2.1 Faculty retreat in research ethics--modules and issues  (Page 2/6)

Retreat agenda (in spanish)

Clicking on the media file just below opens the presentation used for faculty development workshops held at UPRM. One such workshop was held February 20, 2009 with participants from UPRM, UMET, Polytechnic, and Interamerican Universities. The second workshop, scheduled for October 23, 2009 at UMET was canceled and will be rescheduled for January 2010. This presentation helps participants visualize the four parts of the Toolkit faculty development workshop: issue identification, demonstrations of successful EAC interventions, creation of new EAC interventions, and sharing new EAC interventions with the EAC community.

Eac workshop powerpoint

Eac module demonstrations (in research ethics)

During the GERESE retreat, two EAC module demonstrations helped participants visualize EAC micro-interventions. The Case Analysis Workshop gives graduate students an opportunity to practice decision making frameworks and ethical concepts through the analysis of cases in research ethics. Two cases were highlighted. "The Contaminated Lot," developed by Carlos Rios and Luis Rios, presents students with a core scenario and then adds layers of complexity to prepare them for the gray-colored situations often presented in the real world. The other case, the Dr. Swift case, was developed through the University of Oklahoma’s Center for Applied Social Research. This case (a "Rashomon-Type Case" because the events were not presented through a single "privileged" narrative but through six different participant-generated narrative perspectives) helps students practice and develop moral imagination. Along with these demonstrations, participants were provided with suggestions on how to choose, write, and teach case studies and how ethics micro interventions could be built up from the different ways in which case studies can be taught.

Presentation on case writing and teaching in research ethics

Layering in complexity: an example

• Title : The contaminated lot case
• Start with simple situation as core : You work for an industrial pharmaceutical company. Just before the shipment you discover a contaminated lot. What should you do?
• Add layers of complexity : (a) Low risk of getting caught. (b) High risk that someone could be harmed by contamination. (c) Pointing out the contamination would cause further delays in product delivery. (d) You could get fired, (e) Your daughter is sick and needs your medical plan.
• These cases allow students to make the transition from comparatively black and white cases to gray cases. Building in complexity is a good pedagogical strategy and helps prevent student skepticism.

Rashomon-type cases

• Morally conflicting situation described from multiple participant standpoints (no single narrative to work from) .
• Example : A graduate student claims that the most recent publication by her thesis adviser includes information based on the research she did in preparing her thesis. She asks to be added as co-author or, at the very least, be acknowledged for her contribution. Her adviser disagrees claiming that her thesis research was far more basic than what had been reported in the journal article. The department director holds an inquiry to investigate her allegation. (This is a variation of the Swift Case.)
• The six participant narrative include testimony from (a) the graduate student making the complaint, (b) the graduate student's thesis adviser, (c) two other graduate students one in favor of the graduate student's complaint, the other opposed, and (d) another professor in the same department who has had the graduate student in class. The department director listens to the different participatory narratives and makes a decision.