. The limitation for accessing the actual name was thus restricted to people/me directly involved in the study and not a second party.
References
Bogdan, R., & Biklen, K. (1992) Qualitative Research for Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods. Boston, Allyn and Bacon.
Evans, T., & Jakupec, V. (1996) Research ethics in open and distance education: Context, principles and issues. Distance Education, 17, 1.
Halasa, K. (2005). Annotated Bibliography – Ethics in Educational Research. Web.
Jenkins, D. (1993) An adversary’s account of SAFARI’s ethics of case study. In Hammersley, M., (ed.) Controversies in Classroom Research. Milton Keynes, Open University Press.
Punch, M. (1986) The politics and ethics of fieldwork. Qualitative research methods, Vol. 3. Thousand Oaks, California, Sage Publications.
Trochim, W. (2006) Ethics in research.