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Code of Ethics for the Research Centre in Basic Education
The research in the area of basic education aims to extend knowledge and comprehension in all comprising areas, and it also considers every perspectives and voice, including learners, teaching, non-teaching staff, policymakers and the community. The Research Centre in Basic Education (CIEB) recognizes that the research related to basic education must be carried out within a set of ethical principles based upon the respect for people, for knowledge, for democratic values, for the quality of research and for academic freedom. CIEB bases its code of ethics on the following documents: American Educational Research Association (2011); The British Educational Research Association Ethical Guidelines (2011); Ethics letter from the Portuguese Society for Educational Sciences (2014); Ethical Research Involving Children (http://childethics.com/ethical-guidance/); Regulations of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (2015). As such, CIEB’s researchers actions must follow the ethical principles underpinned in the aforementioned documents, assuming responsibilities, namely with participants, research sponsors, the community of educational research, education professionals, political actors and the public in general. Hence, these responsibilities are set out in the following guidelines:

1. Responsibilities towards the participants in the research. Bearing in mind the objectives of educational.

research, CIEB’s ethical guidelines are based on shared responsibilities and commitment, which also implies building a parallel path grounded on trust and mutual respect, that meets a horizontal view rather than a vertical one (or hierarchical) in leadership, thus respecting people as participants involved in data collection processes. People can be collaborators or active participants in the process, or they can be inserted in the context where the data is collected. In this way, researchers should take the following procedures into account:

  1. To inform the participants and collaborators about the objectives of the research to be carried out and the contribution to the educational research;;
  2. To explain the procedures, techniques and instruments to be used and the role of the participants within this framework;
  3. To establish relationships of trust, honesty, consistency and commitment towards the participants by preventing some behaviours such as discrimination, exploitation or intimidation;
  4. To ensure that all participants understand the processes in which they will be involved, including the importance of their participation in the success of research;
  5. To establish the legal authorization procedures, ensuring the informed consent of the participants, written or oral, about the research objectives, the data to be collected and disseminated, as well as the use of technologies to record data, the type of involvement of participants, time and possible interlocutors;
  6. To guarantee the voluntary participation of the participants, allowing the right to renounce the research;
  7. To guarantee anonymity and confidentiality of participants' data;
  8. Researchers must recognize the rights of the participants;
  9. If the participants are children, the researchers should follow the conduct referred to in the previous points, recognizing the expressed in articles 12  and 13 of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child;
  10. To ensure that the research with children and with people in situations of vulnerability are indeed necessary.
  11. To create conditions so that informed consent is guaranteed by those responsible for these people.

2. Responsibilities towards the sponsors and collaborators in research.

The research promotors are individual or collective entities which sponsor the research or provide access to the data and to the participants. In this sense, it is deemed a requirement to the execution of the research as well as to conclude any agreements (protocols) in writing.

The CIEB members have the ethic responsibility to continuously improve their skills as researchers, thus including, in this process, every formal mechanism that makes the accomplished research reliable.

3. Responsibilities and respect towards the integrity and reputation of educational research.

All research within education must respect the integrity and reputation of educational research by ensuring a high level of conduct.
Considering its ethical dimension, the work developed by the members of CIEB reveals itself as a professional act that requires reflected actions (more than intentions), sustained in processes of interaction and (trans) formation, with implications in the different contexts of training, disseminating ways of teaching and learning, aiming at the improvement of everyone’s professional quality.

Unanimously approved by the attending members of the scientific committee, on 4th May 2018.

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Regulations for the Research Centre in Basic Education

Article 1 Nature and Scope

This regulation defines the organizational structure of the Research Centre in Basic Education, hereafter CIEB, its constitution, competences and activity.

Article 2 Mission

CIEB is a research unit of the School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, whose purpose is the promotion and coordination of scientific research in the field of Basic Education, as well as the dissemination and application of knowledge.

Article 3 Objectives 
The CIEB has the following objectives:

a)    to identify opportunities for pedagogical innovation in student learning and teacher training;
b)    to improve practices considering the autonomy, diversity, flexibility, differentiation and curricular articulation in basic education;
c)    to design, monitor and evaluate innovation projects and pedagogical and organizational changes in basic education;
d)    to support teachers and school leaders in the development of enabling learning environments;
e)    to create praxeological knowledge to support teaching practices and student learning;
f)    to promote the publication of scientific, critical and collective research;
g)    to support the development of young researchers;
h)    to promote cooperation and exchange with other national and international research units in the areas of research and intervention of the CIEB.

Article 4 Constitution

  1. The integrated members are professors and PhDs researchers from the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, or from other institutions, when approved by the scientific committee.
  2. he approval referred to in the preceding number shall take into account the scientific domain of the CIEB, the criteria defined by the scientific committee, the evaluation of the annual report and the scientific policy of the School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança.
  3. The collaborating members are teachers and researchers who are self-proposed or proposed by one or more integrated members.
  4. Collaborating members are approved by the scientific committee and may be PhDs, PhDs or non-PhD researchers linked to research/intervention projects.

Article 5 Bodies

The CIEB has the following governing bodies:

a)    One coordinator, elected among the integrated members, for a four-year period;
b)    two assistant coordinators, appointed by the coordinator for a period equal to or less than that of the coordinator's;
c)    a scientific committee that aggregates all integrated members;
d)    an advisory board, comprising national personalities or institutional representatives of recognized scientific merit outside the CIEB;
e)    an external advisory board, composed of individuals of recognized merit, including foreign researchers.

Article 6 Competences

  1. Competences of the coordinator:
    a)    to chair the scientific committee;
    b)    to coordinate the activities of the CIEB;
    c)    to represent the CIEB at any existing bodies of the schools of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança and at any other similar external entities;
    d)    to call the meetings of the scientific committee and the advisory board;
    e)    to prepare the annual report;
    f)    to ensure the management of the CIEB;
    g)    to propose personalities or institutional representatives for the advisory board and members for the external advisory board;
    h)    to appoint the assistant coordinators;
    i)    to prepare the annual budget proposal and the financial report;
    j)    to ensure compliance with the deliberations of the scientific committee;
    k)    to initiate the evaluation mechanisms of the CIEB.
  2. Competences of the assistant coordinators:
    a)    To assist the coordinator;
    b)    To replace the coordinator when required.
  3. Competences of the scientific committee:
    a)    To elect the coordinator;
    b)    To propose the activities and development plans of the CIEB;
    c)    To approve the annual report;
    d)    To propose human and material resources according to the activity plan and its budget;
    e)    To approve integrated members and collaborators and the members of the advisory board;
    f)    To define productivity criteria for the acceptance and maintenance of integrated members and collaborating members;
    g)    To express itself on agreements to be signed between the CIEB and other entities;
    h)   To express itself on all the issues raised by the coordinator.
  4. Competences of the advisory board:
    a)    to comment on projects of scientific research and intervention of the CIEB;
    b)    to suggest strategic lines of action in terms of research;
    c)    to comment on the annual report and the annual activity plan;
    d)    to provide opinion on all matters relevant to the development of the CIEB.
  5. Competences of the external advisory board:
    a)    to scientifically advise the CIEB;
    b)    to analyse the activity of the unit and, for that purpose, to visit it annually;
    c)    to provide opinion on the plan and annual activity report and the budget of the unit;

Article 7 Operating activity

  1. Meetings:
    a)    the scientific committee meets at least four times a year;
    b)    the advisory board meets once a year;
    c)    the coordinator shall call the meetings of the scientific committee with at least five days’ notice, the meetings of the advisory board with at least 14 days’ notice and the visits of the external advisory board with a month’s notice;
    d)    Minutes shall be written for each meeting of each body.

2. Human, material and financial resources:

a)    besides those part of the CIEB’s bodies, human resources are those assigned to by the Institution;
b)    material and financial resources are those attributed by the Institution and the ones proceeding from any applications to be submitted by the CIEB;

3. Evaluation:

a)    the CIEB will evaluate all its activity on an annual basis;
b)    in the assessment referred to in point a), the criteria laid down by the Foundation for Science and Technology shall be taken into account;
c)    the CIEB will prepare and disclose its activity and financial reports annually.


Article 8 Final Provisions

  1. This regulation comes into force on the day following its approval.
  2. Any missing issue shall be solved by the coordinator, after hearing the scientific committee and the Director of the School of Education.

Unanimously approved by the attending members of the scientific committee, on 5th April 2018.