Abstract
Ethical practice is a core principle of PACE. Partners must conform to the University’s ethical standards and values, and PACE activities must promote the well-being of people and the planet. Students are expected to engage in an ethical manner, and their activities might include research that requires ethics approval. Approaches to telling the PACE story must also be ethically sound. This chapter identifies the practical and epistemological imperatives behind collaborative efforts to foster ethical understanding and practice across the program. These attempts have raised questions such as ‘What constitutes an ethical activity?’ and ‘How might students be prepared for ethical complexities?’ It has led to pushing pedagogical and institutional boundaries, resulting in benefits for Macquarie students, the University as a whole, staff involved in PACE, and community-based partners. This chapter also acknowledges a number of complexities that pose challenges and further questions, as well as suggesting future directions for both practice and research.
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Notes
- 1.
Learning and teaching resource on ethics and a research ethics framework; discussed in greater detail in this chapter.
- 2.
A philosophical thought experiment designed to encourage reflection on ethical decision-making.
- 3.
Documented in the Inaugural Report on the PACE Ethics Protocol and the Ethical Practice in PACE Module, Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee, November 2012.
- 4.
In alignment with the National Statement of Ethical Conduct in Human Research (NS) (Australia. NHMRC 2007): Irrespective of whether an activity requires ethics approval, all components of [PACE] activities are to be ethical in operation – from design, implementation through to management of the activity. This is to ensure risks are mitigated, the experiences are enriching and worthwhile for all stakeholders, and graduates are being prepared for the ‘real world’ (Mackaway and Winchester-Seeto 2011).
- 5.
The use of ethical dilemmas as a pedagogical tool is at the heart of PACE-developed resources, and, as discussed below, student engagement with these tools has been very strong.
- 6.
Group established (2010) to discuss the broader aspects of PACE and ethics, to clarify PACE activities requiring approval from the HREC, and to develop a set of guiding criteria for convenors.
- 7.
Following Mackaway and Winchester-Seeto’s (2011) terminology, this paper uses the term ‘learning through participation’ (LTP) to cover all models of participation, including but not excluded to work-integrated learning (WIL), work-based learning, cooperative education, service-learning, etc.
- 8.
A community of practice is an aggregate of people who come together around mutual engagement in an endeavour. Ways of doing things, ways of talking, beliefs, values, power relations – in short, practices – emerge in the course of this mutual endeavour. As a social construct, a community of practice is different from the traditional community, primarily because it is defined simultaneously by its membership and by the practice in which the membership engages (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 1992:464).
- 9.
These include the Human Research Ethics for the Social Sciences and Humanities module (http://mq.edu.au/ethics_training/) and the unit FOAR302: Engaging with ethics in research and professional and personal contexts.
- 10.
This approach is novel, as these components are normally taught separately at an undergraduate level (i.e. not in one single unit), and ethics for PACE activities is unique to the Macquarie experience.
- 11.
At 5:23 Dr Baker Discusses the Trolley Problem in relation to consequentialism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uZZmTJkudw.
- 12.
For more on the connection between theoretical ethics and practical ethics see Guy Kahane (2013).
- 13.
Approved by Macquarie’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) on May 7, 2012.
- 14.
For a more detailed discussion see Baker (2012a).
- 15.
One type of partner the University does not work with is organisations involved in tobacco manufacturing.
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Semple, AL. et al. (2017). Building a Community of Ethical Practice Through PACE. In: Sachs, J., Clark, L. (eds) Learning Through Community Engagement. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0999-0_14
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