Reflections on a multi-layered intervention in the South African public education system: Some ethical implications for Community Operational Research

This paper reflects upon a range of research-and-intervention practices which were employed in the conduct of a community-engaged research initiative in South Africa called the 500 Schools Project. These practices may be seen as offering innovations which can be used or adapted for Community Operational Research where the intention is to transform discourses and actions which restrict life chances of groups who have been historically marginalised. This is discussed in the paper by exploring some ethical considerations put forward by those espousing the ‘stretching’ of a transformative paradigm through an Indigenous-oriented (and decolonising) lens. The paper offers some deliberations on the links between this community-engaged research project and the remit of Operational Research as subscribing to a ‘science of better’ (where ‘better’ in this case is defined as moving towards increased social justice and addressing concerns of disadvantaged communities/clients). Attention is drawn specifically to an Indigenous relational ethic based upon a concern with strengthening and revitalising social relationships and connectivity (including a sense of connectedness with ‘all that exists’). It is suggested in the paper that being aware of such an ethic, in South Africa as elsewhere, can help Community Operational Research practitioners to reflect more fully (as theorists theorising their practices) upon the ethical grounding of their activities in former colonised societies and other contexts of operation.