Ethics is an essential part of educational research because it focuses on the promotion of the well-being of the community. Smith discusses the notion of the community’s well-being in her work, claiming that every individual should benefit from learning, which positively results in society. The author wants to promote the good for the community by allowing every student to develop the characteristics necessary for forming a good citizen and productive society. Smith (1999) discusses indigenous culture and how native people educate the youth about the common good. The author emphasizes the distinct character of the indigenous community, which becomes evident when compared to Western society. According to Smith (1999), indigenous people are considered an integral part of the group, while Western children receive education as individuals separated from the group. This distinction makes the understanding of the goals of education and its ethics connected with culture.
The methods, aims, and paradigms Smith uses in her education research reflect the author’s focus on promoting the community’s well-being. The indigenous culture and society example supports these claims, illustrating the need to integrate the person into the group life from the earliest years (Smith, 1999). The peculiar detail is that Western scholars often criticized the community-oriented character of education in the indigenous community, who regard native cultures as more primitive than Western ones.
Smith describes these claims, stating that Western education does not allow people who received it to speak from the original position of the indigenous people. They can only theoretically understand the traditional perspective the indigenous communities have, but they do not develop a true vision of these cultures. In addition, there are cases when people with the Western formation do not think indigenous knowledge has the right to be preserved.
For example, scholars who pursue the indigenous discourse in science refer to the Western, predominantly English-speaking culture (Smith, 1999). It makes the nativist slant in the research irrational and contradictory because the attitude toward the indigenous culture as to the primitive one is vital in the Western world (Smith, 1999). Therefore, traditional education is Western-centered, even though the researchers do not usually articulate this idea.
Applying Western culture’s norms and ethical principles to analyzing indigenous views on reality is not valid in contemporary posthumanist research. The modern discourse in social sciences supposes that the interests of the minorities and cultural peculiarities of various groups are treated with respect (Mazzei, 2013). It is impossible to imagine a reliable and valid qualitative study that does not treat cultural abnormalities with respect as the objective truth (Mazzei, 2013).
The view on the interview in the posthumanist research discussed by Mazzei (2013) illustrates this hypothesis, showing the importance of using a neutral voice in the data collection and analysis. This perspective implies the notion of human agency, which means that every individual makes a conscious choice that scholars should decode (Mazzei, 2013). Therefore, understanding the cultural practices, the ethical principles connected with the ideas the respondents articulate, and the views on the surrounding reality are associated with the human voice that the scientist should interpret correctly. The pictures on the ethics of education and the common good of society illustrate these individual voices people have.
Education should be regarded as an ethical practice focusing on transforming the individual and society. This topic is relevant to the community because there is a vital need for the transformation of the way people interact with each other based on the principles of mutual respect. Every person should understand their talents and learn practical ways of contributing to the well-being of society. Focusing on the individual and community connection should become part of the curriculum, and teachers and parents should emphasize raising children. Otherwise, most students cannot understand their strong sides, and they do not know how they can help others when they become adult people. This gap in the educational system is a significant problem that requires solutions.
Reference List
Mazzei, L. A. (2013) A voice without organs: Interviewing in posthumanist research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(6), pp. 732-740.
Smith, L. T. (1999) Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Zed Books Ltd.