4.1 Collaborative ethical action

Several authors argue that an appreciative approach to inquiry is rooted in ethically responsive forms of research and change (Marchi, 2011; Ghaye et al., 2008; Scott and Armstrong, 2019). They highlight how the approach:

• is rooted in personal and collective storytelling 
• builds positively and generatively from practices that already exist
• is responsive and contingent on local contexts 
• develops in relationships with others, encompassing multiple perspectives and opinions
• is attentive to what is happening and how people feel about it. 

We want to highlight a specific aspect of ethical inquiry, the role of collaboration, to help you consider in more depth the ethical stance of your own inquiry project. 

Throughout this course you may be working in inquiry teams, rather than individually. Whether this is the case or not, sustaining ethical relationships with others, through trust, respect and attentive listening is a fundamental feature of an appreciative approach (Ghaye et al., 2008; Marchi, 2011). As Marchi acknowledges, an appreciative approach to inquiry, in its most powerful form, challenges and deconstructs the ‘us-them’ definition between peers, institutions and employees, policy and practice (p. 190), where voices and practices that have potential to be built from can arise from anywhere within our complex and often hierarchical systems. Marchi describes how this ‘gives rise to decision-making micro-processes and actions that will foster greater reciprocity within and between the different systems’ in what he describes as ‘situation-based ethics’ (2011, p. 190–191). This ‘can do’, empowering attitude to making positive change through inquiry is enacted through allowing lots of people to have a say (through the storytelling phase) and influence the direction of the inquiry (Ghaye et al., 2008, p. 368).

Figure 7 Playing with sticky notes

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Figure 7 Playing with sticky notes

Underpinning collaborative ethical action is what Rosenberg (2010) terms ethical characteristics and behaviours. Drawing on Quinn, Rosenberg argues that ‘all action intrinsically arises from who we are and what we see around us … [which] depends on our own state of being [and] self-awareness’ (Rosenberg 2010, p. 16). This course embeds such ethical action into and throughout the course, responding to the very nature of an appreciative approach, where we have emphasised the following characteristics: 

• attentiveness to stories, how they are constructed, how they work in your context, what language, metaphors and images they draw on
• attentiveness to practices that are already there, practices that emerge during inquiry, practices that are challenged by the inquiry processes
• responsiveness to differences between stories and different people’s perspectives, responsiveness to emergent issues and to opportunities that present themselves
• creativity, to allow ourselves spaces to re-think, re-see, re-consider, moving ourselves beyond our own perspectives or dominant assumptions and beliefs. 

Collaborating ethically will vary depending on who you are collaborating with and how you are collaborating. Issues of power, control, shared responsibility and decision-making processes may all have appeared in your concept map. It is important to be attentive to these issues, review them regularly and explicitly discuss ethics as part of your ongoing inquiry processes.

For more information on ethical research in educational contexts you may be interested in the OpenLearn course Becoming an ethical researcher [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .