In this chapter, Bagele elaborates on research from an Indigenous paradigm by describing nine key ethical principles: 8 R’s + decolonisation.
- RELATIONALITY: The emphasis is on belongingness, togetherness, interdependence, relationships, collectiveness, love, and harmony. There is emphasis on valuing community strength and building community relationships to inform research or evaluation intent, motive, and methodology.
- RESPONSIBILITY: It is about the role of a researcher or evaluator in pursuing social, economic, and environmental justice, resisting dominant ideologies that silence local communities, and contributing to the worth, health, unity, and harmony within the community and of all stakeholders.
- REVERENCE: Indigenous research recognizes the critical nature of spirituality and values as an important contribution to ways of knowing. Many indigenous people place value on sacred sites and spiritual practices. The researcher with a postcolonial lens needs to figure out what is revered and how they will participate in it.
- RECIPROCITY: Whose research is it? Who will benefit from it and how will they benefit? These are fundamental questions that address the pitfall of colonial research that serves the interests of the researchers.
- RESPECTFUL REPRESENTATION: Respect requires that the process, from the initiation of the research, the questions asked, the methodology, the data-collection procedures, and the reporting and dissemination of the report, is guided by the community and that the community has ownership and access to the data collected.
- REFLEXIVITY: The principle of reflexivity requires researchers to continuously reflect on their position within existing powers and ensure that the research addresses the priority needs of communities.
- RESPONSIVITY: Responsiveness is the ability of researchers or evaluators to learn from the process, recognize the evolving changes, and adapt their approaches and methodologies to become the change, context, and be culturally sensitive and appropriate.
- RIGHTS AND REGULATIONS: This calls for ethical protocols that accord communities the rights and opportunities to prioritize their needs and participate in the research design.
- DECOLONIZATION: This calls for resistance to blindly borrowing Western theories, conceptual frameworks, and methodologies and to adapting these methodologies and theories where necessary to make them contextually and culturally relevant and, where possible, coming with new method theories from the data.
(Chilisa & Phatshwane, 2022, p. 232)
References
Chilisa, B. (2009). Indigenous African-centered ethics: Contesting and complementing dominant models. In D. M. Mertens & P. E. Ginsberg (Eds.), The handbook of social research ethics (pp. 407–426). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483348971.n26
Chilisa, B., & Phatshwane, K. (2022). Qualitative research within a postcolonial indigenous paradigm. In E. Flick (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research design (pp. 225–240). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529770278.n15
Clegg, W. J., & Slife, B. D. (2009). Research ethics in the postmodern context. In D. M. Mertens & P. E. Ginsberg (Eds.), The handbook of social research ethics (pp. 23–38). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483348971.n2
Cram, F., Ormond, A., & Carter, L. (2004, June 10–12). Researching our relations: Reflections on ethics and marginalization. Paper presented at the Kamhameha Schools Research Conference on Hawaiian Well-being, Honolulu, HI.
Marshall, J. (2001). Self-reflective inquiry practices. In P. Reason & H. Bradbury (Eds.), Handbook of action research (pp. 433–439). Sage
Reflect
Please describe how you are seeking to demonstrate just one of these principles in your particular context and why this is important to you. Please begin your reflection by explaining your social location.