Thinking About Ethics

Faculty: The resources on this page will help prepare students to engage ethically with the community without doing harm. 

Please contact KaraBrascia@boisestate.edu if you have additional ideas.

Important Concepts to Cover When Discussing Ethics with Students

1. Discuss students' responsibility when representing another person or group

2. If students advocate for a group of stakeholders, community stakeholders should not only be  informed but approve any advocacy that is undertaken on their behalf by students

3. Communicate clearly with Community Partners and make sure they feel they are being represented accurately

4. Emphasize working WITH a community in a partnership rather than providing noble service

5. Discuss topics like protecting others' privacy when publishing information, coercive and biased language, setting clear boundaries and expectations, etc. 

6. Encourage students to follow up with Community Partners and contributors or interviewees to make sure students have represented their words fairly and in the way that they intended

Readings

Quick and accessible readings:

Here are three very brief chapter excerpts (attached below) to help students consider the ethics of community engagement.

• • • "What we don't think about when we don't think about service" by Adam Davis. Includes suggested reflection questions. (See also attachment at bottom of page)
      
      

    • The "Pitfalls in Social Change" excerpt is from this book  (see p. 28-32): Komives, S. R., & Wagner, W. (Eds.). (2009). Leadership for a better world : understanding the social change model of leadership development. John Wiley & Sons (full text). Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com Created from boise state on 2018-07-31 08:34:34.  (See attachment at bottom of page)
      
      

    • The Deans excerpt is from "Preparing for Outreach: Respect and Reciprocity" (from Deans, T. (2002). Writing and community action: A service-learning rhetoric with readings. Longman Publishing Group  (See attachment at bottom of page)
      
      

  • Stanford's Principles of ethical and effective service (includes reflection questions)
    
    

  • Is there an Ethics Code for Storytelling? (Jenab, 2016, Huffington Post)
    Questions the ethics of Humans of New York creator, Brandon Stanton, as he benefits from the images and stories of people from traditionally marginalized communities.

Reflection Questions:

• 1. What is the main idea of "Is there and Ethics Code for Storytelling?"

  2. What is Jenab's main criticism of Brandon Stanton's work?

  3. How does the main idea of the article relate to your service-learning experience?
     
     

• Barbie challenges the 'white savior complex' (Zane, 2016, BBC News)
  Discusses how the Barbie Savior Instagram raises awareness of the prevalence of the white savior complex in voluntourism.

Reflection Questions: 

• • What is the main idea of "Barbie challenges the 'white savior complex'"?

  • Are there ideas from the article that can be applied to service done in the United States?

  • Share two takeaways from the Barbie Savior Instagram account, and how they might relate to your service-learning experience.
    
    

• Essay: Robert Coles, Community Service Work (Deans, 2003, Writing and Community Action)
  Discusses the roles of community service and critical reflection. Includes reflection questions in reading.
  
  

• Significance of Ethics in Public Speaking (Lumen Learning)
  Discusses ethics as they relate to public speaking. Good for classes focusing on oration as a form of advocacy.
  
  

More advanced readings:

• Interventions and Health Communication Recommendations: Guiding Principles (Wood, Atujuna, Berger, Browne, Robbertze)
  Discusses guiding ethical principles for designing public service announcements, specifically videos.
  
  

• The Problem of Speaking for Others (Alcoff, 2008, Linda Martin Alcoff)
  Discusses how speaking for others is problematic due to privilege and power and emphasizes the question of will speaking for others enable the empowerment of oppressed peoples? Higher level reading. Good for faculty to skim to determine if it's a good fit for class.
  
  

• Rhetorical Listening: A Trope for Interpretive Invention and a "Code of Cross-Cultural Conduct" (See attached PDF file below)
  Discusses how rhetorical listening has the potential to generate more productive discourses about and across both commonalities and differences.
  
  

• Photovoice statement of ethical practice - some of the core principles and areas of concern may overlap with other community interviewing projects. 

Videos

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story”
  Discusses how a single story shapes our view of others and reinforces stereotypes. 

Reflection Questions (Adapted from Campus Compact of Minnesota's Civic Agency workshop series).

1. What is the “danger” in these single stories? 

2. How are these stories perpetuated?

3. Who has the power to set the agenda and tell the story in the places where you work/ serve/learn? 

4. What can you do to interrupt single stories?