Article Analysis

The article analyzed is on ethical considerations when conducting social work research by Ana M. Sobočan, Teresa Bertotti & Kim Strom-Gottfried (2018). The paper looks at the nature of embedded ethical dilemmas. The authors focus on the challenges that a researcher faces in light of non-maleficence; they use several illustrations and present resources and recommendations for building ethical awareness and integrity in research beyond compliance with regulations.

Identify Each Recommendation

Virtue ethics is defined as ‘the innate sensitivity to matters of justice, right and wrong, and duty and obligation’. This is often not emphasized when students are doing their research. The authors recommend that students be prepared to take a deeper look at their personal motivation and characteristics to determine if their choices in conducting research are not driven by exploitative or selfish impulses but rather by ethics. This is possible because of the pressure that students feel to be scholarly productive, and hence, their decisions may be guided by competitive advantage or expediency. Therefore, mentoring and education systems should aim at cultivating researchers that are aware, willing, and skillful in acting with integrity and challenging oppressive research practices.

The authors also note that the engagement and awareness of ethical issues in designing research is in alignment with anti-oppressive concepts’ sensitivity where scholars are challenged in the research process to consider the power dynamics and how the research they are conducting may further contribute to marginalization and exploitation of the study population. Thus, the authors recommend effectively addressing the diverse research ethics ranges will call for reinforcing technical and reflexive proficiencies as integral and equal parts of scientific process education.

A third recommendation is in reference to senior researchers and social work programs’ roles in acculturating and educating novice scholars. The concepts of appreciative inquiry and courageous followership should be encouraged, as this will benefit research team members. Scholars steeped in this will be in a position to have deeper self-reflection and become sounding boards for other researchers in the field.

Lastly, the authors point out that another opportunity to research ethics attention enrichment lies with research associations, professional organizations, and funding bodies. These can offer valuable support and consultancy, which will break down the confusion and isolation that researchers experience when they face substantive yet subtle dilemmas in ethics.

Identify the specific finding, if any, that supports each recommendation.

There are no findings that support the given recommendations.

In your opinion, decide if each recommendation is adequately supported by a specific finding. If it is not, why not

The recommendations made have not been supported by any specific findings. This is because the authors have instead looked at the strategies in student research that have not worked and made recommendations on what would possibly work. The recommendations involve the teaching fraternity’s roles in preparing students as well as the involvement of organizations and bodies’ support in enabling better research to be conducted. Therefore, there’s a need for the teaching curriculum to be changed, implemented, and assessed for effectiveness. It will also need participation by organizations to be implemented and assessed for effectiveness so that the viability of the recommendations can be confirmed.

Are the limitations of the study discussed? What are these limitations?

The limitations of the study have not been discussed.

What recommendations were useful to you as a social worker?

The most useful recommendation was the aspect of applying virtue ethics in my research. Toward the end of my degree course, I will need to write a research paper, and because I, just like everyone else, wants to pass, that could work against the ethics that social work calls for. I say this because it is possible to cross the line of ethics in seeking answers to my research. However, when virtue ethics guide me, I will remember that the subjects of my study have a right to be treated with dignity and integrity and that the results of my research do not propagate a social ill but instead propel further research to improve society or the study participants’ lives. Silver (2017) challenges students to consider the concepts of positionality, representation, and subjectivity. As a student and social worker, I will need to ask myself the following questions with respect to the aforementioned concepts: ‘what are the consequences of using my “western eyes” to represent the “other”?’ ‘What right do I have to enter communities of which I am not a member?’ and ‘who do I have the right to represent?’ and ‘how do my acts of representation constitute acts of domination?’ ( Silver, 2017). During my work, I will use these questions when researching and advocating for social groups’ rights.

References

Silver, S. (2017). Decolonizing a graduate research course: Moving away from innocence and ignorance. Reimagining anti-oppression social work research, 99-113.

Sobočan, A. M., Bertotti, T., & Strom-Gottfried, K. (2019). Ethical considerations in social work research. European Journal of Social Work, 22(5), 805-818.

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