Laajan koululaisaineiston tutkimuseettiset haasteet

Abstract

The article focuses on the ethical practices involved in collecting and organizing large datasets, which can also impact the quality of the data and the study as a whole. We report our experiences in the DIALUKI project (Diagnosing reading and writing in a second or foreign language), in which we visited over a hundred schools to obtain a dataset of over a thousand variables from nearly a thousand pupils. Such a project is interesting from the ethical perspective, as data collection for such a large project requires special attention to ethical standards and issues throughout the project, from planning and recruiting the participants to organizing, storing, analyzing and interpreting the data. As the project involved tests in several languages as well as participants from the Russian-speaking minority, ethical issues had to be considered in informing the participants and developing different language versions of the research instruments. We conclude by reflecting on the different roles of the researcher during such a project from an ethical perspective.