Ethics and Action Research
One issue that comes immediately to mind is the role of institutional review boards or other human subjects review bodies in deciding if an action research project should be allowed…sometimes against the will of the community. So, who’s in charge? Should IRBs/HEBs be allowed to make the determination? Should local participants be allowed to put themselves at risk in the interests of conducting a research project. For an interesting look at this issue see Lundy and McGovern’s discussion of their AR project in the North of Ireland in ARJ 4(1).