Respond to at least one of your colleagues’ posts by providing additional suggestions for how bias in the research could be addressed. Your response post should also contain scholarly citations and references.
Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources. Use proper APA format and citations.
5 days ago
Kastina Hayes
RE: Discussion – Week 3
Main Question Post. Smith (2012) conducted a study in which she explored influential factors that played a role in the career decision of female secondary school teachers. Smith wanted to understand why so few women were in leadership roles in schools. In recruiting participants, Smith had previous relationships with several of selected participants. A few were her students. Some participants were mentors of Smith’s student teachers. Also, some of the participants were former colleagues, and close friends. This creates the issue of multiple relationships.
Biases Identified
Multiple Relationships. As described by Fisher (2017), multiple relationships occur when a psychologist in a professional role is also in another role with someone in which he or she is working closely with. Fisher (2017) explained that multiple relationships could impair the psychologist’s ability to be impartial and maintain his or her professionalism. However, not all multiple relationships are unethical. Educational roles, such as supervisors or mentors, are not considered unethical multiple relationships. Multiple relationships that will not impair or risk a cloud in judgment are not considered unethical (Fisher, 2017). However, since Smith had multiple relationships, such as previous students and individuals whom she is still friends with, this would constitute as a multiple relationship that could cloud the judgment of the researcher.
Gender-related Bias. Smith gave the impression that she was personally attached to this research topic. She appeared to be heavily affected the notion that female schoolteachers did not hold many leadership roles. Smith mentioned that her frustration for the under-representation of female schoolteachers is from her own personal experience. Smith was a leadership hopeful, but never made it to that level. For this reason, all parts of the research were contaminated. The data received may not be the data that is presented. The participants selected were likely to be participants that will provide the results in which Smith was looking to reveal.
Strategies for Mitigation
The best strategy for mitigating bias in this particular study is to choose participants with whom Smith did not have a multiple relationship. However, a thorough documentation process throughout the study, and building in a peer review would be necessary to minimize, if not eliminate, biases. Another strategy would be to assist or take a second chair to someone else who does not have a preexisting relationship with the participants. This might be effective because Smith would not be the initial conductor. Smith would just be assisting with the study.
Conclusion
Laureate Education [Producer] (2010) explained how knowing yourself as part of the research and understanding what biases you may be brining into the research is very important. These biases may affect the lens in which someone uses as well as affecting what is seen in an observation (Laureate Education [Producer], 2010). Additionally, exploratory research questions means that assumptions or hypotheses are not already prepared before the research is conducted. This action also brings bias into the research. Biases cloud the views of the researcher, which will eventually contaminate the findings. Smith already had her mind made up before she conducted the research. She knew the end before the research began.
The process of confirmability finds and acknowledges biases in the research and addresses them through reflexivity processes (Ravitch & Carl, 2016). Confirmability is possible through triangulation, reflexivity, and peer review or audits (Guba, 1981). Confirmability further validates data and verifies its quality and trustworthiness.
References
Fisher, C. B. (2017). Decoding the Ethics Code: A Practical Guide for Psychologists, 4th Edition. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/97814833…
Guba, E. G. (1981). Criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic inquiries. Educational Resources Information Center Annual Review Paper, 29, 75–91.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Doctoral research: Ensuring quality in qualitative research [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Ravitch, S. M., Carl, N. M. (2016). Qualitative Research: Bridging the Conceptual, Theoretical, and Methodological, 1st Edition. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/97814833…
Smith, J. M. (2012). Reflections on using life history to investigate women teachers’ aspirations and career decisions. Qualitative Research, 12(4), 486–503. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1177/146…
Yale University. (2015). Fundamentals of qualitative research methods: Developing a qualitative research question (Module 2) [Video file]. Retrieved from
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