This paper explores the ethics of educational connoisseurship and educational criticism. Three ethical criteria commonly used in social research--informed consent, avoidance of harm to participants, and confidentiality--are identified and applied to a particular case of educational criticism in a study conducted on teacher coping strategies. The paper argues that the conventional ethics of social research fail to provide an adequate ethical basis for the practice of educational criticism. Alternative ethical guidelines for criticism and for qualitative research in general are suggested. (CB)