Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2010-09
All Teachers Are Vulnerable but Especially Gay Teachers: Using Composite Fictions to Protect Research Participants in Pupil—Teacher Sex-Related Research
The ways in which the media searches out, depicts, and writes about teacher—pupil sex-related topics have implications both for researchers working in the area and, sometimes more seriously, for the people who participate in and contribute to that research as respondents. In this article, the authors discuss, and provide an example of, the composite fiction strategy they developed and decided to adopt primarily for purposes of protection when writing up a project that investigated the perceptions and experiences of teachers (and those of members of their families, their friends, and colleagues) who had been accused of sexual abuse of pupils, which they said they had not committed and of which they were eventually cleared.
Angrossino, M. ( 1998). Opportunity house: Ethnographic studies of mental retardation . Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press .
2.
Banks, A., & Banks, S. (1998). (Eds.). Fiction and social research: By ice or fire. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
3.
Bauman, Z. ( 2006). Liquid fear. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
4.
Bochner, A., & Ellis, C. ( 1998). Series editors’ preface. In A. Banks & S. Banks (Eds.), Fiction and social research: By ice or fire (pp. 7-8). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
5.
Boelen, W.A.M. ( 1992). Street corner society: Cornerville revisited. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 21(1), 11-51.
6.
Britzman, D. ( 1998). Lost subjects, contested objects: Towards a psychoanalytic theory of learning. New York: University of New York Press.
7.
Cavanagh, S. ( 2007). Sexing the teacher: School sex scandals and queer pedagogies . Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: University of British Columbia Press.
8.
Children, Schools & Families Committee. ( 2009). Allegations against school staff. London: The Stationery Office.
9.
Clough, P. ( 2002). Narratives and fictions in educational research . Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.
10.
Denzin, N. ( 2003). Performance ethnography, Critical pedagogy and the cultural politics of change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
11.
Department for Culture, Media and Sport. ( 2007). Helping keep your child safe in sport: Child protection leaflet for parents. London: Crown Copyright.
12.
Ellis, C. ( 1995). Emotional and ethical quagmires in returning to the field . Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 24, 68-98.
13.
Frith, H. ( 2000). Focusing on sex: Using focus groups in sex research . Sexualities, 3, 275-297.
14.
Henley, J. ( 2009). Blurred boundaries for teachers. Retrieved September 23, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/sep/23/teacher-pupil-sexual-relationship
15.
Johnson, T.S. ( 2008). From teacher to lover: Sex scandals in the classroom . New York: Peter Lang.
16.
Jones, A. ( 1996). Desire, sexual harassment, and pedagogy in the university classroom. Theory Into Practice, 35(2), 102-108.
17.
Jones, A. ( 2004). Social anxiety, sex, surveillance and the "safe" teacher . British Journal of Sociology of Education, 25, 153-166.
18.
Joynson, R. ( 1989). The Burt affair. London: Routledge.
19.
Kelly, A. ( 2009). In defence of anonymity: Rejoining the criticism . British Journal of Educational Studies, 35, 431-445.
20.
Lee, R. ( 1993). Doing research on sensitive topics. London: Sage.
21.
Lee, R., & Renzetti, C. ( 1990). The problems of researching sensitive topics: An overview and introduction. American Behavioural Scientist , 33, 510-528.
22.
McWilliam, E. ( 1996). Touchy subjects: A risky enquiry into pedagogical pleasure . British Educational Research Journal, 22, 305-315.
23.
McWilliam, E., & Jones, A. ( 2005). An unprotected species? On teachers as risky subjects . British Journal of Educational Studies, 31, 109-120.
24.
Mills, C.W. ( 1970). The sociological imagination. Harmondsworth , UK: Penguin. (Original work published 1959)
25.
Mitchell, C., & Weber, S. ( 1999). Reinventing ourselves as teachers: Beyond nostalgia . London: Falmer.
26.
O’Connell Davidson, J., & Layder, D. ( 1994). Methods, sex and madness. London: Routledge.
27.
Office of Public Sector Information. (2003 ). Sexual Offenses (Amendment) Act 2003. Retrieved July, 31, 2009, from http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts2000/ukpga_20000044_en_1#l1g4
28.
Pelias, R. ( 2004). A methodology of the heart. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
29.
Piper, H., Powell, J., & Smith, H. ( 2005). Parents, professionals and paranoia: The touching of children in a culture of fear. Journal of Social Work, 34, 151-167.
30.
Piper, H., & Stronach, I. ( 2008). Don’t touch: The educational story of a panic. London: Routledge.
31.
Renzetti, C., & Lee, R. ( 1993). Researching sensitive topics. London : Sage.
32.
Richardson, L. ( 1990). Narrative and sociology. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 19(1), 116-135.
33.
Richardson, L. ( 1997a). Trash on the corner: Ethics and ethnography. In L. Richardson (Ed.), Fields of play: Constructing an academic life (pp. 102-117). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
34.
Richardson, L. ( 1997b). The sea monster: An ethnographic drama. In L. Richardson (Ed.), Fields of play: Constructing an academic life (pp. 63-68). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
35.
Richardson, L. ( 2000). Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), The handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 923-948). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
36.
Saunders, T. ( 2008). Paying for pleasure: Men who buy sex. Cullompton, UK: Willan.
37.
Sikes, P. ( 2000). "Truth" and "lies" revisited. British Educational Research Journal, 26, 257-269.
38.
Sikes, P. ( 2006). Scandalous stories and dangerous liaisons: When male teachers and female pupils fall in love. Sex Education , 6, 265-280.
39.
Sikes, P. ( 2008). At the eye of the storm: An academic(s) experience of moral panic. Qualitative Inquiry, 14, 235 -253.
40.
Sikes, P. ( 2009). Researching teachers, sex and students: A consideration of the key risks and ethical issues likely to be encountered. Unpublished manuscript.
41.
Sikes, P., & Piper, H. ( 2008). Risky research or researching risk? The real role of ethics review. In J. Satterthwaite, M. Watts, & H. Piper (Eds.), Talking truth confronting power (pp. 51-65). Stoke-on-Trent, UK: Trentham.
42.
Sikes, P., & Piper, H. ( 2009). Researching sex and lies in the classroom: Allegations of sexual misconduct in schools. London: Routledge/Falmer.
43.
Smith, B. ( 2002). The (in)visible wound: Body stories and concentric circles of witness. Auto/Biography, 10(1), 131-121.
44.
Sparkes, A. ( 1995). Physical education teachers and the search for self: Two cases of structured denial. In N. Armstrong (Ed.), New directions in physical education (pp. 157-178). London: Cassell.
45.
Sparkes, A. ( 2007). Embodiment, academics and the audit culture. Qualitative Research, 7, 521-550.
46.
Stombler, M. ( 2009). In the hot seat. The Chronicles of Higher Education . Retrieved July 29, 2009, from C:\DocumentsandSettings\ed1pjs\MyDocuments\Papers\EthnographyandEducation\IntheHotSeat-Chronicle_com.mht
47.
Tolich, M. ( 2004). Internal confidentiality: When confidentiality assurances fail relational informants. Qualitative Sociology , 27(1), 101-106.
48.
Waller, W. ( 1932). Preface. In The sociology of the teacher . New York: John Wiley .
49.
Whyte, W.F. ( 1992). In defence of Street Corner Society. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 21(1), 52-68.
