Ethical dilemmas for researchers working in international contexts

Abstract


 
 
 The International Association for School Librarianship (IASL) has a reputation for supporting and disseminating research informing school librarianship around the world. Since the organization serves a multi-national and multi-cultural library community, it has the responsibility to promote sound ethical procedures for all research. This can raise serious dilemmas for researchers planning to work in Global South countries with few or different ethical standards for conducting research when, as members of the Global North academic community, we are bound by strict guidelines covering ethical procedures. These dilemmas can include: 1) differing views on what counts as research: 2) differing values and policies on gender, religion, inclusive practices and other social and cultural areas; 3) the insider/outsider phenomenon (white privileged researchers working in non-white communities; and 4) developing research instruments that are culturally sensitive. These dilemmas present serious challenges as we set out to conduct research in school and community libraries in remote/rural areas and large urban centers where frontline staff have little or no experience with, nor knowledge of, educational research. Researchers are charged then to pay serious attention to issues of positionality, paradigms of what is “truth”, iterative methods and analyses, as well as an overarching awareness of their reflexivity throughout the research process. Research in this context becomes a continuous process of examining our relationship with fellow researchers and research participants, the dynamics of that relationship, and its relationship to the research that is undertaken. Without a self-critical lens through which we engage in the research process we run the risk of placing ourselves in the position where “ethical research guidelines {as imposed by Universities} could be yet another western construct that create a global discourse of ‘our way’ is the ‘right way’ to do things” (Skelton, 2008, p. 29).