Power, control and identity.Ethical issues in researching North-South

study visits

AAG conference April 14th – 19th 2010Washington DC

Fran Martin, University of Exeter, UK.

Some definitions

• North – South• Global Educational Partnerships• Study visits, study visit courses

3Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

The World is like a table. Twenty percent live on the table and eighty percent survive underneath it. Our work cannot be to move a few from under the table onto the table, or vice versa. Our task is to move the table, to change its position if necessary, and all to sit together around the table.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti, cited by Hopkin (2002).

4Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter 5

Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter 6

The Project

Global Partnerships as sites for mutual learning: teachers’ professional development through study visits.

• Strategic: Two global partnerships, UK - Gambia & UK - India • Pedagogic: Two study visit courses, teachers and

educators

7Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

Theoretical perspectives

Ontology

• Postcolonial theory (Said, 1985; Bhabha, 1994; Spivak, 1988)

Epistemology

• Intercultural experiences (Fiedler, 2007); Third space (Bhabha, 1994)

Methodology / pedagogy

• Participatory, ethnographic

• Pedagogy of ‘dissensus’ (de Souza, 2008)

8Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

Research design

Challenges for research:

• How do I establish an ethical relation to the ‘other’ and avoid keeping ‘Western academy and the Western academic at the centre’ (Andreotti, 2007)?

• Western knowledge systems, indigenous knowledge systems: Learning to unlearn (Andreotti & de Souza, 2008)

• Recognition of dynamic nature of places, societies, cultures and the relationships between them (avoiding frozen narratives)

9Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

UKTide~

DevelopmentEducation

Centre

GambiaNational

EnvironmentAgency

UKCanterbury

Christ ChurchUniversity

IndiaGoodwillChildren’s

Homes

Mutual, intercultural learning

UKPI and RF

Gambian Researcher

Indian Researcher

10Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

Negotiating Access

• Asking difficult questions without compromising relationships built up with participants

• Risks of being up-front about own worldview

• Risks of raising profile of project through the press

11Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter 12

Researcher bias

• My own history with the organisations taking part

• Motes in my own eye?• Intercultural or intracultural issues?• Contradictions in my own practice

13Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter

Concluding comments

• Postcolonial spaces for learning?

• All to sit together around the table …

• Or remove the table, sit on the floor ….

14Dr Fran Martin, University of Exeter