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High risk yet invisible: conflicting narratives on social research involving children and young people, and the role of Research Ethics Committees

High risk yet invisible: conflicting narratives on social research involving children and young people, and the role of Research Ethics Committees
High risk yet invisible: conflicting narratives on social research involving children and young people, and the role of Research Ethics Committees
Universities have a special status in society because of the position they hold within their communities and their responsibilities for civic leadership. Consequently, there are increasing calls on universities to make their processes, teaching and finances more transparent to the general public in order to promote greater accountability. Guidance from the Association for Research Ethics Committees (2013) includes openness as one of the key principles for research ethics governance but little is known about whether universities are making information about these processes available to the public. Additionally, given the central importance of children and young people as stakeholders in education research, there is particular interest in what the available information would reveal about their inclusion in social research. A search of the websites of 33 social science research-leading institutions in the UK found that only 20 (60%) had publicly accessible information about ethics review and governance. The available information was highly variable in terms of detail, format and procedures and not very easy to locate. Information about the involvement of children and young people in social research was even more limited and variable; tending to emphasize the ‘vulnerable’ status of children as participants and yet providing little or no information about how to effectively support children to provide informed consent. The article concludes with discussion of the potentially concerning impact of this on the involvement of children and young people in research and the need for universities to do more to generate, share and encourage greater innovation in this area.
0141-1926
709-729
Parsons, Sarah
5af3382f-cda3-489c-a336-9604f3c04d7d
Abbott, Chris
f4735f5f-ede0-4ebf-bca5-a304c446f813
McKnight, Lorna
57dda017-f3ac-4118-bf66-43b88d74c06d
Davies, Chris
21f8d0fa-b998-4c0e-9c34-f9515597c05a
Parsons, Sarah
5af3382f-cda3-489c-a336-9604f3c04d7d
Abbott, Chris
f4735f5f-ede0-4ebf-bca5-a304c446f813
McKnight, Lorna
57dda017-f3ac-4118-bf66-43b88d74c06d
Davies, Chris
21f8d0fa-b998-4c0e-9c34-f9515597c05a

Parsons, Sarah, Abbott, Chris, McKnight, Lorna and Davies, Chris (2015) High risk yet invisible: conflicting narratives on social research involving children and young people, and the role of Research Ethics Committees. British Educational Research Journal, 41 (4), 709-729. (doi:10.1002/berj.3160).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Universities have a special status in society because of the position they hold within their communities and their responsibilities for civic leadership. Consequently, there are increasing calls on universities to make their processes, teaching and finances more transparent to the general public in order to promote greater accountability. Guidance from the Association for Research Ethics Committees (2013) includes openness as one of the key principles for research ethics governance but little is known about whether universities are making information about these processes available to the public. Additionally, given the central importance of children and young people as stakeholders in education research, there is particular interest in what the available information would reveal about their inclusion in social research. A search of the websites of 33 social science research-leading institutions in the UK found that only 20 (60%) had publicly accessible information about ethics review and governance. The available information was highly variable in terms of detail, format and procedures and not very easy to locate. Information about the involvement of children and young people in social research was even more limited and variable; tending to emphasize the ‘vulnerable’ status of children as participants and yet providing little or no information about how to effectively support children to provide informed consent. The article concludes with discussion of the potentially concerning impact of this on the involvement of children and young people in research and the need for universities to do more to generate, share and encourage greater innovation in this area.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 28 July 2014
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 March 2015
Published date: 6 August 2015

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 367336
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/367336
ISSN: 0141-1926
PURE UUID: 48229263-109e-42ae-93d9-e02b734b731d
ORCID for Sarah Parsons: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2542-4745

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Date deposited: 22 Aug 2014 13:36
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:38

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Contributors

Author: Sarah Parsons ORCID iD
Author: Chris Abbott
Author: Lorna McKnight
Author: Chris Davies

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