When the Researched Refused Confidentiality: Reflections from Fieldwork Experience in Ghana

Autor/in	Akuffo, Aboabea Gertrude
Titel	When the Researched Refused Confidentiality: Reflections from Fieldwork Experience in Ghana
Quelle	In: Journal of Academic Ethics, 21 (2023) 4, S.567-589 (23 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Akuffo, Aboabea Gertrude)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1570-1727
DOI	10.1007/s10805-023-09471-x
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Research; Confidentiality; Field Experience Programs; Cultural Context; Political Influences; Social Environment; Research Methodology; Data Collection; Ethics; Ghana + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Forschung; Praxisnahes Lernen; Political influence; Politischer Einfluss; Soziales Umfeld; Research method; Forschungsmethode; Data capture; Datensammlung; Ethik
Abstract	Meeting appropriate ethical standards for research involving human participants, mean ensuring confidentiality. It is assumed that the research participant will accept the safeguarding protocols necessary to ensure confidentiality. This assumption however oversimplifies the variation of motivations that goes into participants' decisions to participate in research. Drawing on reflections from my fieldwork experience in Ghana, I answer the questions: Why do research participants reject confidentiality? What ethical position can one take when the researcher and the researched have conflicting perspectives about confidentiality? I contend that participants with personal stake refuse confidentiality when they want to be acknowledged for their data. Rejecting confidentiality is however, embedded in the individual perspective, cultural, and political context of the study area. The ethical concerns of such refusal can be ameliorated if confidentiality is nuanced to include six categorically distinct but mutually non-exclusive stages: research-planning, ongoing-information, writing-up, reality-after-research, differential-disseminations, and no-confidentiality-clause. The paper further argues that whilst maintaining institutional allegiance in this matter is crucial, employing confidentiality should lie at the intersection of participants' motivation for taking part in the research, the socio-cultural-specific-context of the study location and the nature of the topic being explored. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01