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The Guilt of Whistling‐blowing: Conflicts in Action Research and Educational Ethnography
Author(s) -
McNamee Mike
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.00236
Subject(s) - blame , harm , action (physics) , feeling , ethnography , psychology , social psychology , epistemology , focus (optics) , sociology , pedagogy , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , anthropology , optics
This chapter discusses the role conflict of the educational researcher who comes upon an unprofessional relationship between teacher and pupil. It is argued that the whistleblowing literature in related professions, with its focus on standard conditions and solutions framed as obligations, is inadequate. Reference is made to the idea of ‘guilty knowledge’: the feelings of guilt that attach when one comes to know of harm visited on innocent others, and has no unqualified sense of which way to act. Distinguishing moral from causal responsibility helps to show how blame need not necessarily attach to the guilt‐ridden researcher, whichever option she chooses.