How I plan to overcome the ethical issues surrounding conducting research in a school environment.

For this inquiry I plan to conduct interviews and perform case studies on students in my three chosen schools. In order to do this I will have to address a number of ethical issues which arise when dealing with minors. My first concern is getting parental consent.  In an article written by Danny Doyle entitled ‘Trans-Disciplinary Inquiry- Researching with rather then Researching on’ (2007) he outlines some of issues one might face conducting an inquiry such as this. In this article he speaks of a teacher/researcher who is trying to gain parental consent to question and interview her students as part of her research project. Initially consent was not granted as the parents could not see how by partaking in this research would benefit their child, all they saw was time being taken way from their education. Doyle suggested that had she aimed to obtain informed consent form the parent’s from the outset then she might not have received this initially scepticism from the parents. By informed consent I mean she should have explained to the parents in detail the purpose of the inquiry/investigation, give an outline of the content of the part of the inquiry that their children will be taking part in, and explain how the inquiry will benefit their child.

Doyle also suggests that to a certain extent the decision to be part of the inquiry should be left up to the student, if the student can be considered a ‘Gillick’[i]. The majority of the students I will be working with can be considered Gillicks but I am still going to seek parental consent as I am unsure how widely understood this concept is and I do not want parents complaining that I have not go through the proper procedures.  I plan to send letters out to the parents of each child I wish to use in my inquiry, giving a detailed description of what the child’s involvement will entail, how the inquiry will benefit their child, stressing to the parents that involvement in the inquiry will in no way impede on their school work and will take up minimal amount of their time.  This is a point that I plan to discuss with my employer and tutor because I do not want the students to think that I do not think that they are competent to make the decision themselves, as Masson said ‘Where children have the capacity to make a decision, parents’ power over that area of the child’s life is ended unless preserved by statute law. Consequently, a parent cannot consent to research on behalf of a competent child.’ (Masson, 2000 p.39) So at the moment I am in two minds as to what to do.  I believe that a number of the students can be considered competent and thus should be allowed to make the decision themselves but at the same time I do not want to get into any sort of altercation with parents because they think that i have not made them full aware of what is happening with regards to their children.   

I have decided that it will be best if all involved in the inquiry, the students, teachers and names of the schools remain anonymous. I think by doing this I will get rid of some of the confidentiality issues that might arise. It has been advised to me to do this by somebody who has recently underetaken a similar research project. This researcher chose not to do this and found that she was being constantly questioned by parents about the content and outcome of the interviews. By keeping all subjects anonymous the information gathered can be kept confidential until the inquiry is finished. I will of course be discussing elements of the inquiry with colleagues but this will be to get their feedback but as I will be working to a very tight schedule I want to ensure that all engagement in this inquiry will in some way add to it. As mentioned previously I plan to look at three contrasting art departments, gathering information from staff and students, I plan to give them factious names i.e. school x and pupil 2. Any questionnaires will be anonymous, distributed and collected in large numbers so that I will be unable to associate the answers with a particular person.  Another issue I am grappling with at present is how to keep the art departments anonymous. I will not use any names but because the three departments are so different it will be obvious which one I am talking about. At present I am unsure how to overcome this problem.  In his article Doyle using an outline set up by the NTRP, asks, and ‘is there a code of practice for the ethical conduct of research? Are there assurances about:

Whether the school and/or teachers will remain anonymous?

Whether the contribution of the school and the teachers is to be acknowledged and how?

How the data collection about teachers, teaching and learning or other aspects of school organisation are to be checked with those involved in generating them? For example will, teachers who are interviewed have access to records of the interview? Will the teachers or the school have a chance to comment on profiles draft questionnaires, proformas, interview schedules?

Whether the sample will target a range of teacher effectiveness and how is this to be defined. If so what will teachers need and want to know about how their work is being evaluated? Whether the teacher and/or the school have chance to comment on written outputs?

How disagreements about data or reports will be negotiated and reconciled? And whether there are proper arrangements for observing pupils and for parental permission? (NTRP, 2003)

I think this pretty clearly outlines a lot of the issues that I should mainly be considering, some of the questions I already have an answer to, some of which I am still considering, by having this outline I have a clearer idea of ethical areas for consideration when creating the inquiry proposal and conducting the inquiry. 

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[i] ‘In 1986, the House of Lords decided in the case of Gillick V West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority that parental rights are not absolute rights. They are exercised by parents on behalf of children too young to exercise them for themselves. The case concerned a teenage child’s right to consent to medical treatment without the parents’ knowledge. Lord Fraser said that the degree of parental control varied according to the child’s understanding and intelligence.’  Danny Doyle ‘Trans-Disciplinary Inquiry- Researching with rather then Researching on’ (2007)

Ethical issues that have arisen as an art educator/educator in general:

The most important ethical issue I have encountered whilst working in a school environment is to have a strong understanding of child safeguarding policies, general ones that follow Government standards and the individual one that are put in place by the individual establishments. These policies are put in place not only to protect the students and their wellbeing but also to ensure that the members of staff do not put themselves in a position where they could be held liable in order to do this you should be aware of the child protection act and other such relevant legal documents. From a member of staff’s point of view you should conduct yourself at all times in a manner that is deemed to be appropriate. You are taught through staff meeting and inset days how to identify when a student is being bullied in school and what responsibilities you have to help the student and who you have to make aware of this. It is also the responsibility of staff members to be able to identify when a student is being abused at home or being neglected, again it is you have to know how to initially council the child and who need to be informed so that the student can get the necessary help. Not only is this your responsibility but if you do not you could be held liable. During school hours the teacher are put in a position of loco parentis, meaning at all times the teachers should have the student’s best interest in mind thus they should know what is included in legal documents such as the child safety act and equality act and have an understanding of health and safety and know all of your establishment’s policies. Not only are you there to protect the students but also monitor and as much as possible try to control the students behaviour while they are at school, this includes keeping track of their attendance, informing the correct people if it drops. In my opinion if there is anything you are in doubt about or unsure if it is something you should be dealing with, inform your superior.

  I have mentioned in previous blogs about the dangers the internet and other such web2.0 platforms pose to vulnerable parties in particular children, not only the content of what they might see but also how they can use them to exclude and victimise other students. In order to try and control this, staff members should have an understanding of how these technologies can be used. If you don’t understand what it is they are doing how can you expect to prevent it? Keeping up to date with technology is also vital in the teaching of all subjects. Teaching methods are constantly adapting to incorporate these technologies to improve the teaching of the subject.

Codes of Practice for teachers:

·     Be professional at all times.

·     Have a firm grasp of health and safety.

·     Be punctual at all times.

·    At all times behave in a way that you expect the students to behave.

·    Have an understanding of legal documents such as the Child Protection Act and all of your school’s safe guarding policies.

·    Keep up to date with advancements in technology not only how you can use them in the teaching of your subject but also how the students are using them.

·    Keep up to date with your course and what is happening within the industry in which you practice.

·    Be compassionate and sensitive when it is required.

Ethical issues in the practice of art.

Whilst practising art these are some of the ethical issues that I have either been made aware of or have encounter whilst making my work. The major ethical issues I can think of all seams to steam from subject and material.

Materials:

 There has been much controversy over Marc Quinn’s sculpture ‘Self’ which is made of nine pints of his own frozen blood, a material which is commonly used by performance artists, but is it ethically acceptable to use bodily fluids as a material. Artists such as Jana Sterbak when she created ‘Flesh Dress’ or Dr Günter Von Hagen’s ‘Body Worlds’ exhibitions encountered similar problems.  Dr Von Hagen has actually been arrested on a number of occasions because of the materials he uses to create his pieces. If anybody is unfamiliar with his work, he uses corpses that have been donated for the development of science.   Bodily fluids and rotting meat have not been the only issues; Quinn’s work was in question again when he unveiled his gold sculpture of Kate Moss in 2008. May people questioned if it was right for him to create a sculpture which cost £1.5 million when the country is in a recession? In my inquiry I plan to try and encourage people to use unconventional materials in new ways and thus will have to think about all of these ethical issues very carefully.

 At CSM, when making work we were always encouraged to think about the sustainability of our pieces. How would the production/ creation of them impact the environment? Were there any ways that the piece could be made more environmentally friendly?

Subject:

The reader uses a good example, the Pulitzer winning photographer.  Should you intervene with your subject?  The Fashion industry struggles with this constantly, as a model if you are very thin then you will get work but where is the line between very thin and emaciated? As a designer/ photographer/ make-up artist is it your place to intervene when you are aware that if she were to put on weight she might loose work but if she didn’t she might make herself very ill.

Lucian Freud was often criticised for painting his daughters in a way that many deemed unacceptable, in his defence he didn’t paint them until they were adults and he claims that he uses the process of painting people to get to know them better.  So is it really unethical? One does have to be very careful when choosing a subject matter in particular when you are using human subjects.

Code of Practice for an Artist:

Each artist will come up with their own code of practice depending upon what setting they are working within but general guidelines to follow may include:

·        Having an understanding and sensitivity toward your subject.

·        Work in a professional manor

·        Try not to work in a vacuum, be aware of what other artist are doing.

·        Be accountable to your employer/ client.

·        Have an understanding of current political, economical and social activity.

·        To have patience.

·        To have an understanding of and sensitivity towards all cultures and religions. 

What are the ethical issues that I will have to take into consideration when proposing my inquiry topic?

        As my inquiry will involve a number of students some of which will be minors there are many ethical issues I will have to take into consideration. Namely the information that the students give me will have to be handled sensitively, in particular any personal information ensuring that confidential information remains confident and the students, parents and teachers are aware of what information will be published. Another issue that has been bothering me for a while is how it will be best for me to contact the students, in particular the students from my current school when they go off to different colleges. As I have mentioned before by law a teacher should not have any personal contact with previous students until they have been out of the school for at least two years. I really don’t want to put myself in a position where by my professional behaviour could be scrutinised thus I approached the art director with this issue. He suggested that I use email as my only form of communication, make sure that you don’t give any students my mobile phone number and ensure that I cc him and the student’s current art teacher into all of the emails. Also I must ensure that I have parental consent before I have any contact with the students outside of school. I think when dealing with minors one has to take a deontological approach to ethics. A set of rules must be established with no gray areas. It is either allowed or not. This is not the usual approach I would take to ethical issues in most cases I would consider myself a virtue ethicist. Believing that things are not black and white, the situation and the person’s character should be taken into account but sometimes subjectivity leads to confusion which you cannot have when dealing with minors and other vulnerable groups.

        Obviously before involving the students into any part of my inquiry I will have to get parental consent, I am slightly concerned about the possible parental involvement clearly they have the right to say they don’t want their children to answer certain question and know what information I am going to publish about their child but I really don’t want them getting too involved constantly peering over mine and their child’s shoulder censoring what they write and thus making the information I receive from them not as useful as it possibly could be. Again this is an issue that I have brought up with the art director as I didn’t really know how to approach this. His reply was there is not much I can do, if the parents decide that they want to be involved and check everything that is written then there is nothing I can do about it, I will just have to take this into account when analysing the information gathered. The only thing I can do to try and stop them from getting so involved is to give them no reason to feel like they need to be. Conduct myself and any interviews in a very professional way, be confident in what I am doing and ensue that I have an answer for every possible question that they might come up with. He suggested that if they feel confident and comfortable with me then they will not feel the need to scrutinise my every step.

        When I was looking into the ethical issues raised in the practice of art the main one was the materials used to create the piece. I listed some examples of occasions when materials have been used I what was considered an unethical way. This inquiry proposes to look into the use of materials and encourage active experimentation of materials in GCSE students and A-level. It is the reasonability of the educator to make them aware of the ethical issues behind using certain materials but as I will be looking into how they experiment with materials and processes in their work I will also ensure that they are aware of these facts. All of the ‘unethical’ materials mentioned in my previous blog will be out of the question for these students, not only because of the ethical implication but because school policy will not allow it, but they should be aware that these sort of issues should be taken into consideration when making their work to and extent now but more so later on in their artistic career.  

         The aim of this inquiry is to try and improve the teaching of art at GCSE and A-level. In order to improve it one must first identify the problems. When doing this I am going to have to be very careful not to offend any of the art teachers that I will be working with. At no point do I want them to think that I am criticising their teaching styles because who am I to tell them that they are doing something wrong?  I am not a teacher, I am not even a graduate yet, I am merely an observer and I will have to remember that is very easy to pick up on faults or areas for improvement when you do not actually have to do it. To overcome this problem I am going to try and be as involved as possible in the department I am going to investigate become involved in the classes and understand their dynamics so that if there are any criticism they know that they are well founded. I will also try to keep any areas for improvement very general, so that the comments do not appear to be aimed directly at any one teacher or department.

        Through doing this section of the module I have realised that there are many more ethical issues to be taken into consideration then I ever though. I was aware that dealing with children is an ethical mind field, but I was not aware of all the other issues. I am confident that there are still many more that I have not taken into consideration so if you read this and think of any very important ones I have missed please let me know.  I am also planning on scanning our schools child safe guarding document and up loading it as a pdf file obviously I will have to remove any sensitive information and details of the school but it might be useful for some of the other teachers who are not quite so familiar with safeguarding policies. Most of them are pretty standard for all schools. I will let you know where and when I have managed to upload it.

Award title rational

BA Professional Practice Fine Arts

I am aware that an award title like BAPP Art Education might seam like a more appropriate title in light of the topic I have proposed for my inquiry and the career path that I want to follow but I have only recently chosen to follow this path. Up until this point I have been and still am a practicing artist. I have spent over a decade refining my style and improving my skills and techniques. My choice to peruse a career in art education is just another page in my artistic story. The main reasons why I have chosen to focus more on the educational side art on this course is because I because this is an area where I have a lot to learn before I go on to do my teacher training and as the only fine artist on the course discussing teaching gives me a way to relate to the other students on the course.

                After leaving school where art was one of my A-levels I moved on to do my Foundation year in Fine Art at Leeds College of Art and Design. Two days into the course I was asked by Central St Martins (CSM) to interview for a place on a BA course (Art, Design and Environment) I was awarded the place but decided to defer it for a year as I had already started and paid for the Foundation course. I spent this year experimenting a lot with new techniques and processes and improving my core drawing and painting skills as I felt that this was the area I need the most improvement. I continued this exploration well into my time at CSM in the first year in particular I experimented with photography a lot, working with a process called liquid light. The second year I focused more on sculpture and looking at the relationship between materials and materiality.  During this period I was working a lot with metal. Unfortunately towards the end of my second year my financial situation changed and it became abundantly clear that I would be unable to complete my proposed projects for the third year. At this point I transferred to London College of Fashion (LCF) to study the first year of a BA costume design because an element of fashion had often been present in my work thus wanted to learn pattern cutting and manipulation and improve my seamstress skills while I had the chance (I was able to afford to do a first year on another course and not the third year on my existing course because the first year allows you a lot more free time to work).  Upon leaving LCF I did a lot of freelance and commissioned work including working as part of the creative team in an advertising agency.  In 2009 I set up my own business ‘Not Quite Lauren’. Initially it was intended to focus mainly on my fashion designs, in particular the design of formal and bridal wear but since the launch there have been as many orders for painting and sculptures as designs.

I am constantly creating new pieces not necessarily to sell but because art is my passion and will always continue to be.  For this reason and the fact that I have studied and explored the process of making art for much longer then I have studied the teaching of the subject rationalises my claim for my award title: BA Professional Practice, Fine Art.