One chairperson’s experience of ethical review: balancing principle, convention, relationship and risk in educational research

Abstract

The author’s experience of ethical review over six years as an academic member and chairperson of a university human ethics committee has been largely positive and educative. The account brings together archival records and personal experience to create a ‘transactive’ account of the practical experience of doing ethical review in one university setting. The first part briefly considers the limitations in some common criticisms made of human ethics committees; the second gives a brief personal biography of committee membership; the third uses trend data to exemplify the range of activity in one institutional human ethics committee; and the fourth part uses selected incidents to illustrate discursive tensions of ethical principle, discipline, relationship and risk specific to educational research. The conclusion tentatively suggests some utilitarian steps toward a more informed view of the work of institutional human ethics committees in the review of educational research.