Ethical reflections on children’s participation in educational research during humanitarian crises (original) (raw)

Ethical reflections on children's participation in educational research during humanitarian crises 1

This paper aims to reflect upon ethical dilemmas arising from educational research in humanitarian contexts, particularly when involving children. In recognition of the paucity of knowledge on how to define ethics in humanitarian research, we review the existing body of the literature exploring ethical responsibilities towards children involved in educational research at school and their communities. The paper argues that research ethics should be at the forefront of every study that is conducted in crisis contexts and more rigorous review and vetting processes are necessary to protect children, researchers and wider communities who live in crisis settings. We hope to promote an informed debate on research ethics in humanitarian contexts, while encouraging the development of rigorous guidelines, notes and minimum standards.

Ethics of Educational Research in Crisis-Affected Environments

2019

Introduction Conducting research in conflictor disaster-affected settings poses major ethical and methodological challenges relating to the vulnerability of both participants and researchers. Concerns have been raised that research participants in crisis-affected environments may experience distress caused by repeated requests to take part in research studies (Collogan, Tuma, Dolan-Sewell, Borja & Fleischman, 2004) or that research interviews can expose participants to the risk of ‘re-traumatisation’ (Newman & Kaloupek, 2004). In all cases, participants in crisis contexts bear the effects of trauma and anxiety, which may have had debilitating effects on their decision-making capacity (Collogan et al., 2004) or on their ability to consent to research involvement (Alderson & Morrow, 2014). Additional ethical issues relate to participants’ competence to consent to research involvement due to their age or other circumstantial factors (Furey & Kay, 2010). Particularly, when children are ...

What We Know about Ethical Research Involving Children in Humanitarian Settings

Innocenti Working Papers, 2016

Publications produced by the Office are contributions to a global debate on children and child rights issues and include a wide range of opinions. For that reason, some publications may not necessarily reflect UNICEF policies or approaches on some topics. The views expressed are those of the authors and/or editors and are published in order to stimulate further dialogue on child rights. The Office collaborates with its host institution in Florence, the Istituto degli Innocenti, in selected areas of work. Core funding is provided by the Government of Italy, while financial support for specific projects is also provided by other governments, international institutions and private sources, including UNICEF National Committees.

Research ethics in the context of humanitarian emergencies

Research is needed to make responses to disasters and humanitarian emergencies more evidence-based. Such research must also adhere to the generally accepted principles of research ethics. While research into health interventions used in disasters raises distinctive ethical concerns, seven ethical principles developed for clinical research are applied here to disaster research. Practical examples from disaster settings are used to demonstrate how these ethical principles can be applied. This reveals that research ethics needs to be seen as much more than a mechanism to obtain ethical approval for research. Research ethics involves ethical principles and governance frameworks, but must also consider the role of ethical virtues in research. Virtues are essential to ensure that researchers do what they believe is ethically right and resist what is unethical. Research ethics that truly protects participants and promotes respect needs to include training in ethical virtues to ensure disaster research is carried out to the highest ethical standards. This article is based on a presentation at the Evidence Aid Symposium on 20 September 2014, in Hyderabad, India.

Ethical challenges in conducting research in humanitarian crisis situations

Malawi Medical Journal, 2008

Research is vital to accurately describe phenomena in humanitarian emergency situations and to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of interventions. Although the ethical principles of justice, beneficence and respect for autonomy/ respect for persons should be upheld in research, their application in emergency situations may differ from non-emergency situations. Just like in non-emergency situations, research in emergency situations should be conducted in the best interest of the victims or future victims. The research should not unnecessarily expose human subjects and the researcher to careless harm, and should be of adequate scientific rigor. Victims of emergency situations are vulnerable populations that need special protection from exploitation. Technical competency to conduct research in emergency situations should include the ability to conduct a fair risk-benefit assessment in order to come up with a risk management plan, and being culturally sensitive to the needs of the victims of the humanitarian crisis. In emergency situations, the roles of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) may have to be modified without compromising the ethical standards that health researchers have globally attempted to achieve.

Ethical issues in research with children living amidst political violence

In this paper I seek to draw attention to some of the specific ethical issues arising in the conduct of research with children in communities affected by ongoing political violence. The aim is not to prescribe a comprehensive set of procedures applicable across diverse settings: given the particular challenges of each context, such a generalised approach could be misleading and counterproductive. Instead I will discuss underlying issues of principle that are hopefully relevant across very different settings of political violence

Ethical considerations of disaster research in conflict-affected areas

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 2021

PurposeDebates on the ethics of disaster and humanitarian studies concern unequal relations in research (among research institutes/researchers/stakeholders); the physical and psychological well-being of research participants and researchers; and the imposition of western methods, frameworks and epistemologies to the study of disasters. This paper focuses on everyday ethics: how they need to be translated throughout the everyday practices of research and how researchers can deal with the ethical dilemmas that inevitably occur.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyses the process of addressing ethics-related dilemmas from the first author's experiences researching disaster governance in high-intensity conflict settings, in particular drawing from 4 to 6 months of fieldwork in South Sudan and Afghanistan. In addition, ethical issues around remote research are discussed, drawing on the example of research conducted in Yemen. It is based on the personal notes taken by the first ...

Involving refugee children in research: emerging ethical and positioning issues

European Early Childhood Education Research Journal

This paper discusses some of the ethical issues encountered when involving refugee children in research. It draws on a study that aims to investigate how young Syrian refugee children experience Early Education, in one English local authority. This small-scale qualitative piece of research was developed in response to the deepening refugee crisis outlined by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in August 2013 which suggested that as a result of the conflict in Syria, 740,000 refugees were under the age of 11. The study involves four children and their familieswho were resettled in England through the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement scheme (2017). Also involved are four Early Childhood and Education Care settings. The research field is complex and the 'customised methods and methodologies' which have been adopted, to respond well to the challenges of the field, are described. Ethical issues concerning the conceptualisation of refugees, a narrative of trauma and location of positionality are expanded. The researcher has developed power-sensitive ethical research practices to help manage issues of positionality; negotiate access in the field; develop authentic relationships; address issues of cultural bias in self and others, and navigate the challenges of researching with very young refugee children.

Rethinking the ethical and methodological dimensions of research with refugee children

2019

This paper discusses the ethical and methodological dimensions of educational research with refugee children. The authors illustrate that research ethics need contextual, temporal and social flexibility to resonate with the changing needs and extraordinary contexts of this population, and that the flexibility is often too complex for ethical preassessments to address. The authors propose relational ethics, engaging with children and working from the "minds and hearts" rather than fixed ethical guidelines as one way to consider the ethics of working with this vulnerable population. (DIPF/Orig.)