Educational research and research in the Social Sciences more generally, has experienced a growth in the introduction of ethical review boards since the 1990s. Increasingly, universities have set up ethics review procedures that require researchers to submit applications seeking approval to conduct research. Review boards and the rules and conditions which they operate have been criticised as obstructive (Parsell et al., 2014), unnecessarily bureaucratic (Sikes and Piper, 2010; Velardo and Elliot 2018), and even unethical (Henderson and Esposito, 2017;Parsell et al., 2014).At the same time, review boards and their procedures have been acknowledged as contributing to consideration of the ethical conduct of research (Breckler, 2005). This paper explores the issues related to ethical review and examines the wider ethical considerations that may arise during the research process. The paper concludes that a purely administrative process of review is inadequate to ensure the ethical conduct of research, especially qualitative research. Rather, it is argued that ethical research entails the resolution of a potential series of ethical dilemmas as they arise during research. As such, the ethical conduct of research is a matter of researcher formation and development.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

In November 2003, the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) commissioned the SCRE Centre at the University of Glasgow to evaluate the impact of Section 15 of the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc Act 2000. The evaluation took place between January 2004 and August 2005. A major strand of the research was the impact of the presumption of mainstreaming on special schools, including an exploration of the changing role of special schools, and the changing demands on staff in special education. The evidence presented in this paper suggests that whilst there may be widespread support for specialist provision within a policy climate of inclusion, the sector has undergone significant changes in the last few years. These changes have had a particular impact on the curriculum, teaching and learning, and ‘specialness’ of special schools. However, not all of these changes are due to the impact of mainstreaming.