permission from parents

I just finished thumbing through a couple of handy t-r books--Teacher Researchers at Work and Ethical Issues in Practitioner Research--that we'll be looking at this summer to see what they say about gaining permission to conduct research in your classroom. Of course, both of them say you gotta do it, but a chapter in the second book, which is written by a teacher research team in a school district, argues that we do it for ethical reasons as well as legal ones. In fact, the section where they talk about permissions is called "How Do We Protect the Rights of Students and Families While Encouraging Teacher Research?"

They recommend a "graduated process of consent" so that parents can get a sense of how t-r is helping the teacher better serve the needs of the kids and allowing her/him to contribute to the profession via conference presentations and professional publications. Here's what the system looks like:

1. Teachers use back-to-school opportunities like back-to-school night, newsletters, conferences, etc. to let parents know that teacher research is an integral part of their teaching. They ask parents to sign a blanket release to collect student work created in the normal process of the class. They explain that these materials might become part of a professional presentation or publication at some time. They also explain that pseudonyms will be used.

2. When teachers decide to write something up for professional publication and actually want to use an individual kid's work, they send a targeted release form to the parents explaining that they want to use the child's work or quote her/him or whatever. The teacher researcher they mention also sends copies of the final publication to parents if they're interested.

I've personally never used the targeted release form myself, but I can see reasons for doing so. The forms that I previously e-mailed you fall either in the category of blanket release or some combination of the two.

In Teacher Researchers at Work, Marion Maclean and Marian Mohr also talk about permission slips in a chapter on ethical principles where they say that teacher researchers should conduct their research openly with their colleagues, students, and parents (this, btw, is another reason why experimental research studies are tough to conduct). They suggest that parent concerns are rare but almost always allayed if you're willing to "talk calmly and repeatedly with anyone who will listen about the relationship between your teaching and your research" (p. 129). I find it interesting that in all the years I've sent permission slips home, I've never had a parent inquiry.

Below, I've adapted and condensed a form of the permission slip Maclean and Mohr include in this chapter so that you can cut and paste it if you want to:

Dear Parents,
I am a member of the CSU Writing Project Teacher Research group. The teachers in this group study the learning of their students by collecting and analyzing classroom data. As teacher-researchers, we present and write about our research as a way to share what we have learned with other teachers. This year, I am interested in these research questions:

INSERT YOUR QUESTIONS HERE

In order to present and write about our research, we often find it necessary to quote students or include excerpts from their work. Before we include any student's comments or work, however, we obtain written permission from parents. In addition, we change students' names and sometimes change details about them in order to protect their privacy.

I would like your permission to quote your child and/or use excerpts from her/his work in the event that I share my research in a professional conference presentation or publication. Please sign and return the form at the bottom of the page if you agree to this.

Thanks in advance for your support!
INSERT YOUR NAME, Member of the CSU Writing Project Teacher Research Group
INSERT YOUR CONTACT INFO. (E-mail and phone)

Permission form
I grant permission for INSERT TEACHER'S NAME to refer to the work of my child, _________, in her/his research report. I understand that INSERT TEACHER'S NAME will use a pseudonym in place of my child's real name.

Signed _______________________ Date __________________


One last thing I'd mention is that when I was teaching h.s., I always gave my administrator the heads-up in case s/he got any parent questions. They were always interested and (luckily) supportive once they heard that the main reason I was doing this was to be a better teacher.

Hope this stuff helps.