Since my Action Research Project involves collecting data from human participants, I had to be mindful of the ethical implications of my research in order to protect the participants and their interests throughout the process (Flick, 2006). I had to ensure that a safe space was created, and safeguarding measures were in place at all times. I made the students aware that, if engaging with the traumatic stories of displacement of their refugee collaborators triggered unpleasant emotions, they could access counselling services and support available to them via UAL.
I followed the UAL Code of Practice for Educational Ethics, based on the guiding principles of care, respect for persons, social justice, and beneficence. I also referenced the UAL Ethics for Making website which provided me with an effective framework for embedding the values of consent, collaboration, freedom, representation and responsibility within my practice as a design educator. In drafting the Ethics forms for my project involving vulnerable people such as refugees, I also felt the need to adopt a framework of ethics of care (Gilligan, 1982), which challenges traditional moral theories as male-centric and problematic to the extent that they omit or downplay certain virtues and values (e.g. care and compassion) usually associated with women. Moreover, drawing on Lenette (2022), I was aware of the need for my ethical research to be culturally safe, by letting participants determine whether the research process values and privileges their uniques perspectives, as an essential effort towards decolonising the academy.
In the process of drafting the ethics forms, I considered the principle of consent, giving participants the option to opt in or out of the process, without feeling obliged to engage in my research project. I considered the settings of the data collection activities, and in the end I decided to collect data in the classroom to ensure the safety of the participants and also not to burden students and refugee collaborators having to travel elsewhere to engage in my Action Research Project.
At the first group tutorial, my tutor asked me how I was planning to recruit the refugee collaborators, and in the Ethical Enquiry Form I clarified that they are already participating in my on-going larger research project, and I would offer them the opportunity to also join my ARP as volunteers. I considered the option to record the sessions with the view of making them available on a digital platform afterwards, but I decided to only record the talks and not the seminars, in order not to compromise the genuine and open interactions between students and refugee collaborators in these workshops. Drawing on my previous experience with the UAL Data Protection Team, I decided to reframe the Consent Form as ‘Participation Agreement’. This is because of a problem identified in the ethics process for which data can be collected with a person’s consent but often undermining legal ‘consent’ as a basis. On the other hand, I didn’t want to ask participants (especially refugees whose first language is not English) to sign legal contracts, as this would be not sensible or viable.
Below, you can find the Ethical Enquiry Form signed by my tutor, the Participant Information Sheet, and the Participation Agreement which I used for my ARP.