Students as Lab Rats: The Ethics of Conducting Non-Pedagogical Research in the Context of Classroom Simulations and Experiential Learning

Abstract

While much ABSEL work has addressed the teaching of business ethics to students, there is scant dialogue on the ethics of using one’s students as subjects in non-pedagogical classroom research. The authors contend that this practice is ethical when the research is focused on pedagogical topics and student interests are protected. However, when non-pedagogical research is undertaken with student subjects or using student data gatherers, issues of exploitation and uneven opportunity to learn arise. Consequently, the authors judge this practice to be unethical.