During the past year, the ACM has worked to develop and implement an Ethics Review process to guide students as they conduct independent research projects on ACM off-campus study programs. Now the results of those efforts will be shared more widely in the higher education study abroad community during a presentation at a national institute sponsored by the Forum on Education Abroad.
An ACM group will give the presentation as part of the Forum’s Standards of Good Practice Institute, “Ethics and Integrity in Education Abroad,” to be held on April 3 in Chicago immediately preceding the 9th Annual Forum Conference on April 4-5.
“We will be talking about the major differences between students conducting research during an off-campus program in an international location and conducting research on their home campus,” said Joan Gillespie, ACM Vice President and Director of Off-Campus Study Programs. “Then we’ll give an overview of the protocol and process we developed and discuss what we’ve learned during this first year of using our Ethics Review process.”
Gillespie will be joined in leading the session by ACM President Christopher Welna and Gregory Buchanan, Associate Professor of Psychology at Beloit College. During the session, titled “Ethical Research Abroad: Educating Students to Protect Human Subjects,” they also will review protocols used for various off-campus program models, such as direct exchange, and share the course materials that ACM developed for its students.
ACM’s Ethics Review process, which grew out of the work of a group of faculty and staff from several ACM colleges, is designed to teach students about ethical principles involved in conducting research and other types of inquiries, especially when the research involves human subjects. As the process has been implemented this academic year, students on ACM programs in Tanzania, India, Botswana, Costa Rica, and the U.S. have taken part in the training.
Developing and implementing standards of good practice is a major focus of the Forum on Education Abroad, and the organization has established committees and working groups to address aspects of good practice. Gillespie is chair of a subcommittee that has drafted Guidelines for Undergraduate Research Abroad, which will be the subject of an open discussion session on April 4 at the National Conference.
The Forum on Education Abroad has a mission to help to improve education abroad programs to benefit the students that participate in them. Its membership includes U.S. colleges and universities, overseas institutions, consortia, agencies, and provider organizations, and more than 1,200 people have registered for this year’s National Conference.
Links:
- Read about the ACM Ethics Review process
- The Forum on Education Abroad
Standards of Good Practice Institute: “Ethics and Integrity in Education Abroad“
2013 National Conference
