Higher education system governance: an exploratory study of presidential decision making in the kentucky community and technical college system

Role of the Researcher and Ethical Considerations

For exploratory research, the experiences or expressions of the participants are central to understanding the group, process, or activity under study and the researcher aims to interpret and make meaning of these. As a result, the researcher is an instrument in exploratory research. The interpretation of the researcher is limited to the particular behavior examined in a particular context, and further described in terms of what an individual participant experiences or expresses. These experiences and expressions are conveyed in the form of rich or thick description with an understanding of the context of the system. An understanding of the context increases understanding of the group, process, or activity under study.

The researcher is an employee at one of the colleges within KCTCS. Though this role permitted insider knowledge of the organization and access to the site, participants, and documents, several measures were used to reduce researcher bias. These measures included acknowledging possible biases and developing a plan for handling them (Maxwell, 2013). The researcher cannot ignore her experiences in relation to system explored in this study as this could threaten credibility and trustworthiness with the participants. For this reason, the role of the researcher as an employee at one of the colleges was used as part of the inquiry process. In this way, the researcher maintained awareness of these experiences throughout data collection and analysis but did not let them consume the research objective.
Despite the role of the researcher as an employee at one of the colleges, the researcher maintained professional and ethical standards throughout all phases of the study. The participants were informed of the purpose of the study, their rights and
conditions of participation, as well as any risks or benefits associated with participation in this study. Participants were given the right to choose whether or not to participate in all, part, or none of the study, as well as the freedom to stop participation at any point.