Researcher reflexivity: exploring the impacts of CAQDAS use

Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) programs are established tools for qualitative research. Making informed decisions when using them requires researchers to understand how they affect research practices and outcomes. In this article we consider the impact of CAQDAS on researcher reflexivity. Reviewing three decades of literature, we identify specific ‘reflexive moments’ experienced by CAQDAS users, the contexts in which they occur, the issues they raise, and the reflexive awareness they generate. The ways in which CAQDAS can enhance or undermine researcher reflexivity are also reported. By doing so, we aim to help researchers and especially research students (and their supervisors) understand the relationship between CAQDAS and reflexivity and the reflexive moments they may encounter when using such software.     

‘No Power on Earth can Remove his Liability’: Emperor Haile Selassie and the Foreign Office,a Documentary Essay

Using the newly released unregistered files of the Foreign Office Permanent Under Secretary's Department (PUSD) Macklin's documentary article examines an interesting, if somewhat arcane, ‘missing dimension’ in the history of Abyssinian Emperor Ras Tafari Makonnen, more commonly known as Haile Selassie, and his covert financial relationship with the British government following his exile to Britain in 1936 after the conquest of his country by Mussolini's Fascists, until his return in 1941. By examining how the Foreign Office employed covert politics in order to obviate disruption to its ‘official’ diplomatic strategy Macklin examines how the British government set about ‘neutralising’ the Emperor's diplomatically awkward presence in England in their pursuit of rapprochement with Mussolini through which to drive a wedge between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.     

Some Caveats on Community in Schools

Community involvement in schools is currently being fostered in Australian education systems both by education departments and by interested groups within the wider society. It is a social issue which needs careful consideration both to avoid the errors of other countries and to ascertain whether such involvement has any real benefits for those who work in schools, namely, the teachers and students.     

Dancing Across Borders: ‘Exotic Dancers,’ Trafficking,and Canadian Immigration Policy

This article analyzes a Canadian immigration program that authorizes issuance of temporary work visas to ‘exotic dancers.’ In response to public criticism that the government was thereby implicated in the transnational trafficking of women into sexual exploitation, Citizenship and Immigration Canada retained the visa program de jure but eliminated it de facto. Using a legal and discursive analysis that focuses on the production of female labor migrants variously as workers, as criminals and as bearers of human rights, the article argues that the incoherence of Canadian policy can only be rendered intelligible when refracted through these different lenses. The article concludes by considering policy options available to the state in addressing the issue.     

International research: Ethical imperialism or ethical pluralism? 1

Conflicts have arisen in international research when countries in which research is being carried out lack the ethical rules or mechanisms for review employed in the United States and Europe. It is objected that a requirement to adhere to regulations promulgated by the US government constitutes “ethical imperialism.”; But if researchers in some countries need not be bound by ethical standards widely accepted in the conduct of research, it could open the door to an ethical relativism allowing virtually any standard a country desires to accept. One example is the variations in informed consent, especially in countries that accord lesser importance to the individual than do the US and Europe. A recent controversy centered on a series of placebo‐controlled, HIV/AIDS trials sponsored by the United States and conducted in several developing countries. These trials could not ethically be carried out in the United States because a proven effective treatment exists. Attempts to avoid similar controversies in forthcoming HIV/AIDS vaccine trials have been initiated by the joint United Nations AIDS program, with a process of regional consultations in the countries where the research will be conducted.