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RE: Knock, knock - Can I come in? San People of South Africa Issue Code of Ethics for Researchers

in #science7 years ago

I appreciate your highlighting the absolute impossibility of a sterile "impartiality" in research. As you point out, even something as fundamental as selecting a research method is imbued with biases. I am a clinical social worker, and having had years in the field, I have learned that in order to be aware and respectful of client self-determination I must continuously "check in" regarding my own biases, values, prejudices. I am glad to read about the attention being paid this in the field of anthropology. Best wishes to you!

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Thanks! Do you use Grounded Theory in your field? It's something I'd like to learn more about, it seems that achieving it can in practice sometimes prove to be more aspirational than anything else, but it seems like a rather alluring way to in some ways balance out the researcher bias.

I have to admit, hadn't heard of grounded theory - I'm 17 years out of grad school and haven't really kept up. But I looked it up - Wikipedia describes it as "the construction of theory through the analysis of data." You know, that really describes what I see as good social work/psychotherapy practice. Each client/family/organization is an undiscovered, unique culture and we have to stay open to see what the client identifies as the issue, what possible solutions they see or have tried, and then support them in solving the problem as they see it. It sounds like it would be a real challenge to put Grounded Theory into practice in research. I need to read more, but at first glance it would appear that you wouldn't even start with a working hypothesis. but how exciting, to start with curiosity and openness, and see where it takes you! What has been your experience with this?

Well I've read around it a little and chatted a great with a friend whose been trying to implement it. One of my advisers thinks it's just a fancy term for coding! But from what I can see it's quite difficult to achieve true grounded theory. Apparently one of the techniques of grounded theory is to go back to your informants with what you've coded to see if they agree with your interpretation, which is interestingly similar to what the San are requesting in their code of ethics.

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