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Professional Values and Their Impact on My Approach to Educational Research

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Professional Values and Their Impact on My Approach to Educational Research

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My professional values identified through the survey include:

1. Respect for learner voice

2. Commitment to inclusion and equity

3. Intercultural understanding

4. Ethical responsibility and transparency

5. Reflective and inquiry-based practice

6. Relevance and applicability of knowledge

7. Lifelong learning and adaptability

Each of these values informs the philosophical assumptions I bring to educational research. For instance, my belief in learner voice and equity leads me to interpretivist and transformative paradigms, where knowledge is co-constructed and shaped by social, cultural, and individual perspectives. These assumptions push me to favour qualitative methods, such as interviews and narrative inquiry, which centre participants’ experiences.

My commitment to intercultural understanding and ethical transparency means I approach research with a heightened awareness of positionality and power dynamics. I aim to build trust, honour participant perspectives, and engage in ethically reflexive practice.

Moreover, valuing practical relevance and adaptability aligns me with a pragmatic epistemology, where I draw from mixed methods to answer meaningful questions that can inform real-world teaching and policy decisions. Ultimately, my values don’t just shape how I conduct research; they define why I do it and for whom.

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Integrity — striving to behave honestly and consistently

Fairness — wanting to treat people equitably

Responsibility — owning your actions and errors

Respect for others — valuing others’ rights and dignity

Moral awareness — thinking before acting to avoid harm

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I scored 84-100 on my ethical survey test. My answers indicated that I follow a set of ethical standards or personal values. It stated that I likely strive to act with integrity, honesty, fairness, and responsibility. I believe that this is a true reflection of myself and the way I am within practice. The ethical statistics such as honesty, responsibility and fairness will be a benefit on my approach to educational research. As stated in previous modules, we must be honest and fair when completing research in terms of the data we are collecting and how it will be used. The responsibility value I have will also have a positive impact on how I complete my educational research, as I will have a responsibility to ensure I am honest and fair and state exactly what I am researching and how data would be collected and shared. I feel a challenge for me, could be the critical side- I am able to take criticism well, but sometimes I need time to process and reflect before I can discuss it further, this is not always helpful for the person who is trying to give honest feedback.

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My results (90/100) show that I follow ethical standards and hold personal values. I strive to act with integrity, honesty, fairness, and responsibility. Largely mirroring my professional five guiding principles and the Nolan's Principles.

Suggesting that I make sure I am doing the right things for the right reasons and not trying to people please, avoid punishment, or have alternate motives. That I incorporate integrity, resilience, authenticity, or lifelong learning into my daily life.

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"93/100 - Highly ethical

You follow a moral compass. Your answers indicate that you follow a set of ethical standards or personal values. You likely strive to act with integrity, honesty, fairness, and responsibility, which benefits your relationships, career, and well-being."

Within educational research, I hope that my general ethical standards can help to guide towards getting clear and transparent inclusive and equitable knowledge.

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90/100 - Highly ethical

You follow a moral compass. Your answers indicate that you adhere to a set of ethical standards or personal values. You likely strive to act with integrity, honesty, fairness, and responsibility, which benefits your relationships, career, and well-being.

1. What to Know

Morality involves behaving according to certain standards the value system by which one determines right from wrong, good from bad. Morality often refers to personal choices, whereas ethics often refers to societally determined norms.

Research suggests that humans have an innate sense of morality present from infancy. Yet the environment also plays a role, as morality is sometimes, but not always, expressed differently across individuals and cultures.

• Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development proposes that individuals progress through six stages from childhood to adulthood, moving from obedience and punishment orientation (stage 1) to universal principles (stage 6).

Research has found that moral thoughts and behaviours enhance our positive feelings and are beneficial to our overall sense of well-being.

• Identifying and living by core values can foster personal growth, healthy relationships, and fulfilment in society. Research suggests that value congruence is associated with greater life satisfaction, self-esteem, and positive emotions.

2. Kick It Up a Notch

Appreciate your moral compass.

Note that you’re on the right path; an ethical mindset benefits well-being, relationships, careers, and society.

Take a moral inventory.

Ask yourself whether you’re making the right choices for the right reasons, or whether you may be caught up in people-pleasing, punishment avoidance, or other motivations.

Explore your values.

Assess your core values, such as integrity, resilience, authenticity, and lifelong learning and strive to integrate them into your daily life.

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84/100 My result placed me within the highly ethical category, which I feel reflects many of my own professional values and approaches to leadership and education. Within healthcare education, I place significant importance on fairness, integrity, consistency, and the impact that behaviour and communication can have on both students and staff. I also recognise that strong ethical values can influence how individuals perceive workplace culture, relationships, and decision making within the workplace and learning environments.

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I have a score of 98/100 - Highly ethical. My answers revealed that I am likely strive to act with integrity, honesty, fairness, and responsibility. I have been applying these qualities in my practice as a lecturer. I look forward to developing these further when I conduct educational research in the future, regardless of the approach I choose. Integrity in research means that I conduct myself consistently according to professional standards. Honesty ensures that my findings are accurate and transparent. Fairness entails being inclusive and eliminate any bias. Responsibility means owning up the problem, ensuring the safety of both researchers and respondents, and data protection. (Pietro)

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Professional Values and Impact on Educational Research

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Professional Values and Impact on Educational Research

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From the professional values survey, through Personality.co, my key values include ambition and achievement, strong work ethic, adaptability, strategic thinking and a focus on success and outcomes. These align closely with characteristics of a Type 3 'Achiever,' who is driven to set high goals and pursue excellence.

These values are likely to shape my approach to educational research in several ways. Firstly, my focus on outcomes and impact may lead me towards research that is practical and improvement-focused, aligning with a pragmatic approach. I am likely to prioritise research that leads to measurable improvements in teaching and learning, rather than purely theoretical exploration.

Finally, my drive for success and high expectations may positively influence the rigour and commitment I bring to research but I will need to remain mindful of maintaining objectivity and being open to findings that challenge my assumptions.

Overall, these values position me well for conducting impactful research, but they also require careful reflection to ensure balance, openness, and depth in my approach.

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The survey identifies the following professional values:

Integrity

Honesty

Fairness

Responsibility

Authenticity

Resilience

Lifelong learning

Strong moral judgement (ethical decision-making)

Commitment to personal values and ethical standards

Critical evaluation of the potential impact on my approach to educational research (Level 7)

These professional values are likely to shape my approach to educational research by promoting ethical integrity throughout the research process. Integrity and honesty will encourage transparency in data collection, analysis, and reporting, reducing the likelihood of researcher bias or selective interpretation of findings. Fairness will influence how participants are recruited and treated, ensuring that principles of informed consent, confidentiality, respect, and equity are maintained throughout the study. Responsibility extends beyond compliance with institutional ethical procedures and requires continual reflection on the potential consequences of the research for participants, organisations, and wider society.

The values of authenticity and lifelong learning also support a reflexive approach to educational research. As an educational practitioner, I recognise that my professional experiences inevitably shape how I interpret evidence. Consequently, engaging in ongoing critical reflection enables me to acknowledge personal assumptions and minimise their influence on the research process. This aligns with reflexive research practice advocated by qualitative researchers who emphasise transparency regarding researcher positionality.

Furthermore, resilience is particularly important when conducting educational research within complex workplace environments. Research findings may challenge established organisational practices or personal beliefs, requiring the researcher to remain objective while responding constructively to ethical dilemmas and conflicting perspectives.

However, these values also require critical scrutiny. A strong personal moral framework may unintentionally lead to confirmation bias, where evidence is interpreted in ways that reinforce pre-existing beliefs. Therefore, maintaining methodological rigour through reflexivity, triangulation, peer review, and adherence to recognised ethical frameworks, such as those outlined by the British Educational Research Association Ethical Guidelines (2024), is essential. By balancing personal ethical values with systematic research methods, I can enhance the credibility, trustworthiness, and integrity of my educational research.

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Olayinka's Professional Values, Evaluation, and Impact on Educational Research

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Olayinka's Professional Values, Evaluation, and Impact on Educational Research

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From the above reflective prompt, my personal values appear to centre on integrity, honesty, fairness, responsibility and ethical awareness. These values are likely to shape my approach to educationl research by making me attentive to transparency, dignity, evidence, learner voice and the consequences of interpretation. In an ALN/PMLD context, this means I would be cautious about reducing learners’ experiences to observable behaviour alone, because behaviour may represent communication, distress, regulation difficulty or unmet need. These values therefore support a critical realist and pragmatic orientation: I recognise that real educational events occur, but that their meanings require careful interpretation through multiple forms of knowledge. However, these values may also create bias. For example, my commitment to fairness may make me hesitant to reach conclusions, while my committment to dignity may incline me towards relational interpretations. Therefore, reflexivity is necessary so that my values strengthen the research without simply confirming what I already believe.

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Result of my Personal Values and Educational Research

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My ethics score: 84/100 — Highly Ethical

I recently completed a values survey scoring 84/100, in the "highly ethical" range, meaning I consistently act with integrity, honesty, fairness, and responsibility.

This tracks with my practice as an educator. Differentiating for varying abilities reflects fairness; respecting my school's Islamic-values culture reflects integrity; taking my roles (Head of Sixth Form, Careers Lead, PSHE Lead) seriously reflects responsibility.

It also raises a useful question: am I making these choices for the right reasons, or partly to be seen as fair? Identifying my own core values explicitly, rather than just inheriting them from training or context, feels like a worthwhile next step.