This case study considers some of the ethical issues related to sustainability and environmental responsibility in relation to educational research. It highlights how environmental implications should be considered at all stages of research, and efforts made to reduce any negative impacts and address existing environmental injustices.

Leila’s PhD study aims to understand young people’s imagined futures and identify how education can create pathways to more just and sustainable future societies. She has designed a multi-site case study, working with teachers and young people in England and Pakistan to conduct workshops that give young people the opportunity to imagine their futures in a range of different emissions scenarios. Leila is concerned about the risk of psychological pain and distress associated with climate anxiety during her data collection phase, and a colleague queries the environmental impacts of her study given her plans for overseas travel. How can she find a way forward to do her research ethically?

Drawing on BERA’s Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research, this case study discusses key ethical issues, including:

• researchers’ duty of care towards participants and responsibilities to identify and minimise any potential harm arising from their participation in research
• researchers’ responsibilities to the global community and the environment more generally
• applying ethical principles in different social, cultural and political contexts
• authorship of data and publications.

About this series

BERA’s Research Ethics Case Studies, edited by Sin Wang Chong and Alison Fox, complement BERA’s Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research, fifth edition (2024) by giving concrete examples of how those guidelines can be applied during the research process. 

Annotations in the margins of each case study document indicate where, among the numbered paragraphs of BERA’s Ethical Guidelines, readers can find full advice on the issues raised. The annotations include hyperlinks to the relevant passages of the guidelines.

For a full account of ethical best practice as recommended by BERA, researchers should refer to our Ethical Guidelines, which these case studies are intended to illustrate without themselves offering guidance or recommendations.