In addition to the documentation you will need to complete with your university, you are also likely to face ethical dilemmas once you are out in the field: making contacts, writing field notes and speaking with participants. Far from being something to shy away from, ethical dilemmas give you the researcher a chance to be reflexive about your own role in the project, and allow you to make sure your project is based on respect for your participants.
Please do remember that the following advice is not comprehensive and will not apply to every situation you may find yourself in. The following quote sums it up quite nicely:
 âIt is because of the complexities of research ethics, and because there is unlikely ever to be one clear ethical solution, that a practical approach to ethics which involves asking yourself difficult questions–and pushing yourself hard to answer them–is particularly appropriate.â
(Mason J, 1996; Qualitative Researching. London: Sage)
The ways in which you navigate ethnical dilemmas should be primarily informed by your own experiences with participants. Please do remember however that your supervisor is there to discuss issues with you at any point in your research, so do not hesitate to ask for advice.
- How and when to write field notes
- Respecting your participants
- The participant/observer continuum and you
- Participants as friends
- Divulging your status as a researcher
- Showing participants your data
- Direct quotes – being true to your participants
It is always preferable to quote your participants directly rather than paraphrasing or trying to reconstruct what they have said later on. For this reason, it is advisable where possible to use a tape recorder to record conversations with your participants, which can then be transcribed. This is a slightly more time consuming process, but it minimises the risk of misrepresenting your participants.
- Navigating participant behaviours (risk taking, illegal activities, different views?)
In your year abroad projects you are unlikely to come across illegal activities, however you may be confronted with opinions which differ from your own