The Virtues and Vices of an Educational Researcher

This essay explores the contentious relationship between codes of ethics in research and the range of virtues that characterise ethical researchers in the face of the temptations that they face. I argue that the politics of research transforms our ethical appraisals of character and context. Researchers’ duties towards research sponsors, the research team, and university or school, all ought to be brought to bear in particular judgements of ethically sensitive issues where there is no single or undisputed currency. This re-appraisal foregrounds the need seriously to consider the question of the virtues of the educational researcher.