Abstract
In this chapter we describe how systemic contradictions complicate ethical site entry and data collection in critical research. We present our ethnographic research within South African antenatal and postnatal clinics as an example. Pregnant and mothering young women are subject to diverging views of minors in different state-produced policies and legislation. In addition, we encountered discrepancies between our research aims and assumptions made by the University Ethical Standards Committee, managers, healthcare providers, teenaged participants, and other service users. These complexities have implications for ethical engagement of researchers and call for nuanced means of data collection and analysis. We discuss how critical researchers can mitigate social injustice by questioning entrenched ways of thinking about participants and negotiating the contradictory positionings of self and others.
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- 1.
We acknowledge that our use of the signifier ‘women’ excludes transgender men who may give birth. We retain the term women, however, as our research was intended to focus on the constructions of young women specifically, and all of the pregnant or mothering participants in our research were cisgender women.
- 2.
Racial signifiers have had particular pertinence in South Africa. We use inverted commas in recognition of these categories which are socially constructed and have continued real effects in power relations and the allocation of resources.
- 3.
Ethical Clearance (2011Q4-2 and 2011Q4-3) was granted by the Rhodes University Ethical Standards Committee on the 1 April 2012.
- 4.
Permission to conduct the research was granted by the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Health in a letter (without a clearance number) dated 14 December 2012.
- 5.
Given the under resourcing of public mental health services, it is unlikely that these participants would have consulted a psychologist ; at best, they may have been referred to a social worker. Nevertheless, as indicated, many mistook the researchers for health care providers.
- 6.
As a part-time student, Yolisa’s thesis is still being written up.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the participants of our research for their time and input. This chapter is based on research supported by the South African Research Chairs initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation of South Africa (grant number: 87582), and the Andrew W Mellon Foundation (grant number: 11100695).
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Feltham-King, T., Bomela, Y., Macleod, C.I. (2018). Contesting the Nature of Young Pregnant and Mothering Women: Critical Healthcare Nexus Research, Ethics Committees, and Healthcare Institutions. In: Macleod, C., Marx, J., Mnyaka, P., Treharne, G. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Ethics in Critical Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7_5
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