CIREE TRAINING RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR THE PUBLIC

NORTHEAST ETHICS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP AND RESEARCH ETHICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH TRAINING PRODUCTS

PowerPoint Training Materials

Listed below are the titles and descriptions of several presentations used in our environmental and community ethics research training courses.  They are available for your downloading and viewing. We are in the process of updating this site, if a training material is not available for download, please write d.quigley@northeastern.edu. and the training resource will be emailed to you.

Bioethical Principles for Research Ethics: The Protection of Individual Human Subjects.  These slides provide an overview of the concepts of the common morality, the nature of rights, and moral virtues. In depth, the four principles related to protecting human subjects in research are described and examples are provided: beneficence, nonmaleficence, respect for autonomy, and justice. The history of human subjects protections is also mentioned, including the Nuremberg Code, the Declaration of Helsinki, the need for informed consent and the creation of Institutional Review Boards, and the Belmont Report (44 slides).

Community-Based Research and Environmental Justice Interventions: CBPR Best Practices and Intercultural Designs (Presentation of the Northeast Ethics Education Partnership- NEEP). Part one of this presentation covers: what is community-based research? Why is it valuable? What are the ethical benefits? The CBPR process and related benefits of partnerships and collaboration are examined, as well as the importance of community review boards (Slides 1-33).The second part provides best CBPR practices with case studies in environmental justice communities (Slides 34-77).

Cultural Competence and Community Studies: Concepts and Practices for Cultural Competence.  These slides provide a review of cultural competence theory; of defining cultural competence, skills that relate to being a cultural competent researcher, considerations to take when working with diverse communities, issues with intercultural language and communication, and the concepts of humility and critical consciousness (29 slides)

Research Ethics for Community-Based and Culturally-Appropriate Research in Natural Resource Management. These slides review community-based approaches for natural resource management with an emphasis on beneficence, respect for communities and justice embedded in the research methods. Additionally, culturally-appropriate methods found in natural resource management are also included. (45 slides)

Informed Consent Theory. This presentation covers the analytical components of informed consent, termed “the elements of consent”, including: autonomy, disclosure, voluntariness, competence, and intentionality.  Next, the idea of undue influences on research participants is explored, such as persuasion, coercion, and manipulation, especially related to vulnerable populations (exploitation) (34 slides).  (The dissemination of this presentation must be approved by Oxford University as well as NEEP).

 Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Human Subjects Protections. These slides summarize key aspects of Institutional Review Board requirements for students/researchers. The Belmont Report is the guiding document on ethical research and human subjects protections, including the concepts of beneficence, respect for persons, justice, and informed consent. Next, we discuss the definition of “research” according to the IRB, the process of IRB review, and considerations related to student research (29 slides).

IRB Challenges in Community-Based Participatory Research on Humans Exposure to Environmental Toxicants.   Adequately protecting human subjects in research goes deeper and broader than the formal IRB processes for protection. These slides discuss the variety of ethical issues related to human subjects research, including informed consent, community right-to-know and report-back of study results to research participants, and the use of community advisory boards. Several case studies are examined, specifically focusing on biomonitoring and household exposure studies and environmental justice issues.  The role of IRBs, including related challenges, is also discussed (Slides 51).

Power and Privilege Issues with Culturally-Diverse Communities in Research: New Challenges of Partnership and Collaborative Research. This presentation explores the importance of developing truly participatory research designs and having a high level of cultural knowledge and sensitivity.  This is in contrast to bringing in preconceived notions, one-sided planning, or ascribing to outside expert solutions that do not fit or benefit the community (9 slides).

Privacy and Confidentiality: Issues in Research. This slide show is a presentation which emphasizes the importance of maintaining confidentiality in research and protecting research participants’ privacy and information. Privacy issues, both in the public health field and in qualitative research, are explored, as well as the various ways that confidentiality may be breached. Suggestions for preventing disclosure, like ‘data cleaning’ are drawn from current literature. A review of the risks to third parties’ privacy is also included (35 slides).

Research Ethics Protections for Place-Based Communities and Cultural Groups.These  slides provide information on both international guidelines and applied ethics articles for enhancing group protections in research, for place-based communities and cultural groups. A review of case studies from community-based participatory research (CBPR) with innovative research designs/methods and dissemination practices to enhance intercultural engagement and cultural sensitivity are also provided (75 slides).

NEEP Partnership Ethics: This slide show reviews the elements of partnership for community-based studies. Community-based theory, elements of partnership, mutual obligations in partnership and evaluation are discussed. Case study examples  of a partnership in environmental justice and breast cancer risks from Richmond, CA and Cape Cod, MA are highlighted (47 slides).

Research Integrity: Problems of Scientific Misconduct.  These slides explore the concepts of scientific misconduct which can jeopardize the integrity of research, including conflict of interest, plagarism, results suppression, falsification/fabrication, avoiding controversial research, unethical behavior, research harassment, and questionable research practices. Environmental case studies and examples of each are presented. The ideas of co-authorship, research misconduct among graduate students, and consequences of misconduct are also explored (51 slides).

Working with the Community as Unit of Identity

These slides review the definition and characteristics of what makes a community and who community representatives may be in various contexts. It also discusses the idea of community capacity, and how to both build and evaluate it (15 slides).

Informed Consent with Cultural Considerations: A review of the literature on informed consent with tribal, diverse cultural groups and community-based groups; adressing issues of balancing individual consent with group consent, culturally-appropriateness with patriarchal consent, tribal review board consent and community parntership consent.

Environmental Justice. The history of the environmental justice movement and the events that promoted a nationwide response to environmental racism with low-income people of color communities are reviewed. A set of environmental justice frames for understanding and solving problems of environmental justice are provided; such as civil rights, procedural justice, capitalistic production/political economy, community-based activities and the need for antiracist and postmodern ethical approaches.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Environmental Justice. This slide show provides definitions, relevant aspects and practices of TEK, especially with environmental justice communities.

Native American Human Rights History. In an effort to provide a history of cultural/ racial groups and Native nations and their human rights struggles in United States, a short history of the harms suffered by Native American nations by white settlers and United States government is provided, tracing their original status as sovereign nations in United States to their current status as federally-recognized tribes under the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Black-American Human Rights History: A short history of Black American human rights history from the Civil War to the present is reviewed. The years of “separate but equal”  to the 1960s Civil Rights Act recount the struggles for equality of opportunity for employment, voting, education and housing, The contributions of Black leaders to American concepts of equality and universal human rights are also discussed. 

Ethical Theories as Guidance to Research/Intervention Approaches in Environmental Studies

These slide presentations were developed from two Brown University grant projects: Ethical Awareness in International Collaborations and the Northeast Ethics Education Partnership

Communitarian Ethics. In these slides, we introduce communitarian ethics, forms of community-based moral decision-making. We review the tensions between (liberal) individualism and communitarianism;  including the criticisms of liberalism, a discussion of communitarian ethics and claims,  and the critiques of communitarianism.  Communitarianism recognizes the need to agree on group values and consensus decision-making as part of the effort to maintain social order while ensuring that these group forces do not suppress all autonomous expressions (17 slides).

Deontology and Distributive Justice. Deontology is concerned with choices that are morally required, forbidden, or permitted. In these slides, we review the various concepts that fall under deotonological ethical theory, such as obedience to duty, opposing utilitarianism, and the good vs. the right. Kantian ethics are also explored, as well as J. Rawl’s Theory of Justice (32 slides).

The Ethics of Care. In this presentation, the ethics of care is reviewed, reflecting on the work of Carol Gilligan’s “A Different Voice” from feminist ethics. The relationship between ethics of care and normative ethics is explored: the morality based on universal and common principals of morality vs. relational ethics; such as understanding, empathy, emotion, co-feeling, and moral autonomy (24 slides).

Liberal Individualism: Ethical Philosophies of John Locke, JS Mill, Immanuel Kant, and Civil Rights. This theory-based presentation covers concepts such as classical liberalism; John Locke’s ideology on personal property rights; JS Mill’s individual liberty; and Kant’s notions of autonomy, free will, good will, moral reason, moral duty, and the categorical vs. hypothetical imperative. In the last section, the achievement of the African-Americans equal rights amendment is included  (48 slides).

Postmodern Ethics: Approaches to New Moral Forms and Practices. These slides introduce postmodern ethics and their relevance to current research with theories that discuss emergent ethics, working with cultural difference and allowing for a multiplicity of voices and forms in a research practice. Levinas’s “Ethics of the Other” offers a new moral approach to research with diverse groups (14 slides).

Utilitarianism and Consequentialism. This theory-based presentation covers the basics of classical utilitarianism, as well as related concepts and variations such as Bentham and Mill’s utilitarianism. Utility as pleasure and pain, justice, rationalism, public utility, and utility as a social end are discussed. The second half of the presentation explores consequentialism and the various types of consequential approaches, including welfare, indirect, direct, global, motive, and scalar consequentialism (51 slides).

Virtue Ethics: Aristotle, Aquinas, Hildegard of Bingen, MacIntyre. This slide show provides an overview of “virtue ethics” from the lens of Aristotle and other philosophers listed in the title of this presentation. The ideas of excellence, right reason, intellectual and moral virtues, virtues as allegory, discernment, compassion, and self-awareness are discussed (27 slides).

Research Ethics and Environmental Health

Grant papers, course syllabi and training resources.

Grant Research Papers:

Ethical Reviews of “Research Ethics and Diverse Communities”

Understanding Complexities of “Community” for Community Research Ethics

Ethical Issues in Environmental Health Research

Ethics and Cross-Cultural Knowledge and Values

  • “Environment / ritual / research ethics: Crisscrossing issues in anthropology and religious studies”, Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University (2002)
  • “Ethical Issues in Medical anthropology: different knowledge, same bodies”, Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University (2003)
  • “Traditional Ecological Knowledge/Indigenous Science and Communal Research Ethics”, Slide Presentation”, Dianne Quigley, Syracuse University (2005)

Discourse: Forms and Uses. These slides introduce the topic of discourse: a word used to describe communication including the use of spoken, written, signed language, visual and oral media.  Discourse is usually linked to issues of defining power and political conditions in nation-states; particularly postmodern or postcolonial claims of oppressed groups.  The idea of overcoming power imbalances in discourse practices is explored, as well as alternative discourse needs and forms (13 slides).

CONFERENCE REPORT, 2003

Dialogues for Improving Research Ethics in Environmental and Public Health” – Conference Report 2003″, Dianne Quigley, (2004)

MARINE SCIENCE ETHICS – POWERPOINT TRAINING MATERIALS

NEEP also developed Marine Science Ethics PowerPoint Training Materials for Public Dissemination:

Marine Science Ethics and Policy PowerPoint Training Presentation Descriptions. Please do take advantage of this NEEP free download of training slides.

If you are interested in downloading an electronic copy of one the presentations below, please open link, if not yet there, please email d.quigley@northeastern.edu.

Aquaculture and Its Effect on the Community and the Environment
This presentation reviews both the benefits and risks of various aquaculture projects – presents various ethical perspectives on aquaculture and offers an eco-centric perspective to the aquaculture industry.

Blue Crab Disaster in the Chesapeake Bay
This presentation summarizes the commercial fishery failure for soft and peeler blue crab fisheries in Chesapeake Bay in 2008. This slide show provides details on how the disaster was addressed, and recapped the ethical issues involved with the disaster.

Coral Reefs
This presentation defines a coral reef, outlines its major ecosystem services, informs us of current threats to coral reefs and how important they are to the sea. Lastly, it describes restoration projects underway to help coral reefs.

Effects of Military Sonar on Cetaceans
This presentation reviews the impacts of using military sonar at sea that may damage the hearing and tissues of whales. The pros and cons of this practice are outlined with various ethical considerations for reducing harm to whales.

Effects of Pollution on Marine Organisms
In this presentation, types of pollution that are affecting specific marine mammals and species are detailed. High levels of plastics in the ocean are discussed, along with potential solutions to this problem. Ethical theories and considerations are outlined.

The Effect of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reefs
This presentation describes the process of ocean acidification and how it leads to coral bleaching, and the effects of that bleaching on the habitat. It then outlines the ethical values relevant to the protection of coral reefs.

Environmental Ethics on the Exploitation and Recovery of the Atlantic Spiny Dogfish (Squalus acanthias)
This presentation introduces the Atlantic Spiny Dogfish, explains how and why it became overfished, and describes the management plan which led to progress on protecting this species today. It then posits the conservation ethics and environmental ethics involved in the management of the population, including a case study in the Foerdefjorden in Norway.

Ethical Issues in Modeling
This presentation introduces the definition of a model, including the different parts of a model, and different types of models. It then describes the ethical implications that are involved in the building and using of models in marine sciences.

The Ethics of Rescuing Stranded Seals
This presentation explains why some seals get stranded, or why some people may think that seals are stranded when they are not. It then debates the pros and cons of saving stranded seals, including current federal guidelines and a proposed decision tree for future guidelines.

European Green Crab
This presentation describes the European Green Crab and its effects on populations of juvenile lobsters, Eel grass beds, and soft-shell clams. It then leads a discussion of the ethics of invasive species from several viewpoints.

Eutrophication in the Gulf of Mexico
This presentation provides a discussion of the dramatic effects of eutrophication, the depletion of oxygen, in parts of the Gulf of Mexico, and the creation of dead zones in the ocean. The causes and impacts of eutrophication are outlined, the ethical concerns of this problem and possible restoration strategies are reviewed.

Eutrophication of the Salt Marshes of New England
This is short presentation on the current impacts of eutrophication in some salt marshes of New England. Ethical challenges of working with this problem are outlined as well as potential solutions to this eutrophication.

Fishing Governance
This presentation outlines important marine legislation, such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MFCMA), and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), among many others. It looks more closely into several case studies, including whaling in Japan, the drift net ban in Italy, and the tuna-dolphin dispute.

Forage Fisheries
The document outlines the background of forage fisheries, an overview of the problems caused by them, and the ethical perspectives associated with these fisheries. It also outlines the alternatives to fishmeal and fish oil to reduce harms on foraged fish.

Ethical Treatment of Horseshoe Crabs for Biomedical Use
This is second presentation of the problems surrounding using horseshoe crabs for biomedicine – produced by a bioengineering student. It describes the chemical process of this procedure and later offers potential solutions to reduce harms to horseshoe crabs.

Grey Seals: A Marine Mammal Conservation Success
This presentation reviews the biology and distribution of grey seals in the North Atlantic; the history of grey seal hunting and then the efforts to conserve these seal populations. It details this successful recovery program but also discusses current efforts for sea culling due to their overfishing. Ethical alternatives are presented to avoid detrimental seal culling efforts.

Harvesting of the Atlantic Horseshoe Crab, Limulus Polyphemus
This presentation reviews the ethical issues surrounding harvesting the horseshoe crab for medicinal purposes. The costs and benefits of this practice are outlined along with the difficult ethical issues of long-term harm to the horseshoe crab populations.

Impacts of Rising Seal Populations in New England
This presentation describes the different perspectives on the changing numbers of seal populations, such as those of fishermen, local property owners, and rehabilitation facilities. It also outlines the research that’s been conducted on the issue, how it intersects with legislation such as the MMPA, and debates what can be done to solve the problem.

Importance of Protecting and Conserving Coastal Habitats
This PowerPoint presentation covers the ecosystem importance of mangroves, seagrasses and corals in order to support their conservation. It discusses the conflicts between human uses and their intrinsic value and reviews threats from eutrophication stresses with potential solutions to alleviate this harm.

Large Whale Entanglement
This presentation states the statistics, causes, effects of entanglement on large whales, and proposed solutions. It also delves into the ethical considerations, including traditional ethical theories and environmental ethics.

Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA)
This presentation details the implementation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, including why it was needed, the species it protects, recent amendments, and its enforcement. It also defines many key terms that are specific to this act.

Marine Mammal Tagging
This presentation describes the uses of tagging and comparing different kinds of tagging: active vs. passive, radio vs. satellite vs. implantable vs. digital acoustic recording. It also discusses the ethics involved with tagging.

Marine Pollution Prevention Act of 2008
This presentation describes the implementation of Annexes I, II, V, and VI of MARPOL, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships. Besides offering case studies of when these annexes were applied to certain geographical regions, it goes over recent amendments to the annexes and to the act in general.

National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA)
This presentation describes all 13 national marine sanctuaries, as well as a nationally protected area and monument in northwestern Hawaii. It also describes some case studies of special programs sponsored by individual sanctuaries.

Reacting to Climate Change in the Northeast United States
This presentation discusses the efforts by Union of Concerned Scientists and 50 other independent experts to assess the effects on key climate-sensitive areas. Notes are provided on potential impacts to lobster and cod in the NE Atlantic.

Sea Turtle Bycatch
This presentation focuses on the problem of depletion of sea turtles due to bycatch in commercial fisheries. TED nets as a solution to bycatch is discussed along with several other technological alternatives. Ethical issues involved are described.

Sea Turtle Conservation
In this presentation, types of sea turtle species are detailed, their conservation status and life histories. The dangers faced by sea turtles are described along with ethical considerations for protecting sea turtles.

Sea Turtle Endangerment and Associated Ethical Issues
This presentation gives a general background on sea turtles, their habitats, and the threats they face from anthropogenic activities. It then proposes preservation and conservation and management policies, and describes the ethical considerations involved with such policies.

Shark Finning
This presentation describes the history of shark finning, including which species are affected, how they are affected, and how the fins are used. It then details legislation banning shark finning in the US, the foreign response to the ban, and an outline of the ethics involved in shark finning.

Sunscreen is Killing Our Coral
This presentation informs us of the dangers of benzophenomes in sunscreen lotions. Drops of this chemical will cause coral bleaching and adversely harm coral reefs. The ethical benefits/risks of this sunscreen and the coral reefs are discussed.

CIREE COURSE SYLLABI

CIREE Course Syllabi

  • Ethics, Culture, & Community-Based Research in Environmental Science, Engineering, and Related Fields, by Dianne Quigley, David Sonnenfeld ( Summer 2013) (Summer 2014). A three day-long summer workshop at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry where students will review human subject protections, IRB requirements, informed consent, cultural competence/humility, community-based participatory research, and other critical components of research ethics.
  • Ethics for Engineers, UMASS-Dartmouth : Spring 2014 Ethics for Engineers is a new one credit course that provides ethics training to graduate students through an orientation to the topics in engineering ethics in order to prepare students  to become familiar with discussions and methods for developing ethical approaches to engineering research and applied projects. Contemporary issues in engineering ethics will be presented through mostly on-line training resources but also several in-class discussions to hear lectures from several experts’ experiences with ethical challenges in engineering. These issues include research integrity, professional ethics, human subjects protections, animal protections, intellectual property rights/ software patent issues and engineering ethics and sustainability.
  • Marine Science and Ethics, UMASS Dartmouth: Online Marine science researchers grapple with common ethical problems and dilemmas that challenge all academic sciences: professional research integrity – the potential for data fabrication/ falsification, conflicts of interest, human subjects violations, working with scientific uncertainty and values conflicts in marine conservation and fishing regulations. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has made “Ethics Education” a priority for student researchers in these sciences. Science and engineering are global endeavors, introducing cultural differences, social and environmental contextual complexities, and professional pressures for funding and publication. The NSF Ethics Education in Science and Engineering (EESE) has funded this collaborative course,  developed with The School of Marine Science and Technology and the Department of Bioengineering of the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and the Northeast Ethics Education Partnership (NEEP) at Brown University’s Center for Environmental Studies.Students will gain ethics training in these topical areas: research integrity, human subjects protections, ethical challenges in marine science modelling and fishing governance, ethics of marine conservation and regulations, environmental ethics/sustainability in marine sciences, and data management/ intellectual property rights.
  • Marine Science Policy and Ethics: a new syllabus that incorporates environmental policies with Marine Science ethical training is also included here.
  • Ethics, Culture, & Community-Based Environmental Research NEEP.2013.SummerWkshp.Agenda, by Dianne Quigley and David Sonnenfeld, Spring 2013. Training on research ethics combined with cultural diversity will prepare students with new research approaches/methods that are appropriate to field studies, community-based partnerships and research with cultural groups. Students will learn about required human subjects protections, ethical theories, cultural competence theory, and review environmental case studies for community-based, culturally-appropriate approaches.
  • Research Ethics in Environmental Research, now Ethics, Culture and Community-based Research, by Dianne Quigley and David Sonnenfeld, Winter/Spring 2011, 2013, 2014. In this course, students learn about required human subjects protections, ethical theories, cultural competence theory, and review environmental case studies for community-based, culturally-appropriate approaches. 
  • Summer Graduate Workshop on Research Ethics and Cultural Competence in Environmental Science, Engineering, and Related Fields, by Dianne Quigley, Summer 2011.
  • Environmental Justice: The Science and Political Economy of Environmental Health and Justice, by Dianne Quigley, Spring 2011. In this course, students will learn about the disproportionate burdens of environmental contamination and about the health disparities affecting communities of color across the US and internationally. Since the early 1990’s, an environmental justice movement in the US, led by many racially-diverse leaders, has achieved much progress in advocating for just forms of health research, improved environmental/health policies, and worker protections to remedy these harms of racial/cultural injustice. In this course, we will review environmental health/justice theories and perspectives as they bear on case studies of Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Latin American indigenous groups and Asian-Americans and how they have organized to improve health and justice in their rural/urban neighborhoods, reservations and cities. We will review programs that have been organized to address childhood asthma reduction, lead poisoning prevention, waste recycling, clean-up and restoration of contaminated sites, sustainable/organic agriculture, clean energy programs and cancer and health disparities research. Students will be asked to critically examine these efforts and also explore unresolved, chronic problems with environmental injustices and health impacts. 
  •  Working with Communities: Cultural Competence and Ethics, by Dianne Quigley, Fall 2010. New ethical research practices with community populations stress partnership and participatory models with community members. Working in partnership and sharing control over the research process can lead to significant new challenges in the scientific practice of community/environmental health interventions and environmental research. This course will explore how bio-medical research protections for individuals can be extended to groups and communities by reviewing case studies in community-based, participatory research and ethical theories of principle ethics, virtue ethics, communitarian, deontology, ethics of care and post-modern ethics. A review of informed consent theory and international case studies on informed consent with communities will provide training to students on how these research ethics challenges are being addressed. We will review public health, environmental studies research approaches/designs that can engage culturally-diverse communities with culturally-appropriate methods.

Acknowledgements
These PowerPoint Training Slide Shows were put together with funding from National Science Foundation’s grant program in Ethics Education and Science and Engineering (EESE) to provide ethics training to graduate students in marine science/engineering through a grant to the Northeast Ethics Education Partnership (NEEP), at Brown University . Training slide shows were produced by mostly graduate and some undergraduate students at both SMAST, UMASS-Dartmouth, New Bedford, MA, and Northeastern University graduate/undergraduate students; all who were enrolled in Marine Science Ethics and Policy courses, sponsored by NEEP at both universities. Victoria Quennessen, Research Assistant at SMAST – UMASS-Dartmouth, worked with the Principal Investigator of NEEP, Prof. Dianne Quigley, to organize and compile these presentations as well as authoring various slide shows. NEEP is very grateful to all students whose presentations allow us to provide this ethics training on marine science issues to the public. We are grateful to the faculty at UMASS-Dartmouth and Northeastern University who allowed us to teach these courses and promote this valuable training.