Written voluntary informed consent (VIC) procedures are the standard approach for operationalising the ethical principle of respect for persons’ autonomy in qualitative research. However, achieving fully informed and truly voluntary consent is challenging, particularly in qualitative research and/or postcolonial contexts. Evidence about (mis)understandings (i.e., unintended meanings) surrounding VIC comes primarily from participants in quantitative, biomedical research. I aim to advance knowledge about qualitative research participants’ (mis)understandings of VIC. I used ethnographic methods to document the evolving (mis)understandings participants attached to written VIC procedures in two postcolonial settings, Eswatini and South Africa. All participants provided me consent to document their interactions as co-researchers in participatory research, in which they learned about, designed and implemented VIC procedures. I analysed the data interpretively and abductively, informed by Bourdieu’s theory of practice. Participants valued the opportunity to decide and sign consent to participate but held (mis)understandings of study information and signing, which evolved as they participated. Many (mis)understandings were shaped by what the unfamiliar act of signing symbolised to them (i.e., binding, contractual agreements that protected the researcher/university and through which they relinquished their rights), from their positions of marginalisation amidst economic/material, cultural and social power inequalities. In postcolonial settings, requiring qualitative research participants to sign consent forms likely undermines the ethical principle of respect that VIC is intended to operationalise. Based on these findings I recommend alternative non-written procedures are used to operationalise the principle of respect in postcolonial qualitative research settings.
Power, Post-Coloniality, Voluntary Informed Consent, Research Ethics
Featured Resources
Simone Athayde, Jose Silva-Lugo, Marianne Schmink, Aturi Kaiabi, Michael Heckenberger
2017 | South America
Sustainability science focuses on generating and applying knowledge to environmentally sound human development around the world. It requires working toward greater integration of different types of knowledge, ways of knowing, and between academy and society. We contribute to the development of approaches for learning from indigenous knowledge, through enhanced understanding…
Hanna Guttorm, Lea Kantonen, Britt Kramvig, Aili Pyhälä
2021 | Europe
In this chapter we want to bring Indigenous ontologies and ways of knowing into the practices of decolonized research-storying. One implication about that is bringing Eana, Earth in North Sámi, as a narrator into the text. This text is a collaborative endeavour, where we write about and with our encountering…
Olivia E.T. Yates, Shiloh Groot, Sam Manuela, Andreas Neef
2023 | Aotearoa New Zealand
Background and Aims: Many Pacific people are considering cross‐border mobility in response to the climate crisis, despite exclusion from international protection frameworks. The ‘Migration with dignity’ concept facilitates immigration within existing laws but without host government support. Through the metaphor of Pacific navigation, we explore the role of dignity in…
Freya Higgins-Desbiolles
2022 | Australia
Recent work in development studies asked: “whatever happened to the idea of imperialism?”This article will analyse the ongoingness of imperialism in order to illuminate sources of injusticeand inequity in tourism. It will also delve into historical understandings of the capacities oftourism in a time when revolutionary, decolonising leadership looked to…
Featured Resources
Simone Athayde, Jose Silva-Lugo, Marianne Schmink, Aturi Kaiabi, Michael Heckenberger
2017 | South America
Sustainability science focuses on generating and applying knowledge to environmentally sound human development around the world. It requires working toward greater integration of different types of knowledge, ways of knowing, and between academy and society. We contribute to the development of approaches for learning from indigenous knowledge, through enhanced understanding…
Hanna Guttorm, Lea Kantonen, Britt Kramvig, Aili Pyhälä
2021 | Europe
In this chapter we want to bring Indigenous ontologies and ways of knowing into the practices of decolonized research-storying. One implication about that is bringing Eana, Earth in North Sámi, as a narrator into the text. This text is a collaborative endeavour, where we write about and with our encountering…
Olivia E.T. Yates, Shiloh Groot, Sam Manuela, Andreas Neef
2023 | Aotearoa New Zealand
Background and Aims: Many Pacific people are considering cross‐border mobility in response to the climate crisis, despite exclusion from international protection frameworks. The ‘Migration with dignity’ concept facilitates immigration within existing laws but without host government support. Through the metaphor of Pacific navigation, we explore the role of dignity in…
Freya Higgins-Desbiolles
2022 | Australia
Recent work in development studies asked: “whatever happened to the idea of imperialism?”This article will analyse the ongoingness of imperialism in order to illuminate sources of injusticeand inequity in tourism. It will also delve into historical understandings of the capacities oftourism in a time when revolutionary, decolonising leadership looked to…
