ABSTRACT
The chapter highlights ethical issues of researching the private and personal spaces of first-year university students’ informal learning. The research frames informal learning as ‘academic-related brokering practices’ and the research participants were international EAL (English as an additional language) students in their first year at a New Zealand university. In this context brokering occurs when tutors and peers help students understand unfamiliar texts, interactions, artefacts, and social and cultural practices encountered in a culturally unfamiliar academic environment. The chapter considers the following ethical issues: the validity of translated data; the tension between pursuing observation opportunities and maintaining respect for participants’ personal spaces; and crossing the boundaries of the researcher as an uninterested observer. The chapter concludes with reflections on acting ethically in the research process.
