Ethical dilemmas for researchers working in international contexts

TLDR: The International Association for School Librarianship (IASL) has a reputation for supporting and disseminating research informing school librarianships around the world, and has the responsibility to promote sound ethical procedures for all research as discussed by the authors.

Abstract: IntroductionThe 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) development of culturally sensitive research instruments. These dilemmas present serious challenges as researchers set out to conduct research in school and community libraries in remote/rural areas and large urban centres 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", the use of 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 for engaging in the research process, researchers run the risk of placing themselves 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).Over the past two decades, the ethics of research involving children and youth has become a prominent topic in the literature (Powell, Fitzgerald, Taylor, & Graham, 2012), sparking a proliferation of resources for researchers (Alderson & Morrow, 2011; Childwatch International Research Network, n.d.; Graham, Powell, Taylor, Anderson & Fitzgerald, 2013; Young Lives, n.d.; UNICEF Office of Research, n.d). Spurred by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and the emergence of the sociology of childhood (Mayall, 2002), accordant rights-protecting procedures were instituted and methods of research designed to enable voices of children and youth to be heard in various degrees throughout the research process. However, from an international perspective, this paradigm of research with children and the knowledge generated by it are unbalanced since . . . 'only a little more than 10% of the world's children live in the developed countries of Europe, North America and other European outposts... yet the research is heavily concentrated on children from these places" (Pence & Nsamenang, 2008, p.14).How then should researchers working with children in school and community libraries develop research that assures fair and respectful ethical procedures? What role do children play in the research process - subject, informant or participant? How can Western researchers approach research in developing countries where expectations for ethical research, as defined by Western norms, may or may not exist? This paper takes a critical perspective on these issues by: 1) reflecting on the various stances that researchers take in approaching new research; 2) comparing expectations for ethics in developed and developing countries; and 3) identifying the position children are placed in before, during and after research projects. We begin our discussion by examining some of the current political, economic and ethical challenges facing researchers wishing to work in international contexts. …