Although the symposium on how educational ethnographic researchers can sustain ethical practice in the field and persuade institutional organs of research supervision that they are doing so is not expected to come to any firm conclusions, it is expected to highlight the range of ethical dilemmas researchers can encounter when wishing to carry out ethnographic educational research, how they might address these and convince others who act as gatekeepers to research arenas that they can address these.

The second set of papers in Part 2 of the symposium presents views from Britain, Finland, Spain and Sweden on how researchers can act ethically and responsibly in the field and persuade ethics committees that they do so when confronted with the turbulence of field research that results both from the field and from themselves in their interactions with the field (Beach). In some cases this turbulence arises from trying to study or incorporate the views and experiences of subordinates in research yet, by incorporating them into research, it helps to facilitate their learning (Busher). In other cases the dilemmas arise from researchers playing dual roles in particular situations, a problem that many people undertaking action research or small scale research in their own institutions have to confront (Nikkanen). People carrying out research in happenstance situations face particular problems since it might not be at all clear from whom to gain consent to carry out research, and yet not gaining this permission raises questions about how responsibly a researcher is behaving (Dovemark).

Beach, D. & Eriksson, A. (2010). The relationship between ethical positions and methodological approaches: A Scandinavian perspective. Ethnography and Education, 5 (2) 129-142. Busher, H. & James, N. (2015). In pursuit of ethical research: Studying hybrid communities using online and face-to-face communications. Educational Research & Evaluation: An International Journal on Theory and Practice, Special Issue on Ethical Issues in Online Research, 21 (2) 168-181 Dennis, B. (2017). Tales of Working Without/Against a Compass: Rethinking Ethical Dilemmas in Educational Ethnography, in D. Beach, C. Bagley and S Marques da Silva (Eds). The Handbook of Ethnography of Education. New York and London: Wiley. Haggerty, K. (2004). ‘Ethics creep: governing social science research in the name of ethics’, Qualitative Sociology, 27 (4) 391-414 Hammersley, M. & Traianou, A. (2012) Ethics and Educational Research. http://www.bera.ac.uk/system/files/Ethics and Educational Research.pdf Silverman, M. (2003). Everyday Ethics: A personal journey in rural Ireland, 1980-2001. The Ethics of Anthropology: Debates and Dilemmas. P. Caplan. London and New York, Routledge. Strathern, M. (2000). Audit cultures: anthropological studies in accountability, ethics and the academy. London, Routledge. Stutchbury, K. & Fox, A. (2009). ‘Ethics in educational research: introducing a methodological tool for effective ethical analysis’, Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(4) 489-504.