Blog 7- Kassa Valz (Quest for Knowledge-Research in Education)

Blog 7- Kassa Valz (Quest for Knowledge)

The Masters of Education program has provided me with the necessary skills to conduct and attain research through various methods. In the quest to produce knowledge, credibility and ethics are central when working with others in producing research and knowledge. O’Leary (2014) acknowledges that researchers are responsible for many ethical guidelines when conducting research and analyses. O’Leary (2014) notes, “Researchers are responsible for shaping the character of knowledge” (O’Leary, 2014).

The ideas of rampant plagiarizing and fraud within academia and academic research is quite concerning. Knowing know that the processes of research can be a daunting task at times, researchers and students however, must uphold the highest standards of moral ethics and conduct when embarking on empirical exploration. O’Leary (2014) mentioned that, “misrepresentation and fraud are quite rampant. Researchers (and not just students) have been known to: blatantly fabricate data, omit cases, plagiarize and misrepresent authorship” (O’Leary, 2014).

The legal ramification which are possible for these errors can be severe, which again brings it all back to the idea of ethics and moral judgement. The bridge between the M.Ed. program and the PhD. program will consists of empirical research being conducted through an interim report. This is a an option still revolving through my conscious mind, however research to me seems somewhat overwhelming; nevertheless, it is still an area I will like to pursue once I have a research topic within education I am dedicated to spending a large amount of time on.   

O’Leary (2014) highlighted some very important terminology associated with conducting research and the quest for knowledge, some of the most important terms (from my perspective) are, reliability, dependability, biases,, trust, integrity and responsibility and of course those discussed above. If a researcher can understand the importance of some of these terms in relation to seeking knowledge then they are on a road to ethical and moral research analysis.

References:

O’Leary, Z. (2014). The essential guide to doing your research project (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.