Dear Everyone,
When I wrote two days ago I spoke with heartfelt passion because my values had been infringed. I
made my point as clearly as I could and then (while not well enough to post yesterday) stood back.
My aim is not rile but to assist with forming standards of judgement that do not offend and that
will protect and enhance the quality of practitioners' research both nationally and internationally.
I looked to the BERA Ethical guidelines and found them bland and too generalised for the point I
need to make about the crucial need to avoid any form of discrimination that can deeply wound.
According to the (revised) BERA guidelines the Association considers that all educational research
should be conducted within an ethic of respect for the Person; Knowledge; Democratic Values; The
Quality of Educational Research and Academic Freedom. This can mean (and unfortunately has
done in my experience when a paper was published that contained evidentially untrue materials
about my working relationship with a former colleague) that Academic Freedom is taken as the
overriding factor i.e. sufficient reason to say what is deeply discriminatory and offensive to others.
This can mean that a practitioner researcher could write about a colleague in a way they can find
discriminatory and claim they are doing to for the greater good. It can also mean they use a claim
of Academic Freedom to research and publish what they hold to be true despite offending others.
I urge us to look at the ethical guidelines from AERA which I personally find more comprehensive:
Under Section iv we find:
In addition to enforcing standing strictures against sexist and racist language, editors should
reject articles that contain ad hominen attacks on individuals or groups or insist that such
language or attacks be removed prior to publication.
It may be that as I become more sensitised to the need to protect my own rights as an academic
with disablement that I am sensitised to infringements in other forms of discriminatory practice.
I must admit I read my stand against the discriminatory expression against 'whiteness' with some
surprise this morning! Until recently, I doubt I'd have voiced how offended I felt by what I read ...
probably I would have quietly accepted that I see the world (and want to see the world) differently.
Probably I would have waited to see if anyone else felt as I did and if not I'd have said nothing ...
but that isn't 'good enough' for an academic genuinely striving to identify standards of judgement.
Warmest regards to Everyone (even if I cannot always agree with some list members sometimes!!!!)
Smiling!
Sarah
http://www.TeacherResearch.net
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