Joint Seminar l Becoming ethically thoughtful motivation researchers

Whether we are seasoned academics, student researchers or early career scholars, we are all familiar with procedural ethics – that is, the procedures for obtaining ethical approval for our research projects before we can begin collecting data. However, during the fieldwork process itself, we also need to be attentive to unanticipated and potentially complex issues in the ethics in practice of our relationships with the people and communities we research. These issues may extend also to how we write up our research and how we represent ourselves and those involved in our research in our published accounts, dissertations and theses. Where the study of motivation is under focus in particular, such issues may extend to ethical questions about whose motivations and interests are shaping the research inquiry, and whose motivations and interests ultimately matter.

In this talk, I would like to highlight some ethical and relational complexities that we may face in our research and writing up practices when we investigate language learning motivation. My ideas are drawn from a book I have recently published on Language Learning Motivation: An Ethical Agenda for Research (Oxford University Press, 2020). I hope that my talk will stimulate discussion and ­sharing of experiences among participants in this webinar, so that we can explore approaches to becoming ethically thoughtful motivation researchers.