In this paper we explore the dynamic field of students as researchers (SAR) work and draw out some key implications for educational practice across the primary, secondary and higher education sectors. Drawing on empirical evidence from a range of case studies, the paper explores the relationships between knowledge, ethics and participation in students as researchers practices. Its broader theoretical purpose is to extend understanding of the values which inform and underpin students as researchers work, and to consider the ways in which students’ involvement in participatory research practices may make a contribution to the production of knowledge. The paper situates students as researchers work within student voice as a field of practice and, as such, it extends previous theorizations of student voice by the authors (Robinson and Taylor, 2007; Taylor and Robinson, 2009). The paper seeks to address the following research questions: • How can the relations between SAR and the production of academic knowledge be understood and theorized? • What risks or problems are there for students involved in SAR work? • What ethical issues are raised by SAR practices? • How can SAR work contribute to ethical academic research practices? In order to address these questions the paper seeks to develop an ethically informed theoretical understanding of contemporary international students as researchers practices, which takes account of authority, power and students’ participation in knowledge production and academic knowledge legitimation processes. The paper brings together sociological, post-structuralist and feminist theorizations in order to understand SAR as a contested participatory research practice. The paper begins with an overview of contemporary students as researchers work. In this part, the paper takes into consideration current UK and international understandings, theorizations and philosophical principles of students as researchers work drawing on key theorists in the field (Atweh and Bland, 2004; Fielding, 2001; 2004, 2006; Kincheloe and Steinberg, 1998). The second part of the paper discusses a range of original empirical case studies, conducted by the authors, of students as researchers work within UK contexts from across the educational spectrum. The empirical studies provide a focus for the third, and major, part of the paper in which the ethical problematics of SAR work is discussed and the contested relationships between learning, knowledge, students’ participation and participatory research practice is explored. The implications of the SAR case studies in relation to institutional, national and international educational policy and research agendas are briefly discussed in the final part of the paper. In bringing together empirical specificity with theoretical scope the paper enables us to draw out issues and concerns relating to ethics, power and participation that have some general implications for students as researchers practice across national boundaries. This paper addresses issues of interest to a range of educationalists, including those interested in promoting student voice and participation; those interested in student empowerment and addressing educational inequalities; and those for whom students involvement in research is a principled inclusive ethical practice. It also raises issues concerning research ethics which will be of interest more generally.

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