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Informed consent, gatekeepers and go-betweens: negotiating consent in child- and youth-orientated institutions

Informed consent, gatekeepers and go-betweens: negotiating consent in child- and youth-orientated institutions
Informed consent, gatekeepers and go-betweens: negotiating consent in child- and youth-orientated institutions
Gaining informed consent from research participants is widely regarded as central to ethical research practice. This paper reports on research which sought to identify contemporary practice in this area amongst researchers working in fields where research participants are often constructed as vulnerable within the research process, and where their potential involvement tends to be mediated by institutional gatekeepers. Drawing on telephone interview and focus group data, the paper focuses specifically on the experiences of researchers working with children and young people. It highlights the tensions experienced by many researchers between a personal commitment to an ethical framework which seeks to prioritise the agency and competency of children and young people, and the conditions imposed upon them by working within institutional settings where these principles may be undermined. Our research suggests that the consent practices of child- and youth-orientated institutions, however much frowned upon, tend to go largely unchallenged by researchers, to the detriment of the rights of children and young people to opt in and out of research on their own behalf
0141-1926
403-417
Heath, Sue
f4df85b4-fdde-4353-8641-08a4b9fbbcae
Charles, Vikki
d0c792df-7763-43a0-a73b-1d9212243982
Crow, Graham
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Wiles, Rose
5bdc597b-716c-4f60-9f45-631ecca25571
Heath, Sue
f4df85b4-fdde-4353-8641-08a4b9fbbcae
Charles, Vikki
d0c792df-7763-43a0-a73b-1d9212243982
Crow, Graham
723761e4-bba1-4eba-9672-e7029f547fce
Wiles, Rose
5bdc597b-716c-4f60-9f45-631ecca25571

Heath, Sue, Charles, Vikki, Crow, Graham and Wiles, Rose (2007) Informed consent, gatekeepers and go-betweens: negotiating consent in child- and youth-orientated institutions. British Educational Research Journal, 33 (3), 403-417. (doi:10.1080/01411920701243651).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Gaining informed consent from research participants is widely regarded as central to ethical research practice. This paper reports on research which sought to identify contemporary practice in this area amongst researchers working in fields where research participants are often constructed as vulnerable within the research process, and where their potential involvement tends to be mediated by institutional gatekeepers. Drawing on telephone interview and focus group data, the paper focuses specifically on the experiences of researchers working with children and young people. It highlights the tensions experienced by many researchers between a personal commitment to an ethical framework which seeks to prioritise the agency and competency of children and young people, and the conditions imposed upon them by working within institutional settings where these principles may be undermined. Our research suggests that the consent practices of child- and youth-orientated institutions, however much frowned upon, tend to go largely unchallenged by researchers, to the detriment of the rights of children and young people to opt in and out of research on their own behalf

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Published date: 2007
Organisations: Sociology & Social Policy

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 40804
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/40804
ISSN: 0141-1926
PURE UUID: 5fafbe8b-06cd-493c-b906-735eb9fa2a72

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Date deposited: 10 Jul 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 08:22

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Contributors

Author: Sue Heath
Author: Vikki Charles
Author: Graham Crow
Author: Rose Wiles

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