Validity, Ethics, and Integrity Ensuring

¶ … Validity, Ethics, and Integrity

Ensuring validity, ethics, and integrity in the previously proposed research study into the effects of post-tenure review on teaching research, and overall service as well as to school culture is a somewhat complex process, but one that is well mapped-out in previous literature. Mixed-method research studies such as that proposed maintain validity through careful and conscious sample size and population selections, with larger and more randomized populations for quantitative portions of a study and more narrow and purposefully, specifically selected populations of individuals for qualitative portions of the study (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2008). The ethicality concerns of the research are not as extreme as in many other research studies; the preservation of anonymity within institutions is the primary ethical concern this study will encounter (Cozby, 2009). Integrity will be maintained through consistent practices within and throughout the research phases.

Validity

A large portion of the proposed research's validity will come from the balanced perspective that it aims to achieve through rigorous exploration along both quantitative and qualitative lines. Within these separate spheres, the use of subject area experts to vet proposed instruments will help to maintain validity. Where possible, instruments developed for and utilized in previous research with high measures of certainty and validity can be adjusted for the purposes of the proposed study (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2008). Instruments will also be tested for interpretive differences, especially in the qualitative interview, before distributing/administering the instruments to the research populations.

Ethics

There is little ethical concern at work in the proposed research, as no subjects in the research study will be asked to do anything other than respond to surveys and/or interviews honestly (there are no expected psychological ramifications of study participation, as in the famous Milgram obedience experiment) (Cozby, 2009). maintaining confidentiality and privacy through the maintenance of anonymity, especially within the institutions where the surveys and questionnaires are distributed/administered, is the essential ethical concern of this research study. Individual identification of participants in the qualitative experiment is not required, making anonymity easy to maintain (identifying information will be specifically excluded from the quantitative instruments, and stripped away by research assistants if mistakenly applied y the respondent); for the qualitative interviews, responses will be coded and stored separately from identifying information, with extremely limited access to this information.