Research gatekeepers - Science-Education-Research

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Gatekeepers protect research participants

'Gatekeeper' refers to a person with authority to admit or refuse a researcher access to a research context, and to close down the research at the site (and ask the researcher to leave, if appropriate) if there are concerns.

"Educational researchers need to gain access to suitable contexts in which to undertake their research. External researchers need to negotiate access with schools, where 'gatekeepers' (those responsible for looking after the interests of the children and the school…) will need to be persuaded that the intended research is potentially worthwhile and will not disrupt the school or be detrimental in any way to the learners."

"The gatekeeper admits into the classroom researchers who are undertaking studies seen as worthwhile, and likely to benefit, or at least not be to the detriment of, students. However, the metaphorical gate is kept firmly shut in response to requests when, for example, the research seems pointless, ill-thought-out, or potentially stressful or disruptive for students (or teacher!)."
Taber, 2013:, p.136, p.231

In England, allowing external researchers to undertake research in schools is usually at the discretion of the school (with formal requests directed in the first instance to the Headteacher). However, in some countries access may be negotiated at a different level of the system, such as the area education office, or the national ministry of education.

Read about 'Gaining Research Permissions in Rwanda and Tanzania' in a post (on the FERSA University of Cambridge Blog) by Dr Emma Carter and Manuel Kernen

There may be requirements for vetting of potential visitors to schools, for example checking for criminal or police records (and this may take time), and there may be different levels of access. Observing a class with a teacher present clearly offers less risk of harm to students than a researcher directly interacting with individual students. Although schools are often supportive of research, their highest duty is to the safety and well-being of the children in their care, and access will only be granted when sufficient safeguards are in place to protect members of the school community. (Most researchers are well-behaved and have only good intentions, but safeguarding has to take account of possible exceptions.)

What about researchers enquiring into their own professional contexts?

A teacher who already working in a school already has access to a potential research site. However, permission may still be needed to carry out research:

An external researcher would normally first need to get permission from the head teacher to work in the school…and then arrange informed consent within the department for the work that was to be undertaken. Any teacher who had doubts about the nature or value of the research, or considered it potentially disruptive or uncomfortable for the students, would refuse permission. The head of department and/or teacher acts as a gatekeeper with the power to refuse permission to the researcher.

However, if the researcher is the person who would normally act as gatekeeper, then that safeguard is missing. The teacher-researcher who wishes to undertake the research must be able to also consider the research from an independent perspective to see how it might disrupt the normal teaching-learning in the class. Any research has the potential to complicate classrooms as well as the potential to improve them, but it may be difficult for one person (especially if under pressure to undertake research, for a university course, for example) to judge the balance between the potential value and costs of the research. For example, if an external researcher wishes to interview volunteer students about their learning, and the class teacher believed this was a worthwhile activity, she might well encourage students to help the researcher. However, if the teacher was also the researcher, and keen to collect the data, the students might feel under pressure to give up their free time and take part in an activity that may potentially make then uncomfortable.
Taber, 2013, pp.245-246

There are then special considerations that need to be taken into account when the researcher and teacher are the same person – when the person wanting access is, so to speak, also the person controlling the 'gate'.

Firstly, there is a need to distinguish between enquiry that is part of the normal innovation and evaluation, and which does not need special precautions, and any kind of enquiry that may be considered to go beyond this. In the latter case, there may well be a need to 'move the gateposts': to set up someone else who will be designated as and act as a gatekeeper for the research.

Read about ethical teacher research