Undergraduate linguistics and human research ethics

Abstract

For students of linguistics at the University of Waikato, in Aotearoa/New Zealand, human research ethics has been something of a mystery. Delayed until graduate study, allocated to a generic Research Methods class, or even encountered for the first time in the preparation of an application for Human Research Ethics approval, ethics has been viewed as a separable module of learning, closely tied to graduate study, but less relevant to our undergraduate students. In this paper, the argument is put forward that ethical learning can and should be incorporated into the undergraduate linguistics curriculum. Two sets of ethical principles that could inform such a curriculum are presented, followed by the description of a pedagogic strategy that can be used to ensure that students graduating with a linguistics degree take with them an understanding of ethical considerations relevant to their discipline.