Dear fellow practitioner-researchers, 

I wanted to ask about your institutions' ethical procedures for action researchers. Our Ethics committee  at Brookes is raising increasing blocks to researching our own learners/classrooms, based on new opt-in rather than opt-out regualtions for research participation; and concerns that researching our own learners may entail coercion.  Whilst we draw on detailed theorised positions and evidence the beneficial nature of our work, many of our doctorate students are being actively put off from researching themselves in interaction with their learners because of the documentation this now requires.

 I'd really welcome any examples or leads to show how this is done in other institutions.  Is it lightweight or heavily documented?  Is the ethics process a help or hindrance to enquiries into one's own practice?

Very many thanks for any insights or examples and 

good wishes,

Jane Spiro