Ethical Sharing and Reuse of Qualitative Data

The objective of this paper is to attempt to move beyond the impasse of ethical objections to reusing qualitative data. In doing so, there is no intention of dismissing the importance of ethical debates, in fact, quite the opposite. The debate about ethical reuse needs to be deepened and broadened. First, the current terrain of research ethics will be summarised and situated in the context of broader philosophical ethical frameworks. In contrast, the debates around ethics of archiving have often been narrowly focused on participants' rights. The framework of debate should be broadened first by recognising other entities traditionally deemed within the scope of research ethics, namely the scholarly community and the public. The second useful broadening of the framework is provided by a deontological ethical stance with its focus on duties. In the final section, this expanded framework will be used to rebut several common ethical arguments against archiving qualitative data: archiving violates confidentiality; informed consent for reusing data is impossible; reusing data violates trust between researcher and participant; and, archiving creates an unacceptably high risk of data misrepresentation. If a more general philosophical debate on ethics has something to contribute, the central message must be that no single ethical claim is incontestable. The conclusion will position these debates in a wider context by asking what is at stake when the boundaries of ethical discourse about sharing data are drawn too narrowly.     

Ethical Beliefs of Social Work Researchers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the beliefs of social work researchers about ethical practices. Surveys were mailed to a random sample of 240 members of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) to elicit their views about ethical practices in social work research. Responses from 160 members (67% response rate) yielded information regarding the appropriateness of dual relationships, authorship practices, informed consent procedures, and other conduct in social work research. Age, gender, educational level, years of social work research experience, and current teaching of social work research were related to respondents' ethical views about practices with students and sexual relationships with research subjects. The need for additional resources on ethics in social work research is highlighted.     

民族伦理学研究的人类学视角

民族伦理学涉及民族学和伦理学两门学科,而民族学与人类学在学科性质上的“亲缘性”、在研究目标和理论立场上的共通性,内在地要求民族伦理学 应主动采用人类学的研究方法,以推进民族伦理学研究由抽象演绎向实证分析和文化解释的转变。深化民族伦理学研究,需要研究者面向普通人的生活世界,深入民间进行田野工作;需要研究者以历史主义的学术立场,探究民族伦理文化的历史变迁和现实状况。民族伦理学应关注不同民族人民用自身的道德话语和道德行为“书写”出来的道德生活史,在对人们日常交往生活的微观叙事中展现民族丰富多样的伦理文化。     

Ethical dilemmas in social research: no easy solutions

Correspondence to Bernard Gallagher, Research Fellow, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Manchester, Dover St., Mancester M13 9PL. Summary Ethical dilemmas have been encountered in many areas of socialresearch and have at times been the subject of much controversy.Despite this, the problem of how to tackle ethical dilemmashas received little attention in the literature. As a result,researchers faced with these dilemmas have little knowledgeto draw upon, and groups associated with research, such as participatingagencies and ethics committees, may not fully appreciate allthe issues involved in dealing with ethical dilemmas. Theseissues are not only philosophical in nature but relate alsoto the methodological and practical implications of followingone, rather than another, ethical principle. The researchersencountered a number of ethical dilemmas in their research inchild protection. By discussing different approaches to solvingethical dilemmas, they intend to show that this is a complexproblem and one which, along with ethics in general, requiresgreater attention in the literature.     

Mindfulness,meditation, and breathing exercises: reduced anxiety for clients and self-care for social work interns

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to identify and describe a teaching tool that supports social work student success in the classroom and in field placement. The project introduced mindfulness, meditation, and breathing techniques to 2nd-year master of social work (MSW) students in a group classroom setting and engaged students as they applied those techniques in their internship settings with clients. Students were introduced to mindfulness, meditation, and breathing techniques through lecture, experimental exercises, video clips, and case studies and used the group setting to learn to use those tools to add trauma-informed mindfulness interventions to the clinical techniques they concurrently practiced in field placement. Students learned methods to incorporate those interventions into their psychotherapy/counseling sessions with clients and discovered that mindfulness-specific interventions also helped regulate their own autonomic nervous systems, contributing to decreased anxiety. Thus, mindfulness skills taught in social work programs have significant multidimensional benefits; engaging a group classroom setting to learn to utilize mindfulness, meditation and breathing techniques can reduce stress and anxiety for clients and promote adaptive self-care skills for MSW students.     

引入情感教学法,增强高校思想道德课的实效性

为了增强高校思想道德课的实效性,本文主张引入情感教学法。文章介绍了情感教学法的涵义和教学原则以及情感源点。情感教学法增强思想道德课实效性的作用在于:首先,通过增进大学生对道德观念和道德规范的认知及其內化、陶冶大学生的道德情操、塑造大学生的道德意志行为,来增强大学生的思想道德素质;其次,情感教学法有助于促进大学生身心健康和全面发展。     

论张岱年早期新道德观的理论特质和现实意义

张岱年早期新道德观的主要内容:"生活理想之四原则"、"六达德"、"六基德"、"新三纲说"及"兼善天下,而以人群为一体"的道德境界等,其早期新道德观的理论特质主要表现为:既是对传统道德的批判继承与综合创新的理论结晶,也是对马克思主义辩证唯物论与唯物史观的理论应用。张岱年早期新道德观对社会主义精神文明建设提供了直接、有效的伦理文化资源。     

“他者”与气候变化问题伦理学的基础

全球气候变化问题在各种政治较量和利益权衡中正逐步遮蔽其深层次伦理关切,导致了各种决策、理论的功利性和盲目性。作为＂他者＂的伦理关系始终没有出现。梳理西方近代以来主体性哲学传统和现代＂他者＂思想,将为理解气候变化问题产生的思想渊源,探讨当今气候变化问题涉及的伦理学问题提供基本线索。     

On hope,loss, anger,and the spaces in between: Reflections on living with/in adoption and the role of the social worker

This article explores the findings of a study on the role of the social worker in adoption with a focus on ethics, concentrating on the perspectives of adopted people, birth parents, and adoptive parents. Their reflections challenge policy attempts that are framed around “new beginnings” for children. The focus on hope in such policy projects fails to understand that hope inevitably coexists with anger and loss. The concept of ethical trespass, with its recognition of the inevitability of harm, is explored in terms of its possibilities for recognizing the lived realities for multiple stakeholders. The mitigation of ethical trespass requires social work practices that are characterized by humility, honesty, and reflexivity.     

One size does not fit all: organisational diversity in New Zealand tertiary sector ethics committees

New Zealand tertiary ethics committees may work from similar ethical principles but this article demonstrates that the way in which they operate is idiosyncratic. The paper builds on commentaries offered by current or former members of five New Zealand ethics committees on the organisation and practices of their committees. It examines differences among the committees with the aim of initiating an ongoing conversation about the work of ethics committees in the New Zealand context. It argues for the merits of diversity, transparency and openness as core principles for the work of ethics committees and as a platform for dealing with critique.     

Stewardship of research resources

Most accounts of research ethics focus on the importance of a handful of ethical and epistemological norms for the conduct of science, such as honesty, integrity, transparency, accountability, objectivity, collegiality, fairness, social responsibility, but have little to say about another, less well-known norm that also deserves attention: stewardship of research resources. Many of the behaviors and practices that are widely regarded as unethical or ethically questionable involve wasting or misusing money, time, and other resources. While good stewardship of resources may not be as crucial to the ethics of science as other norms, it is an important consideration that scientists should keep in mind when managing their own resources or mentoring students and trainees in the responsible conduct of research. Additional investigation into the ethics of stewardship may help us better understand how this norm interacts with other research norms and guides scientific conduct.     

Mindfulness Research and the Future

We consider some of the ways in which mindfulness theory can provide new solutions to current problems and address potential future problems that may result from changes in demographics and technology. Specific research questions are suggested to see how increasing mindfulness and decreasing mindlessnesscan work to diminish these social problems as they occur specifically in the classroom, the workplace, and the social predicament of getting old. We discuss (a) recasting some of the problems of the elderly into problems of perspective about the elderly, (b) mindful ways of dealing with increased ethnic diversity, (c) differentiating between changing the workplace work and changing the character of the work itself and (d) the advantages and ways of increasingmindfulness in the classroom.     

Promoting Compassionate Concern in Social Work: Reflections on Ethics, Biology and Love

This paper challenges proceduralized, rule-bound approachesto ethics and considers how social workers and teams can developan attitude of compassionate concern and become more effectivein dealing with ethical problems in their day-to-day practice.It introduces the work of Humberto Maturana, a widely respectedtheorist, whose work has received little attention in socialwork. The paper argues that Maturana’s biology of cognitionprovides an approach to ethics that takes into account the spontaneousnature of everyday work in which social workers undertake theirethical actions. It stresses the importance of emotions, particularlylove, and considers the way in which ethical action is shapedby culture. It emphasizes the importance of engaging in reflectionon professional practices and team, professional and organizationalculture in order for social workers to improve their awarenessof ethical dilemmas and promote ethical practice. For thoseteaching ethics, this paper suggests an alternative to the rationalconsideration of moral dilemmas and proposes approaches to trainingthat can help social workers become more attuned and responsiveto ethical conflicts.     

佛教与婆罗门教的修行理论比较

佛教和婆罗门教中的修行理论是两教宗教体系中的重要内容。这些内容的一些核心观念发源于印度古代圣典吠陀奥义书,在后世又不断丰富。两教的修行理论涉及宗教戒律及伦理思想的内容,也涉及禅定或瑜伽的内容,并且与两教的世界或人生现象的主要哲学观念相关。比较和分析这方面的内容对于在总体上把握印度宗教文化的基本特征有重要意义。     

The confluence of family and academic lives: Implications for assessment practices of college student learning in higher education institutions in the United States

Studies on family–work conflict among higher education faculty focus exclusively on research or promotion-related work outcomes and find significant challenges in balancing these two spheres. To extend this line of research, this study shifts the focus to classroom practices known as learnercentered assessment (LCA) and estimates the statistical association between marriage and parenthood and the use of these LCA practices in undergraduate classrooms. The hypotheses are framed around role theory and tested using data on a representative sample of U.S. faculty from the 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty and hierarchical linear regression techniques. The results return quite disparate gendered patterns. For males, marriage and parenthood are associated with reduced used of LCA practices in undergraduate courses. For females, parenthood but not marriage is associated with greater use of LCA practices. All regression results remain robust after adjusting for a wide range of individual and institutional characteristics. These results align with previous research showing that the work and family lives of faculty are indeed entwined. However, this entanglement may have quite different and significant implications for male and female faculty within the institution of higher education, as this study suggests.     

Rethinking social work ethics: what is the real question? Responding to Stephen Webb's ‘Against difference and diversity in social work’

Jose J. Rethinking social work ethics: what is the real question? Responding to Stephen Webb's ‘Against difference and diversity in social work’ Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 246–252 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. In his recent article, Stephen Webb argued that the real question for social work ethics concerns ‘recognising the Same and of restoring the principles of equality and social justice’. This argument also included raising questions about what should be considered an appropriate philosophical basis for progressive social work ethics. In his view, social work's emancipatory potential has been blunted by overstated and philosophically ill‐informed human rights claims about difference and diversity. He suggested that French philosopher Alain Badiou offers social workers a ‘set of conceptual devices for rethinking social work ethics’. I argue that pressing his points into Badiou's philosophical mould is unlikely to lead to a progressive social work practice, let alone solve the issues identified by Webb. Badiou's philosophical pronouncements about ethics are of questionable value and offer little or no assistance to social workers seeking to establish an ethical grounding for their professional practice.     

Prayer and Liturgy as Constitutive‐Ends Practices in Black Immigrant Communities

Much social theory tends to emphasize the external goods of social practices, often neglecting the internal goods of those practices. For example, many analyses of religious rituals over‐emphasize the instrumental and individualistic ends of prayer and liturgy by describing such religious practices as effective means for achieving external ends like positive emotions, psychological benefits, social status, or social capital. By contrast, we use a neo‐Aristotelian virtue ethics perspective to analyze the relational goods, such as trust and intimacy, which are expressed and sustained through ritualized social practices. Using ethnographies of Haitian and Ghanaian Christians in the U.S., we demonstrate that prayer and liturgy can also be understood as constitutive‐ends practices, practices in which human persons engage to sustain relations with others because there are goods inherent to those relationships. We further argue that in many religious practices, the end goals and the means—i.e. specific aspects of the practice—are inseparable. Our approach to developing theory combines critical engagement with numerous other theorists and also exploring how well various theories can explain the motivations and experiences of participants in the religious rituals where we conducted our ethnographies.     

The systematic application of ethical codes in the counseling of persons who are considering euthanasia

As health psychology develops, psychologists and counseling professionals are becoming progressively more involved with patients who have chronic terminal illnesses such as AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer. Consequently, they will be consulted increasingly by patients, caregivers, and lawyers in cases where euthanasia is being considered. There are numerous ethical dilemmas that could arise when counseling persons who are contemplating euthanasia. Professionals must consider carefully issues such as informed consent, bodily autonomy, respect for a person's dignity, patient welfare, as well as responsibility to society. The national psychological, social work, and medical associations of North America have each adopted a code of ethics. These codes may be used by counseling professionals to assist in the resolution of ethical dilemmas that may arise as a result of working with persons considering euthanasia. This paper discusses the relevance of these codes to the counseling of terminally ill patients.     

Cultivating students’ reflective capacity through group-based mindfulness instruction

ABSTRACT

Cultivating critically reflective practitioners is a vital professional competency for social work students. However, few reflective models support undergraduate students to foster nonconceptual skills important to developing reflective capacity. This article presents a group-taught mindfulness teaching intervention applied in a professional practice course to facilitate reflective capacity of social work students preparing for their first placement. Trial data derived from pre–post course administration of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire show significant gains in awareness were produced on two of the questionnaires’ five mindfulness facets of describe and nonjudgment. A developmental model detailing these shifts and its implications for group-based learning is outlined.     

Life in the Mindful Classroom: Nurturing the Disposition of Mindfulness

In this article, we review the appropriateness of 'mindfulness' as an educational goal and explore what it means to cultivate mindfulness as a disposition, that is, as an enduring trait, rather than a temporary state. We identify three high-leverage instructional practices for enculturatingmindfulness: looking closely, exploring possibilities and perspectives, and introducing ambiguity. We conclude by exploring what it might look like to cultivate the trait of mindfulness within individual classrooms. This report includes a review of an experimental study of 'conditional instruction,' which explores mindfulness as a state, and then drawson a series of qualitative case studies of 'thoughtful' classrooms to provide an example of conditional instruction as it might serve to develop a disposition of mindfulness.