Everyday Ethics : Reflections on Practice

Everyday Ethics: Reflections on Practice looks at the moments that demand moral consideration and ethical choice that arise as part of a researcher’s daily practice. Drawing on principles of systematic inquiry as transparent and grounded in conceptual reasoning, it describes research as praxis and the researcher as practitioner. The researcher is a decision-maker for both procedural and ethical matters that attend the conduct of research, especially when the research is focused on human wellbeing. Every decision about data collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation has moral dimensions.

Morally compelling moments demand a reflexivity (‘research praxis’) – that is, informed action, the back-and-forth between reasoning and action. Methodological wisdom emerges during the cyclical process of inquiry that is doing, thinking about the doing through a moral lens, and doing again. This book invites us to deepen our understanding of everyday ethics, and contributes to the ongoing discourse about research as moral practice, conducted by such reflexive practitioners.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

Gretchen B. Rossman is Professor of Education and Chair of the Department of Educational Policy, Research and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA. She is co-author of Learning in the Field: An Introduction to Qualitative Research (3^rd ed., 2012).

Sharon F. Rallis is the Dwight W. Allen Distinguished Professor of Education Policy and Reform and Director of the Center for Education Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA. She is co-author of Learning in the Field: An Introduction to Qualitative Research (3^rd ed., 2012).