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Covenantal Ethics
A covenant is a pact defining the bond between parties engaged in a relationship. It can be a relationship between a professional and a client, between a researcher and the local participants or, as in the original meaning, between God and his people.
Covenantal ethics is based on the work of William F. May, founding director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility, USA. Although not an action researcher, May developed the concept of covenantal ethics to discuss the relationship between the researcher and the field, or ‘host population’ as he refers to it. He developed the concept as particularly relevant to medical ethics and the relationship between doctor and patient.
As action research is based on a commitment to working for the good of others through engaging in processes of change, it is obvious that the ethical responsibility of the researcher goes beyond the conventional contractual relationship between the researcher and the local participants. Action research is closer to a covenantal ethics that is reciprocal and responsive in character. The researcher stands not outside the research process but alongside the local participants. The term covenantal ethics in action research refers to an understanding of research ethics that is based on the responsibility to act in the best interest of others. This responsibility should be demonstrated at every step of the process. This entry discusses the relevance of covenantal ethics in action research and the theoretical foundation of covenantal ethics, as well as giving examples of what this ethical foundation means in practice.
The Relevance of Covenantal Ethics to Action Research
Paralleling the basic values of action research, covenantal ethics can be operationalized in three specific practices: (1) the acknowledgement of human interdependency, (2) the co-generation of knowledge and (3) the development of fairer power relations. The basic premise for this ethical demand in action research is the recognition that human life is relational and so the notion of an objectified other is unacceptable. Action research does not do research on others, but rather, it explores the possibilities for changed practice together with others, with the local participants or the host population. The researcher and the local participants are co-researchers in developing new knowledge and new practice together, and their relationship is mutual and complementary.
Action research is based on a commitment to promote social justice. Therefore, the researcher has an ethical demand to take responsibility for the social consequences of the research and make it explicit both in practice and in communications about that practice.
This relational research process makes it even more unavoidable to be ethically accountable than conventional research approaches. Many other types of social science research aim at being used, in the sense of being applied to a practical political context. At the same time, even applied research is often less applied than potentially applicable. The researchers may reach a conclusion with practical and/or political consequences, but it is then up to others to actually implement this new knowledge. For practical or political reasons, this may not happen. The proposed action might be costly, unwanted by people in power or unpopular with large groups that are satisfied with the status quo, or it may demand great efforts and much dedication of time resources. In conventional social science approaches, the researcher's responsibility tends to end with the publication of the research results. In action research, this is not sufficient.
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- Alinsky, Saul
- Argyris, Chris
- Bateson, Gregory
- Boal, Augusto
- Chataway, Cynthia Joy
- Dewey, John
- Emery, Fred
- Fals Borda, Orlando
- Freire, Paulo
- Gadamer, Hans-Georg
- Horton, Myles
- Kincheloe, Joe
- Lewin, Kurt
- marino, dian
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- Noffke, Susan
- Schön, Donald
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- Grameen Bank
- Highlander Research and Education Center
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- Norwegian Industrial Democracy Movement
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- Geographic Information Systems
- Ladder of Inference
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- Learning Pathways Grid
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