Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad
Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad
Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
2<br />
Ethics and organisations<br />
The best one can do is to consider <strong>the</strong> ethical and political issues <strong>in</strong><br />
ask<strong>in</strong>g a particular research question, determ<strong>in</strong>e <strong>the</strong> areas of concern<br />
prior to <strong>the</strong> research, take <strong>in</strong>to account professional standards that<br />
have been established and <strong>the</strong>n consider <strong>the</strong> ethics of <strong>the</strong> entire<br />
research process as an <strong>in</strong>dividual case with its own social and<br />
political ramifications (M<strong>in</strong>ichiello et al., 1990, pp. 245–6).<br />
It may seem strange to comb<strong>in</strong>e ethics and organisational issues, yet<br />
<strong>in</strong> qualitative research <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> human services, perhaps more than <strong>in</strong><br />
any o<strong>the</strong>r area of research, do<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> right th<strong>in</strong>g by research participants<br />
coexists with <strong>the</strong> pragmatic process of ‘gett<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>, gett<strong>in</strong>g on<br />
and gett<strong>in</strong>g out’ of <strong>the</strong> research sett<strong>in</strong>g.<br />
The ethical pr<strong>in</strong>ciples which should guide research are fairly<br />
clear. Both professional ethics and research ethics are based on<br />
similar core pr<strong>in</strong>ciples, such as beneficence and duty of care, and so<br />
one might assume that <strong>the</strong>re will be clear and congruent criteria for<br />
determ<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g ethical behaviour <strong>in</strong> research <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> human services. Yet<br />
standard research and practice ethics statements let us down simply<br />
because <strong>the</strong>y are designed from different perspectives with different<br />
ends <strong>in</strong> sight: <strong>the</strong> academic development of knowledge on one<br />
hand, <strong>the</strong> delivery of service on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r. They are not designed for<br />
<strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>terface of <strong>the</strong>se two doma<strong>in</strong>s.<br />
In this chapter it is argued that <strong>the</strong>re are complex issues which<br />
arise <strong>in</strong> research <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> human services, particularly when <strong>the</strong><br />
boundaries between practitioner and researcher roles, and those<br />
21