Posted on: January 4, 2019 / Categories: UncategorizedCOLLAPSE
As an educator, we always talk about the fact that we need to learn from our mistakes. In fact, we encourage students to try things and then find their mistakes and then learn and change from them. Obviously, when it comes to the area of research, this is not the case.The opening description of this discussion by Dr. Stacy eludes to research of today being based off of events (mistakes) from the past and presents a need for me to rethink this philosophy. This revelation scares me! As I switch my focus from philosophy to research, I am finding areas where I am concerned. In the CITI Training, I found myself in a state of (almost) panic thinking about ways I could essentially “mess up” and harm someone. On a positive note, I zoomed through and aced the areas regarding children and studies in schools. (I suppose if there is a positive take away, that is it). Listening to the examples in the Ethical Data Collection Video brought some very specific areas of concern to the forefront. For example, will I ever feel as though I’ve done enough to minimize the potential risk for subjects? Am I ensuring that the subjects understand their rights and can feasibly say no?
Do I, as a school administrator, serve in the same role with students with disabilities? I mean, I sit in on meetings and meet with teachers and parents often and make decisions about what is best for that student. But I recognize now that I do not always look at those decisions through this research lens or consider things like informed consent or voluntariness.While I recognize that this it is not exactly the same, these videos and trainings have given me food for thought when making decisions at the school level.
The results of the Tuskegee Project were particularly disturbing to me that so many subjects could be left untreated, even after the results were proven to be effective, for the sake of research. At what point do we allow the research to overtake humanity. Okay…enough preaching…