ABSTRACT
Conflicts about values, practices and intentions can emerge in any research encounter – yet we tend to expect more of these tensions when working across contrasting cultures and languages. In this article, we start from the position that cross-cultural communication and intercultural learning take place in all educational research activities – whether in the UK, Pakistan or Mexico or whether conducted by an insider or outsider researcher for an indigenous or ‘foreign’ university. Even when negotiating ethical principles
and practices with research respondents and ethical review committees in their ‘home’ institutional environments, many educational researchers have become aware of their own differing priorities. This is particularly so for participatory approaches where the research aims, outcomes and processes cannot be predicted in advance, due to prioritising action over theoretical learning and participants taking a part in guiding the research direction (see DePalma 2010).
