Developing a Model for the Evaluation of Iranian EFL Teachers’ Awareness of the Code of Ethics in Research
Abstract
Conducting educational research is not an arbitrary practice. When implementing educational research, teachers, as researchers, need to adhere to ethical rules and norms. Thus, developing an instrument for evaluating English as foreign language (EFL) teachers’ awareness of the code of ethics in research can guide Iranian ELT professionals to work towards setting standards in the assessment of Iranian EFL teachers’ professional development and may assure consistency in EFL teachers’ quality assurance. The principal determination of the present study was to develop a scale to evaluate EFL teachers’ awareness of the code of ethics for conducting research in Iran. This work’s theoretical framework is based on the most influential ethical issues and elements in research in Samadi, Motallebzadeh, Ashraf, and Khajavy’s (2020) study. To this end, 272 Iranian EFL teachers (chosen using convenience sampling) participated in the analysis to fill out the scale in the piloting stage. The scale consisted of five main categories: (F1) Before the beginning of the research, (F2) the Beginning of the research, (F3) Gathering the data, (F4), Analyzing the data, and (F5) Writing, reporting, sharing, and storing the data. The first draft of the scale consisted of 60 items. As part of the validation procedure, the reliability of this scale was determined through Cronbach’s alpha, and its validity was measured by running a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) through a structural equation modeling approach. After performing the CFA, it was found that the questionnaire had high construct validity. Finally, the statistical findings were presented, and the implications of the ELT domain were given. The findings provide empirical evidence that provides a framework for assessing and evaluating EFL teachers’ awareness of the code of ethics in research.
Downloads
References
Ary, D., Cheser, L. Ch., & Sorensen, Ch. K. (2010). Introduction to research in education. Cengage Learning.
Baer, J. M. (2010). European textbook on ethics in research. European Commission.
Best, J. W., & Cahn, J. V. (2006). Research in education. Pearson Education, Inc.
The Council for the Teaching Profession in Malta. (2012). Teachers' code of ethics and practice. https://education.gov.mt/en/../New%20Code%20of%20Ethics%20Doc%20EN.pdf.
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education. Routledge.
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). Sage.
Davies, A. (2004). Introduction: Language testing and the golden rule. Language Assessment Quarterly, 1(2), 97- 107. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2004.9671778
De Costa, P. I., Sterling, S., Lee, J., Li, W., & Rawal, H. (2020). Research tasks on ethics in applied linguistics. Language Teaching, 1-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444820000257
Dixon, Sh., & Quirke, L. (2018). What's the harm? The coverage of ethics and harm avoidance in research methods textbooks. Teaching Sociology, 46(1), 12-24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X17711230
Dornyei, Z. (2010). Questionnaires in second language research: Construction, administration, and processing (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Farhady, H. (1999). Ethics in language testing. Moddaress Journal of Human Sciences, 3(11), 447-464.
Freeman, N. K. (2000). Professional ethics: A cornerstone of teachers' pre-service curriculum. Action in Teacher Education, 22(3), 12-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2000.10463015
Gao, X. (2019). The Douglas Fir Group Framework as a resource map for language teacher education. The Modern Language Journal, 103, 161-166. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12526
Guo, Q., Tao, J., & Gao, X. (2019). Language teacher education in System. System, 82, 132-139. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2019.04.001
Hostetler, K. (2005). What is good education research? Education Research, 34(6), 16-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X034006016
Kafi, Z., Motallebzadeh, Kh., & Ashraf, H. (2018). Developing, localizing & validating code of professional ethics through PLS-SEM: EFL university instructors' perspectives. Cogent Education, 5(1), 1-23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2018.1492340
Koulouriotis, J. (2011). Ethical considerations in conducting research with non-native speakers of English. TESL Canada Journal, 5, 1-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v28i0.1078
MacColl, I., Cooper, R., Rittenbruch, M., & Viller, S. (2005). Watching ourselves watching: Ethical issues in ethnographic action research. In Proceedings of OZCHI 2005 (pp. 1-4). ACM.
Mazur, D. J. (2007). Evaluating the science and ethics of research on humans: a guide for IRB members.
Ngozwana, N. (2018). Ethical dilemmas in qualitative research methodology: Researcher's reflections. International Journal of Educational Methodology, 4(1), 19-28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12973/ijem.4.1.19
Olsthoorn, P., & Schut, M. (2018). The ethics of border guarding: a first exploration and a research agenda for the future. Ethics and Education, 13(2), 157-171. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2018.1443051
Özturk, S. (2010). The opinions of preschool teachers about ethical principles. Journal of Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 10(1), 393-418.
Parsell, M., Ambler, T., & Jacenyik-Trawoger, Ch. (2014). Ethics in higher education research. Studies in Higher Education, 39(1), 166-179. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.647766
Popoola, I., Garner, B., Ammeter, A., Krey, N., Beu Ammeter, D., & Schafer, S. (2017). How does ethics institutionalization reduce academic cheating? Journal of Education for Business, 92(1), 29-35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2016.1274710
Samadi, F., Motallebzadeh, Kh., Ashraf, H., & Khajavy, H. (2020). Developing a model for Iranian EFL teachers' awareness of the code of ethics in research [Unpublished doctoral dissertation)]. Islamic Azad University of Torbat-e Heydarieh.
Shamoo, A., & Resnik, D. (2015). Responsible conduct of research (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Sterling, S., & Gass, S. (2017). Exploring the boundaries of research ethics: Perceptions of ethics and ethical behaviors in applied linguistics research. System, 70, 50-62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2017.08.010
Thrasher, R. (2011). The Role of a language testing code ethics in the establishment of a code of practice. Language Assessment Quarterly, 1 (2), 1-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2004.9671782
World Medical Association: Declaration of Helsinki. (2013). Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. JAMA, 310(20), 2191-2194.
Copyright (c) 2020 National Research University Higher School of Economics
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the Copyright Notice.
