I found it very difficult to finish my enquire form. I think it was mostly due to not having my research question defined for quite a long time. Additionally, I say that in number of my posts and writing for my ARP unit of the PgCert – but it is very important for me to highlight – I was very new to the idea of action research within my field of studies. This project felt overwhelming at times and somehow my apprehension grew every time I tried to work on this form. From the perspective of time, it was unnecessary, as the comments and help provided by my tutor where a huge help and allowed me to move on with my project.
I found the link to blog on writing a strong research question that my tutor provided me in on of the first comments extremely useful. It motivated me to look for some more resources on this subject and I created Research Question Padlet to keep the information in one place (presented in a visual and easy to access way). I kept coming back to it when writing my question. I liked the idea of using Padlet for gathering resources and keeping track of my readings this way. I used it a few times during this unit.
I worked on the second version of the form in November. You can see that I have not finished some trains of thoughts being distracted with work and feeling not my best. The tutor’s comments were so helpful again. Especially suggestion regarding the research question itself and moving some sections around. This allowed me to finish the form by 4th of December 2023, and you can see it below (V3 of the form).
chapter 3 in Creative research methods in the social sciences: a practical guide (2015).
I found this chapter very useful in terms of introduction to ethics, even though many of the areas discussed here felt too advanced or far from I am planning to do. I think this chapter was complimentary to the article on ethics that I also read for our ARP unit (Banks, 2016).
What I learnt:
Ethics should be considered at every stage of the research process
Ethical issues traditionally have been though in term of risks to participants and data gathering. “However, ethics should underpin every single step of research, from the first germ of an idea to the last act after dissemination.” p.35
Theories of ethics: deontology (including ethics of justice), consequentialism (including ethics of care), virtue and value-based ethics.
“It can be helpful for researchers to review ethical theories and standpoints if they want to deepen their understanding of the philosophical basis for their decisions. Researchers may also find it useful to review ethical codes and other resources that suggest ways of putting these theories and standpoints into action.” p. 39
Transformative methodological frameworks such as feminist, emancipatory, decolonised and participatory research – they “are creatively designed to be more ethical by addressing and reducing power imbalances between researcher and researched.” p. 39.
Something that it is interesting to learn more about, especially in the context of my project that involves thinking about including our students’ voices more in my teaching. It is important to remember not to wear only one set of lenses (gender for example).
“After all, nobody is ‘only’ a woman, or a person of colour, or someone with a disability. An intersectional approach does not attempt to take into account every aspect of someone’s identity but aims to accept and reflect the complexity of identity and examine the relationships between different aspects of identity and their implications for power relations.” p.40.
Some other take outs from this chapter:
“It is not the case that using a transformative research framework will, in itself, iron out any potential ethical difficulties. (…) [it] may help all concerned to address power imbalances and differences within the research project, but doing so will still take time and effort above and beyond that needed for core research tasks.” p.46
Importance of the researcher well-being – it should not be overlooked. Useful advice for researchers to manage stress and emotional costs of their work – it includes “advance preparation, peer support, working reflexively and seeking counselling when necessary.” p.54
Recent trends in ethics “represent attempts to broaden the domain of professional ethics beyond dilemmas and decision-making requiring rational judgement (ethics as individual decision-making) and beyond conformity to codes of ethics and rules of ethical conduct (ethics as external regulation). Instead, a situated ethics is proposed, that places dilemmas and decisions in a broader social, political and cultural context and sees responsibility in a wider, more relational sense, beyond the isolated individual decision-maker.” (Banks, p. 35-36)
The list of ethical dimensions very useful. Each dimension made me think of how I can relate it to my profession and my positionality. I read more about the dimensions I found most relatable or important for my project.
“(1) Framing work—identifying and focusing on the ethically salient features of a situ-ation; placing oneself and the situations encountered in political and social contexts; negotiating/co-constructing frames with others (including service users and colleagues);
(2) Role work—playing a role in relation to others (advocate, carer, critic); taking a position (partial/impartial; close/distant); negotiating roles; responding to role expectations.
(3) Emotion work—being caring, compassionate and empathic; managing emotions; building trust; responding to emotions of others.
(4) Identity work—working on one’s ethical self; creating an identity as an ethically good professional; negotiating professional identity; maintaining professional integrity.
(5) Reason work—making and justifying moral judgements and decisions; deliberation with others on ethical evaluations and tactics; working out strategies for ethical action.
(6) Relationship work—engaging in dialogue with others; working on relationships through emotion, identity and reason work (dialogue work)
(7) Performance work—making visible aspects of this work to others; demonstrating oneself at work (accountability work).” (Banks, p. 37)
I focused on role, identity and relationship work. I think they all are closely related, and they made me focus on my role within the University, Library and my Team more.
Role work: “involves judging what roles to take with particular people in particular circumstances, how and when to shift between roles, when a degree of professional closeness or greater distance is right and negotiating roles with service users and others. (…) Ethical dimensions are highlighted when conscious dilemmas and choices over role positions arise—for example, between carer and controller; educator or advisor; ‘friend’ or professional.” p.41.
In my role as librarian, I need to negotiate my role at the service point (Information desk), 1-2-1, group, face to face sessions with students and staff (teaching part of my role), as well as supporting library users in our space – both technically (when they print, use software or need to find the books) and very often emotionally (when they are stressed before deadlines).
Identity work: “is the work people do through talk, interaction and demeanour to construct and negotiate who they are—their personal and social identities. (…) ‘Ethical identity work’ (identity work in the ethical sphere) involves practitioners working specifically on their ethical selves—for example, as morally good social workers, caring professionals, committed practitioners or fair-minded people.” p.42-43.
These words speak to me strongly. This is a motif within ethics and generally action research area that engages me with my studies and work. I feel that it is closely related to compassionate pedagogy that I got interested in during our first unit on the course.
Relationship work: this term is used “to cover the work of engaging with others, building relationships of trust, getting to know people and caring for and about them over time. The relationships may be with service users, colleagues, officials or members of the public. (…) Relationship work is a key feature of the ethics of care, which highlights the importance of attentiveness (noticing the need for care), responsibility (taking care of others) and responsiveness (of others to the care given).” p.44
