Abstract:
Australian universities require educational researchers, whether students or staff, to apply for approval of their research projects involving humans or animals. This approval is granted by universities' Ethics Committees. As a license to research, this gate-keeping procedure has the complicated task of protecting participants, researchers and institutions from potential 'harm'. For international students the ideologically situated discourses of Ethics requirements can impact on cross-cultural research practices in ways that affect the quality of their research, and sometimes prevent it, calling into question the notion of education as a public good: whose good is it and for which public?
In this paper I discuss the ways in which the discourses of one Ethics committee have affected the work of international students conducting educational research in their own countries. I look closely at how the language and procedures of the approval process position cross-cultural researchers and present Education research students' and supervisors' accounts of cross-cultural challenges that arise from the Ethics requirements, as well as the benefits they see. Drawing on suggestions from these participants and insights from activity theory, I propose practices that take account of the socio-cultural contexts of the research.
In this paper I discuss the ways in which the discourses of one Ethics committee have affected the work of international students conducting educational research in their own countries. I look closely at how the language and procedures of the approval process position cross-cultural researchers and present Education research students' and supervisors' accounts of cross-cultural challenges that arise from the Ethics requirements, as well as the benefits they see. Drawing on suggestions from these participants and insights from activity theory, I propose practices that take account of the socio-cultural contexts of the research.