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BERA Symposium 2021 Critical ethical reflexivity for practice and knowledge - Alison Fox
- 1. 01 Critical ethical reflexivity for practice and knowledge Alison Fox, The Open University 02 More than a tool: Twitter and research ethics Martina Emke, The Open University 03 Little people, big thoughts Carmel Capewell, Oxford Brookes University 04 Using participatory visual methods to give adults a voice Nalita James and Hugh Busher, University of Leicester 05 Developing wise practice Hugh Busher, University of Leicester Thinking critically and ethically about research for education BERA Research Methodology in Education SIG Symposium: Thursday 16th September 2.00-3.30pm Session 9
- 2. Paper 1: Critical ethical reflexivity for practice and knowledge Alison Fox, The Open University
- 3. 3 Flinders. 1992; Seedhouse, 2008; Stutchbury and Fox, 2009; Mitchell and Fox, 2019
- 5. 5 Utilitarianism: For good or for bad? • Origins - Biomedical - Responses to Nuremburg Trials • Manipulations - Wikileaks Consequentialism • Maximise positive consequences • As well as minimise the risk of harm • Reclamation - For research participants - Protect – Do we silence? - Empower – Whose voices? How to listen? Consequences of hearing? Claims to voice? Image with thanks to Alex Fox
- 7. 7 Ecological thinking: Scientific or Indigenous? • One origin is scientific • Highlighting the interconnectedness of one another and applying this to research settings Image with thanks to Benjamin Elliott, Unsplash Bronfenbrenner 1979, interpretation from Pinterest • However, this is not restricted to Western notions of ecological Science • Indigenous cultural ethical value systems are deeply rooted in being part of the land - Ubuntu philosophies across African contexts - Indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australasia
- 9. 9 Relational thinking: Feminist origins or those from communitarist-based societies? • One origin in the West • Ethics of care (Held, 2006). • Feminism (Gilligan, 1987; Noddings, 1986) Image with thanks to Vonecia Carswell, Unsplash Image with thanks to Philip Chircop, Pinterest • Communitarism philosophies • Again, not confined to the West (Jaggar, 2005) • …such as Ubuntu in African traditions • Not all of these values and ways of living and knowing written as text – oral traditions and place of proverbs and song
- 11. 11 Deontology - Duties and obligations – on what basis? Deontology relates to doing your duty and hence following rules and legislation. These are usually codified in society Are these the only ways we have obligations? What about unwritten societal, relational, cultural expectations of us? Image with thanks to Alex Fox Image with thanks to Injairu Kulundus-Bolus and Rafael Mitchell
- 12. 12 ‘the escape route from the trap of Euromodernity is to project ‘connected histories’ as a departure point’ (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2018, p9 referring to Bhambra, 2007, p33)
- 13. Bhambra, G.K. (2007) Rethinking modernity: Postcolonialism and the sociological imagination. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Fox, A. and Mitchell, R. (2019) ‘Ethical learning from an educational ethnography: the application of an ethical framework in doctoral supervision’, in Busher H. and Fox A. (eds.) Implementing Ethics in Educational Ethnography: Regulation and Practice. London: Routledge, pp. 110-126. Flinders, D.J., (1992). In search of ethical guidance: Constructing a basis for dialogue. Qualitative studies in education, 5(2), pp.101-115. Gilligan, C. (1987). ‘‘Moral Orientation and Moral Development,’’ in Women and Moral Theory, eds. Eva Feder Kittay and Diana T. Meyers. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. Jaggar, A. M. (2005). ‘‘Western Feminism and Global Responsibility,’’ in Feminist Interventions in Ethics and Politics, eds. Barbara S. Andrew, Jean Keller, and Lisa H. Schwartzman. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. Held, V. (2006). The ethics of care: Personal, political, and global. Oxford University Press on Demand. Kulundu-Bolus, I. and Mitchell, R., (2021). Towards ethical South-North education research partnerships: evidence from Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures. Presentation at the REC21 conference, Exeter, June 2021. Available at: https://tinyurl.com/f4rrwfkf Oyinloye, B. (2021). Towards an Ọmọlúàbí code of research ethics: Applying a situated, participant-centred virtue ethics framework to fieldwork with disadvantaged populations in diverse cultural settings. Research Ethics, p.17470161211010863. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S.J. (2018). Epistemic freedom in Africa: Deprovincialization and decolonization. London: Routledge. Noddings, N. (1986). Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ranger, T.O. (1968) Emerging themes in African History. Nairobi: East Africa Publishing House. Seedhouse, D. (2008). Ethics: the heart of health care. John Wiley & Sons. Stutchbury, K. and Fox, A. (2009) ‘Ethics in Educational Research: introducing a methodological tool for effective ethical analysis’, Cambridge Journal of Education, 39 (4), pp. 489-504. References
- 14. further reading Alison Fox, Hugh Busher, Carmel Capewell (eds.)(forthcoming, 30 November, 2021) Thinking critically and ethically about research for education: Engaging with voice and empowerment in international contexts. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Thinking- Critically-and-Ethically-about-Research-for- Education-Engaging/Fox-Busher- Capewell/p/book/9780367556914
Editor's Notes
- I have been developing the practical application of this ethical appraisal framework since my own doctoral work and through collaborations with colleagues and doctoral research since 2006. This is not an original framework but one drawn from four traditions of ethical thinking identified by both David Flinders (1992), an educational researcher, and independently, David Seedhouse (2008), a healthcare researcher. I have since called this the CERD framework and have built an ethical appraisal support website at the University of Leicester (called Doing Ethical Research) and massive open online courses through FutureLearn (People Studying People: Research Ethics in Society) and OpenLearn (Becoming an ethical researcher) based on its’ four traditions: consequential, ecological, relational and deontological ethical thinking. However, the more I work with researchers in contexts other than in UK/Western settings, the more I have been wondering about the applicability of such a Western based framework for supporting ethical appraisal of studies there. In this presentation I will share some of the directions this discomfort has taken me (and other researchers) and is guiding how we might decolonise ethical appraisal.
- The origins of the ethical principles we are most familiar with in the West are those with their origins as a biomedical response to the Nuremburg trials and the commitment of the scientific community not to allow the horrors of the WWII experimentation to take place again. This highlights the need to protect individuals from harm, for them to be informed and invited to any research and a commitment to offer them confidentiality in the data they offer and protection from identification (associated with anonymisation and deidentification procedures so familiar to contemporary researchers). More recently in the crafting of the general data protection regulations of the European Union and the associated Data Protection Act revision's of the UK in 2018, and more recently updated in 2021, data protection is paramount in all of society’s actions and has been applied to research. This identifies what is personal data such is illustrated here in terms of contact details, age, personal characteristics and particular characteristics of data that are considered sensitive, such as sexual preferences, beliefs, health and political allegiances such as trade union membership etc. However some have used the argument of utilitarian principles to argue that for the benefit of society some things need to be known and shared which overrule the rights of individuals to having confidential data held about them such as the numerous wiki leaks. I find it helpful to think about the strand of utilitarianism referred to as consequentialism in which the work we do as researchers and ethical reviewers of research is to balance positive consequences of a study against the possible negative consequences trying to maximise positive consequences or benefits and minimising the negative consequences. So this starts to raise questions in social science/educational research about how we should do this for research participants. By protecting do we silence and miss out on hearing from and collecting data from and with marginalised members of our communities. Do we need to facilitate these voices by empowering them, which might mean to be named, rather than to be anonymised? Do we need to listen and by hearing what are the consequences of doing so for the way that we acted researchers? These are issues taken up by Nalita, Hugh and Carmel in presentations to follow.
- David Seedhouse talked about external dimensions to ethical thinking in the same way that David Flinders referred more directly to ecological thinking. Both draw on the same ways of recognising the interconnectedness of people affected by research drawing on the metaphors of scientific ecological thinking about webs and networks. You might be familiar with Bronfenbrenner’s application of this to conceptualising the development of children and can be applied to research settings more broadly., for example educational research in UK settings. Some of the post modern research we're doing in more local settings is also applying the recognition of human and nonhuman actors as it is illustrated in Martina’s talk in a few minutes which applies a very contemporary approach with reference to organic rhizomatic ways of thinking. However ecology as a science may have been named in the West ethical value systems that are deeply rooted in cultures seeing themselves as part of the land with stewardship responsibilities and inevitable responsibilities to one another including animate and inanimate parts of societies in international indigenous cultures touches across African contexts and the Ubuntu philosophy and those cultures which can be considered under the umbrella of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Rather than imposing a scientific, rational approach to applying ethical reasoning to research in such contexts where it already exists we need to find new ways to learn from how the local value systems can connect with our own understandings and extend them so that we can enter these research sites with an empathy and a conversation about the way research should proceed based on shared values.
- Relational thinking can be traced and certainly when David Flinders was writing about it he acknowledged the role of female writers in advocating moral theories based on care for one another. The ethics of care is deeply embedded in the healthcare profession but also in particular feminist research as a key priority driving their research decisions and potentially over-riding normative ways of doing research. Researchers like Victoria Held talk about the global responsibility of us all, but especially of women to the women of the world, which leads us on to recognising that's the interdependency of care and respect of one another is not something limited to western ways of thinking but it's something universal. One strand of philosophical thinking is helpful in identifying where and by whom this is valued. Communitarianism was coined in 1841, by John Goodwyn Barmby, a leader of the British Chartist movement, who used it in referring to utopian socialists and other idealists who experimented with communal styles of life as a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. Its overriding philosophy is based upon the belief that a person's social identity and personality are largely moulded by community relationships, with a smaller role for individualism. Can be found in some classical socialist doctrine (e.g. writings about the early commune and about workers' solidarity), and further back in the New Testament, and early monasticism. Current proponents Michael Walzer, Princeton, USA and Charles Taylor, Canada. But even these are Western philosophers, although taking a multicultural approach to the interpretations of this theory, do not draw from the societies who do not write down but have been and still do demonstrate communitarianism, such as Ubuntu.
- Deontological ethics relates to the ethical practises based on our sets of duties and obligations. Using the CERD framework these can be identified through ecological thinking about who is involved with and affected by the research, potential ways of benefiting these peoples and working relationally with them. Deotological ethics is often the face of research ethics as it is codified in societies acts of legislation and regulations that all people and in our case researchers need to follow. Such as those codified in the gdpr as sets of statements that you need to explain your rationale for collecting data against that have been adopted also in the UK Data Protection Act 2018. But are these our only obligations? To these things that are written and codified? The procedures and practices and protocols and forms we need to complete? How do we recognise societal obligations and expectations of us as researchers more broadly? Especially when we move into societies that we are not from or, even if we are of those societies but have moved away from and now are bringing western ways of thinking about what is and how to undertake research? Want to end with three examples of ways forward. A study undertaken by a Nigerian researcher moving back to Nigeria to undertake their study . Bukola Oyinloye has recently published her doctoral thesis and a paper in the research ethics journal in 2021 focusing on the way she developed her localised moral ethical framework with and for her participants. Such collaborative ways of working can also be undertaken in teams such as the Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures network research undertaken between the consortia of universities and organisations both in the global north and the global South illustrated on this slide and I can point you to the work of Injairu Kulundus-Bolus and Raphael Mitchell with a presentation they've uploaded to ResearchGate. Thirdly and conversely I'd like to point you to the San code of research ethics which is being generated by the San people a nomadic people in Africa who've taken control of the research that can take place with their peoples by setting up their own research ethics protocols which any researcher would need to negotiate with. So these are ways forward where we can have conversations about what knowledge is, how we can come to know, and therefore what research is and should be as well as how it should be and could be undertaken by engaging with and not imposing on the settings will choose in which to carry it out. We can translate the question posed by Terence Ranger (1968) as to ‘how African is African history?’ in terms of both methodology and methods and thematic concerns to ‘how [name of setting] is [this setting’s] research and ethical appraisal?’
- Gurminder Bhambra