Teacher–student sexual relations: key risks and ethical issues

Abstract

Researching actual or purported sexual contact between teachers and students raises many difficult ethical issues, questions and dilemmas, which may help to explain why few have ventured into the field. This experientially based paper addresses key problem areas under the headings of: the ethics of researching a sensitive taboo topic; the ethics of challenging normative notions and master narratives around child abuse and protection; obtaining ethical clearance to study teachers, pupils and sex; ethical issues related to giving voice to teachers considered or alleged to have committed sexual offences against students; and ethical issues around the protection and re-presentation of research participants. The paper considers the difficulties faced when seeking to conduct critical transformative ethical ethnographic research which is committed to child protection, whilst challenging practices and legislation which can lead to the perpetration of serious social injustice against teachers.

Keywords:

• research ethics
• researching sensitive topics
• teacher–pupil relations
• child protection

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Yvonne Downs and Peter Hannon for comments on a previous version of this paper.

Notes

1. Heather Piper is at the Education and Social Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK.

2. It is worth noting that at the same time as the master narrative of children as innocent and asexual is being used to support child protection procedures and legislation, in some places young people are being depicted as amoral, promiscuous, vicious, fecund, in need of tight control and regulation. The co-existence of these two contradictory views further adds to the complexities of research in this area. The challenge is to unsettle both representations and not to reinforce one by undermining the other.

3. Of course, there is a fundamental difference in that we know that paedophiles exist whereas there is no evidential basis for witches even though our forebears believed there to be.