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Home > HCAS > HCAS_PUBS > HCAS_JOURNALS > TQR Home > TQR > Vol. 30 > No. 11 (2025)

 

Abstract

Our paper analyses the practical dimensions of obtaining informed consent in qualitative research, drawing on the reflective insight from fieldwork conducted as part of a study on the professional identity of primary (elementary) teachers in community schools in Nepal. Our study builds on and extends the understanding of informed consent as a legal and ethical requirement (Kadam, 2017) while considering the complexities of fieldwork. Drawing on interactions with six teachers and using the first author's detailed fieldnotes and reflexive memos, our study explores the challenges researchers face in securing consent during qualitative interviews. We argue that the consent-seeking process should not be treated as a fixed, formal precondition for entry into the field, but as a flexible, evolving, dynamic, and context-specific process. The legal and bureaucratic nature of presenting a written consent form the beginning of the study can create discomfort and fear, which can limit open dialogue and acceptance. We conclude that written consent should not always be a prerequisite for beginning data collection; verbal agreement may be sufficient to proceed, and the consent form can be signed at any stage of the process when participants feel fully informed, ready, and comfortable.

Keywords

informed consent, qualitative research, ethics, fieldnotes, reflexivity, fieldwork

Author Bio(s)

Khim Raj Subedi (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0778-3012 ) is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Assessment at Tribhuvan University, Prithvi Narayan Campus, Pokhara, Nepal. He recently completed his Ph.D. in Education from the Graduate School of Education, Tribhuvan University. He teaches at both undergraduate and graduate levels. His research interests include teacher/professional identity, curriculum studies, inclusive education, pedagogy, and assessment, and teacher education. He has published in several national and international peer-reviewed journals. Email:krsubedi@gmail.com; khim.subedi@prnc.tu.edu.np

Peshal Khanal (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2937-4906 ) is a Professor of Education at Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He earned a Ph.D. in Education from Canterbury Christ Church University. He also obtained a joint Master's degree in Lifelong Learning from the Institute of Education, University of London, the University of Deusto, and Aarhus University under the Erasmus Mundus Program. His research interests include educational policy, teacher management, community schooling, and minority education. Some of his works are published in journals such as Educational Research for Policy and Practice, Compare, Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, and Comparative Education Review. Please direct correspondence to peshal.khanal@tucded.edu.np

Acknowledgements

The first author is thankful to Lekh Baral, Assistant Professor at the Norwegian National Centre for English and Other Foreign Languages, and a Ph.D. scholar at the University of Oslo, Norway, for providing inaccessible resources for this study. The authors also thank the reviewers for their insightful and valuable feedback.

Publication Date

11-30-2025

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2025.7004

ORCID ID

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0778-3012

ResearcherID

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0778-3012

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