Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Leadership Journeys: Paths to Professional Practice

Carol A. Mullen
Past President, NCPEA
Virginia Tech

Do educational leaders experience breathtaking, all-consuming, transformative leadership journeys? Do they see themselves on a journey of growth and development, as humans and as leaders?
If educational leaders intuit that their lives and/or professional journeys/development are on a path, what are some implications for thinking about leadership, conducting research, and preparing future educational leaders?
These are overarching research questions that NCPEA Past Presidents Carol Mullen and Fenwick English are asking in a new book of theirs on the leadership journey as it intersects with the lived experiences of educational leaders, with relevance for the preparation of leaders and the educational leadership field. A primary source of inspiration for this book is American mythologist Joseph Campbell’s description of the university mythic pattern. We think that it very well may have applicability to your experiences as a leader, both in your work and in your life.
General Description of the Journey Theme
The educational leader (i.e., hero) begins in the ordinary world, and receives a call to enter an unknown world of strange powers and events. The leader who accepts the call to enter this strange world must face tasks and trials, either alone or with assistance. In the most intense versions of the narrative, the hero must survive a severe challenge, often with help. If the hero survives, s/he may achieve a great gift or “boon.” The hero must then decide whether to return to the ordinary world with this boon. If the hero does decide to return, s/he often faces challenges on the return journey. If the hero returns successfully, the boon or gift may be used to improve the world (Campbell, 1949/1973).
While Campbell describes 17 stages or steps along this journey, in fact very people (e.g., mythic heroes, educational leaders) experience all 17 stages. These 17 stages can be compressed into the following major phases.

Please share a transformative leadership experience that you have had that could very well contribute to the greater good of our profession. Thank you in advance for your time!
~ Carol Mullen

Specific Description of the Journey’s Phases ~ please comment
Departure deals with the hero's adventure prior to the quest
What call have you accepted (or rejected) in your work as an educational leader that turned out to be a significant decision? What feelings, thoughts, or struggles did you experience during this phase of your leadership journey?

Initiation deals with the hero's many adventures along the way
While on the journey, what experiences did you encounter? Who or what helped you, challenged you, or blocked you? What trials did you undergo? These take the form of a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation.

Return deals with the hero’s return home with knowledge and powers acquired on the journey.
What did you experience upon your return home to the ordinary world? What new insight did you gain from your journey? What wisdom did you come to and have you had the opportunity to integrate the wisdom gained on the quest into your work, life, consciousness, or being? Have you shared your wisdom with friends, colleagues, networks, or even the rest of the world?

Reference
Campbell, J. (1949/1973). The hero with a thousand faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
 Press.


Friday, September 6, 2013

Marc Shelton

President, NCPEA

George Fox University


A New Year to Re-flect, Re-think, and Re-conceptualize How We Prepare School Leaders


If you are like me, you have been pulled kicking and screaming from the last days of summer to preparing or perhaps even beginning to teach courses this week.  This is the stuff of life that we know as professors of educational administration – preparing for the important work of our profession mixed with the events of our personal lives attending to day-to-day realities of being fully human.  Within the past month many of us within NCPEA busily moved from teaching summer school sessions, where we work hard and smart to prepare future leaders, to attend to our personal learning and development in the Meadowlands of New Jersey.  There we corporately convened our 67th annual conference led by the NCPEA president Carol Mullen and graciously hosted by a team of professors led by Drs. Gerry Babo and Don Leake through the state affiliate of NJ-NCPEA. 

This summer on the East Coast we listened together to hear perspectives on the important work we do, to share stories of what is working in our classrooms, to present the results of our research, and to be challenged to lead our profession into the future through writing, teaching, speaking, and serving.  We were refreshed during conversations with friends and seeing the sites of New York City, and blessed by taking some time to remember those who are no longer working among us, who led by action in taking time away from their work schedules of preparing school leaders to invest in the future of this active and vibrant community of professors of educational administration.  And now we are back to the work that comes with a new academic year – so welcome to the continuous cycle of working, reflecting, refreshing, and returning to our work to innovate, invent, and imagine – again.

We also heard about the progress we are making as an organization in the area of publications – progress to promote the knowledge base for leadership within schools in the United States and the world.  Ted Creighton and Brad Bizzell, NCPEA publications directors, presented samples of significant work from our professor-members.  Jim Berry, executive director, posed criteria for making crucial decisions that face the executive board this year – the “how and how much” approach to determine investments of time and money to strategically grow our role as a publisher within the field of educational administration.

One such project was the publication of an NCPEA position paper arguing for an interrelated approach to teacher leadership, which was presented by Dr. Berry to the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) in the fall of 2012.  Specifically, to implement this concept requires rethinking how we prepare school leaders and modeling collaboration among faculty in higher education and between universities and the schools for which we prepare leaders.  The executive board approved using this September Talking Point space to pose some questions about how we design educational administration curriculum and instruction to expand the perception and preparation of teacher leaders.  Listening to your answers is important to our next step in shaping the national conversation and aggressively implementing our NCPEA action plan to strengthen teacher leadership.

Please take some time to think about and reply to the following prompts to help formulate the eventual NCPEA policy brief that is scheduled for publication this fall.  Blessings to you as you embark on the journey of your new academic year!   


NCPEA members, we invite you to respond to the following questions in this blog and to add any additional questions or comments.

Thoughts to Prompt Your Thinking

·         Leadership matters in schools, so we need to be aggressive in how we prepare school leaders
·         “Not to say we do it better, but to show we do it differently” – with an effective humility
·         Considering a thought, both expressed by Nel Noddings’ Keynote and in Jim Cibulka’s Cocking Lecture (click here for slides), we need to prepare leaders who are willing and able to navigate politics to aggressively advocate for and influence decisions to develop sound policy that promote educators and our profession to better serve children and families.

The NCPEA distinctive in preparing school leaders (NOTE: The majority of school leaders working within schools today are prepared in programs where our NCPEA professor-members work)

     Collaborative, democratic, participatory & personal approach to preparing school leaders
     Bigger vision for how & why we are preparing teacher leaders with rigor and relevance
     NCPEA professors speak, write & teach

·         Why should we lead from within our Ed. Admin. programs in preparing teaching leaders?

·         What are your program’s vision and ideas for preparing school leaders? And how will school leadership change if your program’s ideas are implemented?

·         How do you present a larger perspective of leadership, specifically teacher leadership, in your program?

·         What knowledge & skills differ from what is learned from educational administration and from teacher education perspectives?

·         Provide some examples of collaboration within your college or university to prepare effective teacher leaders?

·         Provide some examples of collaboration among your P-12 school partners to prepare effective teacher leaders?

·         Thank you!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

AN INVITATION TO CRITICALLY READ OPERATING IN THE DARK, A RECENT REPORT FROM THE GEORGE W. BUSH INSTITUTE OF DALLAS, TEXAS

The George W. Bush Institute is a conservatively funded think tank now issuing policy briefs and conducting surveys to advance its political agenda. For our NCPEA members we have included a complete copy of that report. Five questions were developed by a special Executive Board Sub-Committee to frame this report. The Committee was comprised of Fenwick English, Rosemary Papa, Deborah Erickson, Carol Mullen and Executive Director James Berry.

The report may be viewed by clicking on this link: Operating in the Dark


NCPEA members, we invite you to respond to the following questions in this blog and to add any additional questions or comments.

Monday, April 8, 2013


Exploring Entrepreneurialism in Academia

Inna Gorlova, Ed.D.
Adjunct Faculty
Leadership and Counseling Department
Eastern Michigan University

Globalization and the rapidly changing market cause universities to seek new and creative ways to survive and succeed.  The term entrepreneurial university is an ideological umbrella for those higher education institutions that are attempting to fully participate in the social and economic life of society (Clark, 2004; Etzkowitz, 2004; Schramm, 2006).  The mission of entrepreneurial universities goes beyond teaching and research.  They actively collaborate with the external organizations as they transfer knowledge to new or improved programs and services (Etzkowitz, 2004).

A qualitative study was conducted to investigate entrepreneurial transformation at the academic and non-academic departments of the School of Education at one Midwestern large public comprehensive university.  I sought to better understand the growth of the programs and services at the units of analysis and how entrepreneurial concepts such as entrepreneurial behavior, culture, entrepreneurial products, creativity, innovations, and others play out in the chosen institution.  Collected qualitative data were coded and scanned for common themes.

Fourteen emergent themes were put into five categories: Entrepreneurial Individuals, Environmental Factors, Organizational Behaviors, Organizational Outcomes, and Organizational Systems.  Analysis of the emergent themes showed that they are not equal; some of the themes are more important than the others.  The following four themes were found to be core ones: Diversity of Personal and Professional Expertize and Experiences, Teamwork and Internal Collaboration, Unique/Innovative Programs and Services, and Entrepreneurial Achievement Oriented Organizational Culture.  These core themes have closer connections among the other themes and carry the content to which the data refer more often that to the rest of themes (see the highlighted themes in the Table below).

Fourteen emergent themes and five main categories

These themes create a “story” that emerged from the data.  This story tells that the organizational members with diverse backgrounds, experiences and expertise, come together in different teams and collaborate to achieve common goals.  They work across campus and with the partnering organizations in the state, region, nationally, and internationally.  They scan environment and conduct research on the best practices at other higher education institutions.  During these collaborative processes, they choose ideas for new projects and improvements for their existing programs and services and turn the ideas to innovative organizational outcomes.  The innovations are considered as unique novel programs that may be new at the level of departments, School of Education, University, or among other universities.  All of the processes at the selected departments contribute to the entrepreneurial culture.  This culture should be understood as the lowest level of “cultural iceberg” that represents underlined assumptions and deep believes (Schein, 2004) of the organizational members.  This culture is achievement oriented (McClelland, 1961).  The individuals compete with each other how far they may go in the market.  This culture is supportive to new ideas and involves hard work, determination, and risk-taking. 

These four themes are tied in a cycling process because the entrepreneurial organizational culture promotes a lot of restructuring activities at all of the levels within the University.  The restructuring leads to frequent change of the positions and responsibilities because the organization seeks fresh input.  When the departments hire new faculty or staff, the hiring committee looks in candidates for diverse backgrounds, creativity, curiosity, and proven abilities to go beyond traditional walls in academia.

This study was an important opportunity for me, as an educational leader, to learn about the processes that occur in higher education because of global pressures and about how entrepreneurialism enhances capability of an organization to succeed in today’s globalizing world.

Questions for consideration:
How do we, educational leaders, apply creativity in our everyday work with the students? And how do we recognize and support creativity and initiatives by our students and/or colleagues? How often are we willing to go beyond our comfort zones and initiate and implement projects that would bring people from other disciplinary together in order to improve teaching-learning? Where entrepreneurialism in academia starts: in a classroom or at a president office?

References:

Clark, B. R. (2004). Delineating the Character of the Entrepreneurial University. Higher Education Policy, 17, 355-370.
Etzkowitz, H. (2004). The evolution of the entrepreneurial university. International Journal of Technology and Globalisation, 1, 64-77.
McClelland, D. C. (1961). The Achieving Society. Princeton, NJ: D. Van. Nostrand Company, Ltd.
Schein, E.H. (2004). Organizational Culture and Leadership. 3rd Ed. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons
Schramm, C. (2006). The Entrepreneurial imperative: How America’s economic miracle will reshape the world (and change your life). New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers

Monday, March 4, 2013

MAPEA Virtual Symposium -- Now Live!

Angela Elkordy
Doctoral Candidate
Leadership and Counseling,
Eastern Michigan University

The Michigan Association of Professors of Educational Administration is convening a Virtual Symposium during the month of March, 2013. You are invited to participate!

Researchers have prepared presentations for your review. Questions and comments will be accepted from March 4-18, 2013, followed by "live" sessions March 19-21, in which researchers will address feedback. Please show your support by sharing your ideas!

For more information, please see the MAPEA Virtual Symposium web site: http://www.mapeasymposium.org/


Friday, February 1, 2013


Mindfulness for Educational Leaders: Developing Practice in the Present Moment

Caryn Wells
Associate Professor
Oakland University
NCPEA Executive Board

The challenges of leading schools are widely known and accepted as being complex and stress-filled. Principals report high levels of stress in their world of work, citing issues of diminished resources, increased accountability, media attention, and safety issues for staff and students (Cooley & Shen, 2003; Petzko, 2008; Wells, Maxfield, & Klocko, 2011). To be relevant for developing skills that practitioners need, the preparation of school leaders is charged with a list similar to the demands of the principalship- a job that Grubb and Flessa (2006) reported as, “a job too big for one” (p.13). School leaders take on responsibility for instructional and transformational leadership, the mediation of conflict, and myriad tasks and roles that are emergent and critical.

As university professors prepare aspiring and practicing graduate level students for leadership roles, there is an expectation among the students that the coursework is relevant and practical. We hear these comments from students who attend our classes as they share the issues that they face on a daily basis. One might assert that leadership is about doing, since the books and articles about leadership frequently contain verbs that describe actions that get results, inspire, motivate, move, and so forth. There is another side to the leadership; one that gets little attention, and that is the act of being, or as Kabat-Zinn (2005) reported, practicing being as opposed to doing.

It might seem impossible to consider the merits of being, until the intricacies of the word are examined. First, a sense of being is a type of non-doing that might seem to be in contrast to what we believe our roles and habits should be, especially in a leadership role. Consider how a sense of being might serve a principal throughout the day. To be with a teacher, parent, or student and be fully present, as opposed to being there but pre-occupied and distracted would serve the principal and the person in his/her presence. The focus becomes the person, not the anticipated response or the distracted mind of the observer. The practice of mindfulness cultivates a sense of being fully present in the moment (Smalley & Winston, 2010).

Carroll (2007) reported, “In the tradition of the mindful leader, rather than leading with will, power, and ambition, we lead and inspire others with openness, intelligence, and vulnerability” (p. 52). Much of this is accomplished through the practice of sitting still and observing. Mindful leaders, because they pay attention to what is actually occurring in the present moment, as opposed to what they expect or want to see, allows for a realistic picture. Williams and Penman (2011) summarized, “Mindful awareness- or mindfulness- spontaneously arises out of this Being mode when we learn to pay attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgment, to things as they actually are” (p.35).

 Mindfulness is a form of meditation that utilizes moment-to-moment awareness that is nonjudgmental and nonstriving (Kabat-Zinn, 2005). As such, mindfulness notices and accepts things as they really are (Gunaratana, 2002). Mindfulness involves the practice of meditating while allowing the thoughts and senses to be present in each moment; it is not about trying to erase thoughts from one’s mind. Mindfulness cultivates awareness for being fully present, something that is difficult for most people, who may live in past regrets or the busy agenda of today or tomorrow. Building administrators might be surprised to learn that they are not always living in the moment, particularly as they race from project to project, phone call to phone call, or interruption to interruption. It is the incessant interruptions and brief and fragmented interactions described by Hallinger (1992) that contribute to the feeling of being overwhelmed and stressed.
The workload stress of administrators includes pressure to multi-task as a coping mechanism for the unending ‘to-do’ list. Mindfulness meditation can slow down the pace of the moment and allow for a principal to be with the situation.

Mindfulness meditation is widely practiced in over 200 hospitals, prestigious law schools, and corporate America (Kabat-Zinn, 2005).  Jerome T. Murphy (2011) former Dean of Harvard Graduate School of Education recently argued for expanded use of mindfulness to develop situational awareness and a balanced self that does not slip into reactivity for educational leaders. The Harvard Graduate School of Education recently sponsored a conference that featured, at its core, the practice and study of mindfulness.

Mindfulness meditation is widely reported in medical, psychological, and health related journals. Ryback (2006) reported, “At this point there are more than 1,000 research studies on mindfulness-based stress reduction published in peer-reviewed journals” (p.478). Neuroscientists, psychotherapists, medical doctors, scientists, educators, professors, and psychiatrists are investigating and presenting research on mindfulness that indicates the positive correlations of practicing mindfulness; the cultivation of empathy, compassion, listening skills, decreased anxiety and depression, and increased immunity (Black, 2010; Brady, 2007; Dane, 2011; Garland & Gaylord, 2009; Ludwig & Kabat-Zinn; Riess, 2010; Shapiro, Schwartz, & Bonner, 1998; Siegel, 2007; Smalley & Winston, 2010).

I have been teaching the concepts and practice of mindfulness meditation to graduate students for the past four years and while not true of all students, I hear repeatedly how the practice is making a difference in how leaders approach the challenges in their personal and professional life. I close with questions that allow us to think about the relevance of mindfulness for our students, and the benefits for them and ourselves, as we are involved with contemplative leadership. I welcome your feedback! Namaste.

Questions for consideration:

What is the future of mindfulness for educational leaders?

How do we, as professors, provide training and information on mindfulness?


References
Black, D. A. (2010). Incorporating mindfulness within established theories of health behavior. Complementary Health Practice Review, 15(2), 108-109.
Cooley, V. E., & Shen, J. (2003). School accountability and professional job responsibilities: A perspective from secondary principals. NASSP Bulletin, 87 (634), 10- 25. doi: 10.1177/019263650308763402
Dane, E. (2010). Paying attention to mindfulness and its effects on task performance in the workplace. Journal of Management, 37(4), 997-1018. doi: 10.1177/0149206310367948.
Garland, E., & Gaylord, S. (2009). Envisioning a future contemplative science of mindfulness: Fruitful methods and new content for the next wave of research. Complementary Health Practice Review, 14(3), 3-9.
Gunaratana, B. H. (2002). Mindfulness in Plain English. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.
Grubb, W. N., & Flessa, J. J. (2006). “A job too big for one”: Multiple principals and other nontraditional approaches to school leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 42(4), 518-550. doi: 10.1177/001316106290641
Hallinger, P. (1992). The evolving role of American principals: From managerial to instructional to transformational leaders. Journal of Educational Administration, 30(3), 35-48.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2005). Coming to our senses: Healing ourselves and the world through mindfulness. New York, NY: Hyperion.
Ludwig, D. S., & Kabat-Zinn, J. (2008). Mindfulness in medicine. Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), 300(11), 1350-1352. doi: 10.1001/jama.300.11.1350
Murphy, J. T. (2011, September). Dancing in the rain: Tips on thriving as a leader in tough times. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(1), 36-41.
Petzko, V. (2008). The perceptions of new principals regarding the knowledge and skills important to their initial success. NASSP Bulletin, 92(3), 242-250. doi: 10.1177/0192636508322824
Ryback, D. (2006). Self-determination and the neurology of mindfulness. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 46(4), 474-493. doi: 10.1177/022167806290214
Shapiro, S. L., Schwartz, G. E., & Bonner, G. (1998). Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on medical and premedical students. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21(6), 581-599.
Siegel, D. J. (2007). The mindful brain: Reflection and attunement in the cultivation of well-being. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co.
Smalley, S. & Winston, D. (2010). Fully present: The science, art, and practice of mindfulness. Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press Books.
Smalley, S. & Winston, D. (2011). Is mindfulness for you? In B. Boyce (Ed.), The mindfulness revolution (pp. 11-20). Boston, MA: Shambhala Sun.
Wells, C. M., Maxfield, C. R., & Klocko, B. (2011). Complexities inherent in the workload of principals: Implications for teacher leadership. In B. J. Alford, G. Perreault, L. Zellner, & J. W. Ballenger (Eds.). 2011 NCPEA Yearbook: Blazing Trails: Preparing Leaders to Improve Access and Equity in Today’s Schools. (pp. 29-46). Lancaster, PA: DEStech Publications, Inc., Pro>Active Publications.
Williams, M., & Penman, D. (2011). Mindfulness: An eight-week plan for finding peace in a frantic world. New York, NY: Rodale Press.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Social Media and the IRB process

Social Media Venues Research and the IRB process to protect participants’ privacy
Dr. Pauline Sampson
Stephen F. Austin State University

        As we examine the use of blogs and responses to newspaper reports and well as other forms of social media communication, it is important for researchers and Institutional Review Boards (IRB) to decide on acceptable research of public data. The major areas of confidentiality and risks from disclosure are within the scope of duties for Institutional Review Boards as this responsibility provides the safeguards for research participants.  Institutional Review Board members examine research applications for minimal risk to participants.  One of the risks is the breach of confidentiality (Puglisi, 2001 ) and researchers must address in their designs, a description for preventing this.  Tom Puglisi further suggests that researchers carefully determine participants’ risks in order to minimize the risks whether social or psychological risks. 

        Some universities exempt research that uses secondary data sources as they view no interaction between humans in this form of research.  Other universities have restrictions such that no specific individuals or organizations may be identifiable in order to protect confidentiality.  All of the guidelines are found in Federal regulations (45CFR Part 46).  But there are limited studies on different venues for social media such as blogs, newspaper article responses, and social networks in connection with participants’ expected privacy. D’Innocenzo (2010) proposed a study of social networking and profile images since this is an area of limited study in order to determine why participants chose their image for placement on a social network site.  Additionally, this researcher described ways to design the research so that it would provide safeguards to participants’ confidentiality and thus hopefully gain IRB approval.  But he also fully described the challenges with the IRB requirements which made delays in the research and ultimately not conducting his study.  The challenges such as needing a more detailed account of data analysis, security concerns, and readability level of consent form were requested by the IRB and delayed the study.

        Another research for the IRB process was conducted specifically for Veterans Affairs (Shekelle, 2012) but it also relates to other social and behavior sciences.  Shekelle’s research was an analysis of the studies conducted on the IRB process. The findings showed that the topic of getting approval from multiple IRB institutions was the most challenging for researchers and had the largest number of research studies.  The next topic was conflict of interest.  Shekelle also explored the topic of quality improvement efforts and whether this constituted research that would then require IRB approval.  But this research did not examine specific issues related to social venues.

        According to the IRB Advisor, research that utilizes data from blogs, newspaper responses, and social media networks should not have the same rules for IRB approval because the expectations of privacy by participants varies depending on the venue. Further, just because someone places something on the internet that does not mean public access for any use.  For example, the recent selling of people’s private digital images for business ads has received a backlash by the owners of the private pictures.  This one example of concern was reports of Instagram changing its policy on the use of people’s photos which then led to people expressing concern over their potential use of their photos and led to Instagram executives to state that they had no plans to use people’s photos (Counts, 2012).   But their language in the policy did not indicate that privacy should be an expectation. 

        One suggestion is to examine the expectations of people who post blogs and responses online.  If a reasonable person would expect that their information was public knowledge perhaps they also is no expectation of confidentiality beyond no use of names.  This shared information may not have been expected to be used as published data.  And the confidentiality of research participants is a major concern for researchers to gather quality data as well as for IRBs to ethically safeguard the confidentiality of participants (Palys & Lowman, 2012). Gates (2011) suggested that there is a need to research how to minimize the risks for the use of public data with confidentiality issues.   If researchers quote people from blogs, there needs to be no way for a connection to be made with the original blogger, especially if a blogger’s name is used in other places on the Internet.  Eastham (2011) suggests that researchers determine who has access to a blog, is it a blog that requires a subscription, are reader comments allowed, is the blog password protected, and if the blog is in a cache form that means it has been discontinued.  Additionally, some newspaper article responses are copyrighted because of the copyright of the newspaper.  Therefore, the participants may also assume that their responses are private and protected.

        Researchers suggest that the benefit of gaining open access to participants’ honest reactions on blogs and other social venue are helpful in research and serve as potential sources to understand personal reactions to many social phenomenon or treatments. Some researchers found that participants in online formats are more willing to provide information (Frankel & Siang, 1999) and suggests that because of this, the IRB needs to have heightened concerns for privacy of participants.  Further, the Frankel and Siang suggest that IRBs need new policies that relate to internet communications and research.  Institutional Review Boards and researchers need to continue a dialogue to understand the potential benefits of research from social venues while protecting the privacy and confidentiality of participants.


Questions (please respond by adding a comment):

How can the benefits of research from public social media venues be balanced with the privacy rights of participants?

What suggestions do you have on the research that could help the IRB process?


References

Counts, A. (Dec. 18, 2012). Instagram can sell your photos, secretly put you in ads (Updated-Instagram says it won’t do either). http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/instagram-can-sell-your-photos-secretly-put-you-in-ads/
Eastham, L.A. (2011). Research using blogs for data: Public documents or private musing?  Research in Nursing and Health, 34(4), 353-361.
Frankel, M. S., & Siang, S. (1999). Ethical and legal aspects of human subjects research on the internet.  American Association for the Advancement of Science.  http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/projects/intres/report.pdf.
Gates, G. W. (2011).  How uncertainty about privacy and confidentiality is hampering efforts to more effectively use administrative records in producing U. S. National Statistics.  Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality, 3(2) Article 2.  Available at: http//repository.cmu.edu/jpc/vol3/iss2/2.
IRB Advisor (2011).  Blog research: Fine line between public/private. Pages 106-107
Lorenzo, P. (2010) Challenges and obstacles of Internet research involving digital images in the academic environment: A case study. Empire State College State University of New York. ProQuest UMI 1486613.
Palys, T., & Lowman, J. (2012). Defending research confidentiality “To the extent the law allows”: Lessons from the Boston College Subpoenas. Journal of Academic Ethics 10(4), 271-297.
Puglisi, T. (2001) IRB review: It helps to know the regulatory framework. Observer 14(5).
Shekelle, P. G. (2012). Maintaining research integrity: A systematic review of the role of the Institutional Review Board in managing conflict of interest.  Evidence-based Synthesis Program (ESP) Center, Los Angeles, CA.