Ethics in research is the upholding of certain acceptable behaviours in relation to how research subjects are to be treated and how data is to be collected. The measure of what is acceptable is usually decided by those in power and usually concerns itself with confidentiality and ensuring that research subjects are in no way harmed by the research. However, as with all ethical issues, there are often a range of 'grey areas' which do not easily lend themselves to proper scrutiny through established ethical guidelines and researchers must examine their own code of ethics in order to decide what is acceptable research practice.

• The positivist research methodologies of the past have tended to view subjects as objects to be observed and recorded in an objective a manner as possible. "It has been argued that historically, this structure whereby 'we' study 'them' has been institutionalised in the disciplines we represent, and that practitioners of those disciplines have been trained to preceive it as natural; they may have experienced some pressure to repeat it, in order to contribute to 'important' scholarly debates" (Cameron et al, 1992:3). This so-called ethical research process is no longer appropriate.

• These days research methodologies take an advocacy position (op cit:15) whereby the research is not only on particular subjects but for them and the subjects may use the knowledge gained for the good of their comminuty at some later date.

• But even more acceptable in the contemporary context is research that empowers its subjects. These interactive methodologies "oblige the researcher not only to listen but also, if called upon, to respond" (op cit:24) by sharing the knowledge and taking the subjects' own agendas into consideration.