Case Studies
The 10 case studies were developed by the student team of the EIESL Project to provide guidebook users a place to start with ethical training as it pertains to ISL. We feel they reflect a variety of ethical issues commonly encountered when engaging in ISL and that the case studies will be applicable to a broad and interdisciplinary audience. Each of the case studies features one of our 5 themes at the core of the ethical dilemma presented and is interpreted by three selected ethical frameworks. Working through these case studies as they are presented will give you a foundation for navigating other ethical issues you may encounter. We encourage you to search out other case studies as ours represent only the tip of the ethical iceberg.
Frameworks
Each of the 10 case studies are interpreted by three ethical frameworks chosen by the student EIESL Project team. Each framework comes from a different school of thought on the principles that should govern ethical decision-making. It is important to realize that no one framework can be relied on to successfully work through all ethical dilemmas, a combination of different principles is often required. These frameworks are only a few of many established frameworks, we encourage you to search out and employ other frameworks in interpreting our and other case studies.
With thematic and contextual content gleaned from faculty tales of international engagement at Canadian universities, the EIESL team wrote six fictional case studies to provide guidebook users with a narrative context in which to ground the pedagogical, thematic, and theoretical links to ethics in ISL. We feel they reflect a variety of ethical issues and that the cases will be applicable to an interdisciplinary audience. Each of the case studies ends with questions that link to the five EIESL themes; a connection to one of many potential pedagogical frameworks with which to analyze the case study from the perspective of educator; and a list of questions and suggestions connected to specific issues that arise at particular phases of project planning.
