Competing Interests between Researcher, Teacher and Student in the Ethics of Classroom Ethnography

Abstract

This article discusses ethical dilemmas which confront ethnographic research in classrooms, using my own classroom ethnography in illustration. The very capacity of ethnography for capturing an in‐depth view of day to day classroom life creates its ethical difficulties. I demonstrate how students’ interests, as reflected in the research, may come into conflict with those of their teachers and how the researcher's responsibilities to the profession may conflict with their responsibilities to certain members of the researched. In seeking a way through these issues, I explore possible alternatives to traditional ethnography such as participatory action research which largely avoids the particular ethical problems of ethnography. I argue in support of the role played by critical and interpretive ethnography, taking into account the post‐structuralist critique and explore the potential of creative non‐fiction as a report genre for critical ethnography for alleviating my ethical dilemma. The conclusion reached is that there are no simple and easy solutions and that the answers lie largely in the nature of the relationship negotiated between teacher and researcher.