‘That is NOT what's happening at Horizon!’: ethics and misrepresenting knowledge in text

Abstract

This paper analyzes the ethically important moments that helped build, then break, and then negotiate the relationship between researchers and schools during an ethnographic‐type study conducted by the team of researchers from a prominent private university. I posit that the researchers' unskilled approach culminated in producing written representations of the schools that were ethically problematic. To quote one school: ‘That is NOT what's happening at Horizon!’ Guided by simplistic understandings of procedures, rather than by articulated moral principles, the researchers were unable to scrutinize and interrogate their data in light of the context from which the data were collected. They thus failed to examine reflexively the knowledge they produced in their written representations. My critique uses a framework that counters harm with benefit and authority with respect, drawing on both consequential and non‐consequential ethical theories, and emphasizes an ethic of care.

Keywords:

• ethics
• moral principles
• representation

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Andy Churchill, my evaluation teammate, for the hours of conversation and caring reflexivity we shared during the evaluation and for the insights he offered as I wrote. I also appreciate the Association project coordinator, who accepted us, the evaluators, as her critical friends.

Notes

1. All names of persons and schools (other than my own) have been changed.

2. I agreed to hold this session, although it was not specified in my evaluation contract.

3. All emails reproduced here, whether directed to a specific individual or a group, were copied to at least one other person. None was a private communication.