Christine Grant

In this article, we outline the results of a narrative exploration of beliefs and attitudes towards research ethics among graduate students in two South-Central African countries, Zambia and Malawi. The participants were mid-career professionals in Africa, studying graduate business programs delivered in-country, but in partnership with a British University. By understanding the cultural underpinnings of African ethical philosophy, we aim to reconcile research practices in the region with the ethical compliance requirements and processes explicit in Western graduate research. We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 11 students to ascertain their views on ethics generally, the influences that contribute to their ethical perspective, and in particular the relationship between these and the processes and procedures taught in their course. Participants indicated several factors were important to their beliefs and attitudes regarding research ethics including close social groups which impacted ethical beliefs, traditional historical ethics re-enforced through storytelling, religion, location (urban or rural), and beliefs about professionalism.

As part of a study skills workshop, first year undergraduate students participated in an active learning exercise on remembering; this involved watching a video and later being tested on how much they could recall. The students watching the video were divided into three groups with different approaches to note-taking and subsequent review; afterwards the test results were fed back to the class. Subsequently, a survey was carried out of the students’ approach to note-taking and review, both before and after the workshop. The results during the classes clearly demonstrated to the students the learning benefits both of taking notes and of subsequently reviewing them and the questionnaire results confirm that students’ behaviours in this area were positively impacted by the workshop. Additionally, a number of barriers to effective note taking were identified which can be addressed in the future.