ERIC Number: EJ1240802
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1364-5579
EISSN: N/A
Negotiating the Ethics of Netnography: Developing an Ethical Approach to an Online Study of Mother Perspectives
International Journal of Social Research Methodology, v23 n2 p123-137 2020
This paper discusses ethical issues surrounding Netnography, an innovative methodology, relatively unusual in Education research. It explores the ethical approach developed for a study of UK mother perspectives on primary school homework found on open-access parenting websites, reviewing issues considered at the project's outset and examining researcher decisions around the ethical stance. Using the concept of 'negotiated ethics', ethical obstacles were deliberated, to develop an appropriate ethical position and procedure which answered challenging issues arising from the methodology, research aims and particular field. Building on an existing proposition that the internet is a hybrid of space and text, the paper reveals how this conceptualisation, accompanied by an understanding of contributors to forum interaction as a type of participant-publisher, was a prerequisite for establishing the ethical grounds. The paper recommends tailoring ethics procedures to the nuanced contexts of individual online projects, their methodologies, topics and fields.
Descriptors: Ethics, Educational Research, Research Methodology, Social Science Research, Ethnography, Communities of Practice, Mother Attitudes, Elementary School Students, Homework, Internet, Web Sites, Foreign Countries, Data Analysis, Privacy
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A