Ethical Issues Journal - Zeni Intro

<>Ethical Issues in Practitioner Research, ed. Jane Zeni
Reading Journal

Introduction -- Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Zeni: the responsibilities of teachers to students [were] are deeper and more personal than whatever was implied by the term “subjects.” (xi)

Lund: Students are our subjects; the classroom context is our subject; practice and efficacy is our subject, but what we’re talking about here the protection of human subjects. I wonder what the objection to taking field notes and the documentation of learning was? What did the dean of research object to? Maybe I can’t see the forest for the trees. I imagine my first responsibility is to students, and their learning, the research comes later. What might I do to endanger my “subjects”? I could use their intellectual property and pass it off as my own. I could take their work and words out of context. I could neglect my duties as teacher. I suppose I could subject my “subject” to classroom experimentation that is unethical.

Zeni: Teacher researchers struggle with issues of loyalty, confidentiality, and trust. (xii)

Lund: I wonder how this plays out. I suppose I am very naïve. Loyalty? My loyalty is to learning. How might I betray the trust and loyalty of my students? I know I sound stupid and naïve, but I am serious. I know the obvious -- creating a false or pretentious situation, stealing their work, using it wrongly, revealing something revealed to me in confidence publicly, sharing grade information, maligning an individual’ character, and so on, but I’d never do this. This has to do with basic human ethics.

Zeni: How can I recognize my own cultural baggage so that I can really see my students? (xii)

Lund: This is very similar to my assignment, “Positioning Yourself as a Researcher” for 102. The assignment asks students to consider how their own cultural experiences might color, flavor, or blind them to seeing / understanding parts of the culture they are studying.

<>What’s my baggage? I’m Midwestern. I’ve never really questioned the value, or access, to education. Even though neither of my parents went to college, there was never any question that I would go to college. I assume a certain level of competency in my students, and I demand their interest. Can I relate to them? I suppose I used to relate better, feel more empathy, but the further I get from my undergrad education, the toil and struggle and insecurity, the less I relate.

What other assumptions do I bring to bear? What other cultural baggage do I have? I’m white. I’m male. So, as such, I’ve never been oppressed because of my gender, nor have I been denied access to anything based on race. I’ve never felt a glass ceiling above me, other than one of my own making, nor have I ever consistently felt like a minority in any situation.

Zeni: We coauthored Mirror Images: Teaching Writing in Black and White. (xiii)

Lund: I should check this out. I teach a few minority students, and I’d like to be certain that I am doing right by them.

Zeni: Practitioner Research -- “qualitative research conducted by insiders in educational settings to improve their own practice.”

Lund: I like this definition because it focuses on the teacherly-self, and the improvement of that self. I always strive to be the best teacher I can be, so this suits me and will help me. I see immediate value in the act. I understand why action researchers have to be insiders, but I wonder why they have to be “stakeholders.” If they’re not stakeholders, is it some other kind of research. We did a project when I was at UMN. We worked with kids at Crosswinds Middle School. We sort of studied these kids, interviewed them, helped them with their projects, and compiled about our experiences into a case study. I didn’t have a stake in this context, other than the grade I was to receive from my professor. Why isn’t this also action research. We were addressing issues in the teaching of writing using multi-genres, using qualitative measures, hoping, I suppose, to address a professional problem, and that is how to best coerce students into engagement with their own writing, their own learning. This experience seems to meet all the definitional requirements of the heuristic, except the stakeholder one. I’ll have to ask about this in class.

<>Zeni: “To change society” (xiv)

<>Lund: I’m interested in this motivation. I understand Freire’s principle of empowerment, but I wonder how action research might work in this direction. Maybe it has something to do with a teacher examining their own practice to consider the ways that this practice serves to empower students? As learners? As citizens? As workers? All of them? I’d like to know more about this, and more about the South African model.

Zeni: “Practitioner research rejects the theory/practice split.”

Lund: I like this too. I want to remember this characteristic. This is one way to combat the “Ivory Tower” stereotype of university research.