Research Ethics in Decolonizing Research With Inuit Communities in Nunavut: The Challenge of Translating Knowledge Into Action

Abstract

Research failures are not readily disclosed in research representations. This exclusion is a missed opportunity to practice reflexivity, a practice otherwise crucially important to social science inquiry, and share the learning that was inspired by the failure. In this paper I present and reflect on a research failure that occurred during my doctoral research into alternative, Inuit-centered models of fisheries governance in Nunavut. While working on defining the research, I experienced a far-reaching impasse due to the lack of community response and academic guidance. Eventually, despite the best intentions to engage in decolonizing research, I chose to forgo meaningful community consultation before embarking on my fieldwork. Decolonizing research centers collaboration and local research needs from the outset. At the same time, what it means to negotiate a research relationship is in itself negotiable. Further, the negotiating is often challenged by time constraints, institutional restrictions, and limited financial resources. Lessons learned from my case study include a) that a nonideal start does not mean that the entire research project will fail and b) that participating Indigenous communities have the sovereignty, irrespective of existing protocols, to set the terms under which research can take place. Above all, negotiating a research relationship is about relational work which requires commitment and continuous engagement.

A Manifesto for Better Research Failure

“…As this collection of papers exemplifies, research failure is best understood as a continuum-spanning an almost innumerable range of manifestations (Firestein, 2016). Even in the edition's but half dozen papers, there's both considerable diversity yet also tight cohesion in the research failures discussed, which occurred in: Every stage of the research process, from ontology (Eckert, 2020), design (Ciuhan & Iliescu, 2020), methodological frameworks (Ciuhan & Iliescu, 2020), data collection (Cohen-Miller, Schnackenberg, & Demers, 2020;Eckert, 2020) and analysis (Ciuhan & Iliescu, 2020) and community engagement (Held, 2020) All facets of research, including: the physical, such as how data are generated (Gregory, 2020); the social, such as in community relations (Held, 2020); participant rapport (Eckert, 2020); and cultural contexts (Gregory, 2020). Established (Eckert, 2020) to novel research methods (Cohen-Miller, Schnackenberg & Demers, 2020;Gregory, 2020) Failures can relate to absence (Held, 2020;Wohlfart, 2020) or presence (Gregory, 2020); ourselves (Wohlfart, 2020) or others (Held, 2020); the overt and obvious (Eckert, 2020;Wohlfart, 2020) to the tacit and hidden (Ciuhan & Iliescu, 2020).…”

“…Even in the edition's but half dozen papers, there's both considerable diversity yet also tight cohesion in the research failures discussed, which occurred in: Every stage of the research process, from ontology (Eckert, 2020), design (Ciuhan & Iliescu, 2020), methodological frameworks (Ciuhan & Iliescu, 2020), data collection (Cohen-Miller, Schnackenberg, & Demers, 2020;Eckert, 2020) and analysis (Ciuhan & Iliescu, 2020) and community engagement (Held, 2020) All facets of research, including: the physical, such as how data are generated (Gregory, 2020); the social, such as in community relations (Held, 2020); participant rapport (Eckert, 2020); and cultural contexts (Gregory, 2020). Established (Eckert, 2020) to novel research methods (Cohen-Miller, Schnackenberg & Demers, 2020;Gregory, 2020) Failures can relate to absence (Held, 2020;Wohlfart, 2020) or presence (Gregory, 2020); ourselves (Wohlfart, 2020) or others (Held, 2020); the overt and obvious (Eckert, 2020;Wohlfart, 2020) to the tacit and hidden (Ciuhan & Iliescu, 2020). The failures were explained in many different ways, including but not confined to, individual issues, such as: foundational misunderstandings of participants (Eckert, 2020;Held, 2020), lack of adequate preparation (Held, 2020;Wohlfart, 2020) or prior experience (Wohlfart, 2020), lack of field work (Eckert, 2020;Held, 2020), and pressures created from external deadlines (Held, 2020).…”

“…Established (Eckert, 2020) to novel research methods (Cohen-Miller, Schnackenberg & Demers, 2020;Gregory, 2020) Failures can relate to absence (Held, 2020;Wohlfart, 2020) or presence (Gregory, 2020); ourselves (Wohlfart, 2020) or others (Held, 2020); the overt and obvious (Eckert, 2020;Wohlfart, 2020) to the tacit and hidden (Ciuhan & Iliescu, 2020). The failures were explained in many different ways, including but not confined to, individual issues, such as: foundational misunderstandings of participants (Eckert, 2020;Held, 2020), lack of adequate preparation (Held, 2020;Wohlfart, 2020) or prior experience (Wohlfart, 2020), lack of field work (Eckert, 2020;Held, 2020), and pressures created from external deadlines (Held, 2020). Broader contextual factors contributed too, including: inadequacies in the methodological literature (Ciuhan & Iliescu, 2020), disciplinary silos and tensions (Gregory, 2020) and the sheer complexity of the research being done (Eckert, 2020;Gregory, 2020;Held, 2020).…”

“…The failures were explained in many different ways, including but not confined to, individual issues, such as: foundational misunderstandings of participants (Eckert, 2020;Held, 2020), lack of adequate preparation (Held, 2020;Wohlfart, 2020) or prior experience (Wohlfart, 2020), lack of field work (Eckert, 2020;Held, 2020), and pressures created from external deadlines (Held, 2020). Broader contextual factors contributed too, including: inadequacies in the methodological literature (Ciuhan & Iliescu, 2020), disciplinary silos and tensions (Gregory, 2020) and the sheer complexity of the research being done (Eckert, 2020;Gregory, 2020;Held, 2020).…”

“…Positively, the failures lead to many benefits, contributing to better understanding and methodological innovation (Cohen-Miller, Schnackenberg, & Demers, 2020), clarification of research priorities (Held, 2020), the need for higher cultural sensitivity (Held, 2020). Beyond the studies themselves, authors better realized the wide prevalence of research failure (Eckert, 2020), the use of failures for improving research quality (Eckert, 2020) and the need for safer and more supportive A manifesto for better research failure…”