Article Analysis Essay on Ethics of Literacy Research in the 21st Century

Introduction

The article has four different essays, which discuss various issues, but they are mainly linked to literacy research ethical considerations. The main reason behind the research is that at one point in doing research, the educators and researchers do face ethical issues. Some of the issues encountered are in Institutional Review Board Idiosyncrasies, misuse and use of Literacy Research, dissemination and publication of literacy research, and research with dual and bilingual language learners. The article's primary goal is to provide the four individual interconnected essays in informing literacy researchers concerning ethical conduct challenges in the 21st century and raise the consciousness of literacy researchers regarding the significance of ethical conduct.

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Thoughtful Questions after Reading the Article

• What are the main ethical issues that should be observed by researchers and educators?
• Do all literacy researchers encounter ethical issues when conducting research? How do they resolve them?

Raised Issues Concerning Ethical Conduct

Janet Richards' essay provides the Institutional Review Board Proposal (IRB) principles, which ethical literacy researchers should adhere to including the right to serve, participants' anonymity, participants' confidentiality, no risk of harming the participants, participants' voluntary participation, and participants' informed consent. One of the raised issues is why even with the IRB ethical standards; some researchers claim that they do not fit their needs for accurate research. The other concerning issue that has been raised in the essay is that IRB only understands quantitative research; thus, it does not understand qualitative research.

Nancy Flanagan Knapp points out that in the past, the discussion has always been about the publication of research and ethical process. Unfortunately, ethical issues concerning the things taking place after the publication of research have not been discussed. There is another argument that the researcher is not morally responsible if he or she does not foresee the ethical and negative uses of research. Furthermore, educators have the responsibility of guarding against their political, organizational, personal, or financial factors that result in misuses of their influence, knowledge, or expertise.

Cynthia B. Leung, in the third essay, raises issues concerning the things literacy researchers should do so that they evade monolingual perspectives with English and bilinguals learners. The things that should be considered include selecting linguistically and culturally binding assessments, which are appropriate for people coming from the cultural and linguistic group under study and including a bilingual researcher having the same cultural and language background as the participants of the research. Other things include ensuring that assistants and researchers are informed on the biliteracy and acquisition of the second language and establishing a report that includes the participants through developing a linguistically and culturally necessary research setting.

Debbie East raises questions regarding ethical considerations in research. For instance, the author asks if it is ethical to put a limit on accessing literacy research to the individuals that are wealthy and can easily afford the subscription fees on printing the research articles. The other issue that has been raised is if it is ethical to limit one in getting new ideas on literacy. According to the World Health Organization, the nations, which are developing should have easy access to the academic journals that are published online to make it easy for them to conduct research on different areas.

Recent Findings Presented in the Article

All the literacy researchers who are based in universities must always complete the proposal of IRB before they engage in any research. However, IRB needs vary from one university to the other. The literacy researchers must just adhere to the guidelines even when they are not applicable in social science. Another finding is that the LRA Ethics claims that literacy researchers are not supposed to carry out studies subjected to professional or scientific constraints because of funding agencies' questionable influence. Unfortunately, no standard addresses the issue the way researchers respond to or anticipate research misuse.

Research findings have limited access, publishing control, and research open access mainly exist in two trends. The first trend is the issue of academic publishing being commercialized recently (Leung, 2013). Currently, many people are conducting research in order to get money from the sponsors, and publishing companies engage in the process for economic benefits. Only some researchers conduct research for the sole purpose of making the reader informed of specific issues affecting the community. The second trend is the increasing methods of disseminating research. The process is done using digital methods of communication, including podcasts, wikis, online peer-reviewed journals, websites, blogs, and Taylor and Francis Publishers. The main concern is Taylor and Francis publishers since they use their platform as a business acumen that responds to changing culture and market industry. Currently, the publisher publishes versions of an e-book in all their textbooks.

In most cases, dual language or bilingualism research does not focus on code-switching or borrowing. Thus, it is essential for researchers to assess bilinguals in different languages in combined language discourse. Bilinguals' researchers have offered to provide support and data on processes, which can be established to classroom strategies of instruction in helping the people learning English make improvements in literacy skills.

Gaps in the Current Research

The first gap in the research is if there are some areas or topics that should not be researched because of possible misuse of the findings. Another gap is finding more information on what should be used instead of an Institutional Review Board Proposal since jit is not applicable to scientific researches. The reason is that the scientific researchers have argued in the recent past that IRB is not applicable in their area. Moreover, the educators' and researchers' information are usually misused and, in some cases, misinterpreted. Therefore, more research should be conducted to find out if the researchers have an obligation act that gives them the chance to respond to such incidences. Lastly, on the issue of research being beneficial to wealthy individuals, more research should be done on the reasons publishers need subscription fees so that literacy researchers and educators have access to information.

Conclusion

Ethical consideration is an area of concern for literacy researchers and educators as they encounter ethical issues while conducting research. After reading the article with four different essays, the thoughtful questions include if all the literacy researchers encounter ethical issues and the main ethical issues that should be observed when conducting research. Furthermore, the raised issues concerning ethical conduct include why IRB does not fit the needs of some researchers, things that take place after publication, and whether it is ethically right to limit getting new ideas on literacy. Some of the recent findings from researchers include the fact that literacy researchers must just adhere to IRB standards even when they are not applicable in the social science, commercialization of academic publishing, and increasing methods of disseminating research.

Reference

Leung, C. B. (2013). Ethics of literacy research in the 21st century: Four essays on issues and challenges to ethical conduct-Ethical considerations of research with bilingual and dual language learners. Organization of Teacher Educators in Reading.