Unde venisti, quo vadis et cui bono?: situated ethics and negotiated interests in designing an educational research ethics postgraduate course at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia

Abstract

[Abstract]: Ethics and politics constitute core elements of educational research, yet they cannot be taught and learned in isolation from the conduct of that research. Increasingly postgraduate research training has augmented what has been learned from working with supervisors to produce theses. Coursework also has a vital role to play in facilitating an engagement with the conceptual and methodological issues framing educational research ethics and politics. This presentation traces the aims and pedagogical strategies that underpinned the design of EDU8604 Educational Research Ethics and Data Management, an online Doctor of Education course in the Faculty of Education at the USQ, Australia. The aims included encouraging students to apply the questions “Unde venisti?”, “Quo vadis?” and “Cui bono?” to their aspirations and experiences as educational researchers, while the strategies centred on interrogating the ethical approaches of other researchers as a means of generating and justifying their own applications for ethical clearance. Two key concepts underlying these aims and strategies and informing the responses to these questions are situated ethics and negotiated interests. The author proposes that recognising the sociocultural contexts and constructions of ethical moves and judgments, and attending to the interaction among often competing claims and positions, are crucial processes in explicating and evaluating the ethical and political dimensions of contemporary educational research. These concepts can contribute also to the repertoire of knowledge and skills required to engage transformatively in the complex and demanding field of educational research. The author argues that such a repertoire is mandatory if researchers are to extend that field and to enable others and themselves to create new futures in educational provision. “Unde venisti?”, “Quo vadis?” and “Cui bono?” emerge as significant questions to pose about ethics and politics in the course under review, in educational research and in education at large.