supporting tiriti-based curriculum delivery in mainstream early ...

explained why I changed methodology from action research to action development
– an appreciative or affirmative model. This change sought to empower
participants to build on their Tiriti-based programmes rather than experience guilt
about their lack of progress and concern about being tokenistic in their approach.
Because of the importance of ethics and the way it permeates all the research from
planning to writing up of the thesis it seemed natural that this chapter would
conclude with ethical considerations.
3.4 Ethics
Much of my philosophy and understanding of ethics in research was
influenced by the work of Oakley (2000). She raised many of the issues I felt were
important to consider:
Although issues about the rights and responsibilities of both researchers
and the researched have most often been raised by the practitioners of
„qualitative‟ research, its operations are far from non-intrusive and nonhierarchical
in their processes and consequences. Being interviewed, for
example, may be a far-reaching intervention in some-one's life. There is
no such thing as „simply‟ recording or publishing data. There must
always be a selection; the critical issue is whether this is made according
to the kinds of open and systematic criteria which other people can
inspect, or not. (Oakley, 2000, p. 296)
Ethics committees approve research with human beings based on codes of
ethics that, according to Tolich and Davidson (1999) can be “…reduced to a core
of five principles” (p. 70). These principles include doing no harm, gaining
voluntary participant, informed consent, avoiding deceit, and being concerned
about anonymity and/or confidentiality.
There is another aspect of research in Aotearoa New Zealand that is
important to consider, which is highlighted by Tolich and Davidson (1999b):
There are some special features about New Zealand society that affect
our research....But here we want to suggest there is one ethical principle
which must override every piece of social science in New Zealand. It is
the principle that remains unusual in the developed world. It is to think
of New Zealand as though it is a small town...New Zealand's smallness
makes it relatively easy to identify any institution. (p.77)
Not only is Aotearoa New Zealand similar to a small town in terms of
identification but early childhood educators as a group could be recognisable.
Confidentiality, therefore, given the comparatively small group of early childhood
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