When ethical issues meet cultural differences Working with English underachieving adolescents Kai Ren Graduate School of Education, Bristol University

My PhD: a Mixed Methods Case Study Quantitative data collection of learning power data and achievement and demographic data of 1000 Y9 students in 4 English schools. Qualitative data collection to gain an in-depth view of student learning identity and agency. Intervention study with a sub group of underachievers, based on the data acquired .

General ethical concerns Data protection Participant’s consent and right of withdrawal Access to findings

More moral concerns The identification as underachiever may risk some negative effect on the selected students.

To adopt A positive, respectful and caring attitude towards every participant when working amongst them.

Real-world ethics: more complex Episode 1 The story about me directly emailing my teenage participants… This is sth. about ethics.

My ethical dilemma: Is it inappropriate to write to your adolescent participants even if you are trying to help them?

Real-world ethics: more complex Episode 2 The story about meeting one-on-on with my teenage participants This is sth. about ethics.

My ethical dilemma: I am only a male PhD student from China doing research with English teenagers. Do I really need a criminal record check before I can talk to them individually?

Reflections Tensions exist between doing my research conveniently and strictly following the ethical guidelines. This is sth. about ethics.

Reflections Cultural differences seem to complicate the ethical issues in educational research . This is sth. about ethics.

Reflections The researcher needs to develop awareness of cross-cultural ethics and handle the issues carefully. This is sth. about ethics.

Ethics ~ A beautiful mind Thanks ! This is sth. about ethics.