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Home: News & Events: School Events: Reflexive Research

Reflexive Research

Ethical Dilemmas of Qualitative Research Relationships in the Social Sciences

Symposium
November 3, 2007
10:00 AM- 2:30 PM
Sponsored by the University of Michigan
School of Education and President’s Ethics in Public Life Initiative

      Ethical decision-making is embedded in the everyday practice of conducting research. In qualitative social science research which studies human behavior and society, the relationship between the researcher and the “researched” represents a site for ethical deliberation. Research relationships may be characterized by varying degrees of distance and intimacy in order to achieve an “objective” stance or an “insider” perspective; in turn, researchers may variously refer to the “researched” as “human subject,” "research partner," “collaborator,” "friend," and "participant.”
      The goal of “Reflexive Research” is to engage UM faculty, students, and the public in consideration of the ethical issues and implications of research relationships, and specifically, how institutional and social positions affect such relationships, particularly when social justice is considered. Because research relationships are embedded in hierarchical institutional and social structures, such relationships are imbued with power dynamics that create ethical dilemmas that require reflexivity, especially in the context of “emancipatory” research.
      Using research relationships within the field of education as a point of departure, our symposium will engage the university community and public in the deliberation and discussion of the ethical issues related to research relationships.

The goals of the symposium include…

1. Promoting discussion of ethics between researchers and researched in the everyday practice of doing social science qualitative and clinical research
2. Informing the public as to the issues related to participating in research studies and encouraging such informed participation
3. Building capacity for future discussions on ethics within the School of Education

At the symposium…

• Various speakers will frame the issue of ethics within research relationships. (2 hours)
• Through a series of prompts, we will subsequently engage participants in small-group dialogue facilitated by trained facilitators from CRLT. (1 hour)
• To examine themes across participants’ disciplines, we will invite groups to share the key features of their discussion. (1 hour)
• Lunch will be provided.
• We will distribute an annotated bibliography of sources to ground the symposium in the broader conversation of the field of qualitative social science research and encourage further exploration of ethics.
• We will invite feedback on our presentation and offer participants the opportunity to discuss the topics further. (30 minutes) 

Register Now

Parking at the Forest Street structure is complimentary. Simply bring your ticket in and we will validate it.

To preview materials for the symposium, check out the CTools site at www.ctools.umich.edu. Once you are logged in, you may join the Reflexive Research Site by
1. clicking the My Workspace tab, which is the left-most tab directly under the CTools logo
2. clicking Membership in the left-hand menubar
3. clicking Joinable Sites along the top of the main window
4. searching for "Reflexive Research"
5. clicking the Join button
The site will be added to the list of your current sites.