Blog post

Ethics-in-practice in fragile contexts: The value of the CERD ethical appraisal framework

Sally Baker, Associate Professor in Migration and Education at Australian National University Victoria Jack, Associate Professor in Migration and Education at Australian National University Barbara Moser-Mercer, Professor and Founder of InZone at University of Geneva Koula Charitonos, Senior Lecturer at The Open University Alison Fox, Senior Lecturer at The Open University 24 Jun 2020

Educational research in fragile contexts

At a time when unprecedented numbers of people across the world are experiencing forced migration, there is an urgent and critical imperative to develop understandings that can present solutions to the challenges of displacement. Education plays a key role in holding a space of hope and opening futures in forced migration contexts. Yet, less than a quarter of the world’s refugees have access to secondary schooling and only 3 per cent of refugees participate in higher education (UNHCR, 2019). Correspondingly, there is increasing scholarly interest in examining issues related to the role played by education in fragile contexts.

‘Education plays a key role in holding a space of hope and opening futures in forced migration contexts.’

In line with this trend, it is important that researchers in this field incorporate an ethics-in-practice approach to ensure fair representation and agency of the displaced themselves. This means going beyond what Guillemin and Gillam (2004) call a ‘procedural’ approach to human research ethics, which can inadvertently deny voice and agency through paternalistic views of vulnerability. In particular, there is concern that Institutional Ethics Review Boards (IERBs) rarely – if ever – bring experience of research in forced migration contexts to the decision-making process, and so should do more to facilitate a dialogic approach that incorporates the views of the displaced communities being studied.

CERD ethical appraisal framework

The CERD ethical appraisal framework offers researchers four ethical lenses – Consequential, Ecological, Relational and Deontological – through which to identify ethical challenges, examine options and support ethical decision-making:

the consequential lens helps the researcher to identify consequences and make good decisions
the ecological lens helps to identify the relationships and power dynamics at play;
the relational lens helps to examine issues related to self-determination, respect and trust between researchers, participants and other stakeholders
the deontological lens helps to recognise the multiple obligations and duties held by researchers and participants, including the need to consider care-for-self.

The CERD framework is particularly useful for facilitating ongoing ethics-in-practice in research in fragile contexts. The four lenses help to tease out the specific complexities that fragile contexts create and/or magnify for forcibly displaced people.

‘The CERD framework is particularly useful for facilitating ongoing ethics-in-practice in research in fragile contexts. The four lenses help to tease out the specific complexities that fragile contexts create and/or magnify for forcibly displaced people.’

In our new article in the British Educational Research Journal (Fox, Baker, Charitanos, Jack, & Mercer-Moser, 2020), we apply the CERD lenses to three experiences of researching with forced migrants to examine ongoing ethics-in-practice in fragile contexts. The consequential lens requires that researchers be realistic about what benefits can be promised as a result of participating in a study. In our article, we outline how publication creates ethical dilemmas long after data collection has ended. Ecological thinking highlights the nexus of power dynamics and competing agendas between researchers, funders, stakeholders and forced migrants. In the context of research undertaken in a refugee camp context, this network includes the role played by IERBs, national government agencies and powerful aid agencies. As we discuss, assemblages of power and agendas can create significant navigational issues and, as a result, ethical dilemmas. The relational lens highlights the need to resist assumptions about the vulnerability and agency of forced migrants. This connects with the deontological lens, which presses researchers to consider the duties of all involved, particularly with regard to representation and the amplification of participants’ voices. Sometimes this might mean not publishing research findings so as not to endanger a participant. This case also illustrates the need for self-care by researchers working in forced migration contexts.

Recommendations for educational researchers working in fragile contexts

Ethical dilemmas cannot always be forecast: this reinforces the need for an ongoing ethics-in-practice approach, which can be strengthened by using a comprehensive ethical appraisal framework, such as the CERD.
The legitimacy and power given to IERBs and funding bodies to make decisions about research designs should be critically reviewed. They should pay greater attention to in- and post-field work, and seek the expertise of experienced field researchers to review applications for research in fragile contexts, rather than simply applying universal rules.
There is a clear need for more ethical training and support for higher-degree-by-research students who intend to undertake their study in a fragile context.
There is a need for meso-level oversight/support offered by researchers with research expertise in fragile contexts to researchers entering or leaving the field to fill the gap left by IERBs.

This blog is based on the article ‘Ethics-in-practice in fragile contexts: Research in education for displaced persons, refugees and asylum seekers’ by Alison Fox, Sally Baker, Koula Charitanos, Victoria Jack and Barbara Mercer-Moser, published on an open access basis in the British Educational Research Journal. It also forms part of a special virtual issue published by Wiley to mark World Refugee Day 2020.

References

Fox, A., Baker, S., Charitanos, K., Jack, V., & Mercer-Moser, B. (2020). Ethics-in-practice in fragile contexts: Research in education for displaced persons, refugees and asylum seekers, British Educational Research Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3618

Guillemin, M., & Gillam, L. (2004). Ethics, reflexivity, and ‘ethically important moments’ in research. Qualitative Inquiry, 10(2), 261–280. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800403262360

Sally Baker, Dr

Associate Professor in Migration and Education at Australian National University

Dr Sally Baker is an Associate Professor in Migration and Education at the Australian National University. Her teaching and research interests centre on language, literacies, transitions, and equity in higher education, particularly with regard to culturally and linguistically marginalised students, particularly students with forced migration experience. Sally is founder and co-chair of the Refugee Education Special Interest Group for/with students from refugee backgrounds. Join us: www.refugee-education.org

Victoria Jack, Dr

University of New South Wales

Dr Victoria Jack is a practitioner and scholar in the fields of community engagement and crisis communication. Her research examines the social, moral and political consequences of communication between institutions and communities. Victoria has more than 10 years’ experience working in communications, research and advocacy with non-governmental organisations and UN agencies in Australia, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. She has worked in, and written about, community engagement and accountability in situations of forced migration in Greece, Thailand and Myanmar. Victoria is an adjunct lecturer with the Forced Migration Research Network at the University of New South Wales.

Barbara Moser-Mercer, Professor

Professor and Founder of InZone at University of Geneva

Barbara Moser-Mercer is professor and founder of InZone, an academic center at the University of Geneva dedicated to advancing innovation in higher education in emergencies. Following her initial training as a conference interpreter she pursued her studies in psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology. Her research has focused on the development of expertise in complex cognitive skills among bilinguals, both from a cognitive psychology and a cognitive neuroscience perspective. These findings have been instrumental in informing the design and the development of student-centered multilingual digital learning environments in fragile contexts, which are leveraged across several refugee camps in Africa and the Middle East, where InZone has built higher education spaces that promote research and critical scholarship to support the development of peaceful and economically viable local communities.

Koula Charitonos, Dr

Senior Lecturer at The Open University

Dr Koula Charitonos is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Educational Technology in the Open University. Her research is integrative and spans three areas: 1. Professional learning for complex professional knowledge work; 2. Pedagogies and educational practices for connected learning across formal and informal settings and 3. Participatory approaches to research with educational technology. Her current research activity contributes to understanding contemporary issues in education; in particular the role of digital, mobile and online technologies in widening access and participation to quality education with a particular focus on education in contexts affected by crises. Her research involves work with academic and non-academic partners, across geographies and disciplines. Koula is currently leading a participatory project with teachers in refugee settings in Jordan that examines communicative approaches to English Language learning during Covid19 pandemic (2021-2022, funded by...

Alison Fox, Dr

Senior Lecturer at The Open University

Dr Alison Fox is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the Open University in the School of Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport, an Associate Head of School (Research and Knowledge Exchange), chair of the University’s Human Research Ethics Committee and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her research contributes to understanding contemporary issues in education: including beginning teacher retention; the opportunities and challenges of social media for professional learning; and democratic ethical appraisal and research practice. After teaching Environmental Science, Biology and Geography at secondary school and further education, she has become an experienced master’s and doctoral programme designer and supervisor. Her funded research projects include inter-university collaborations, internationally funded projects, commissioned research, and consultancy.