{"id":5209,"date":"2025-06-19T23:48:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T23:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T03:18:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T03:18:28","slug":"improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This article was originally published as: <strong>Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Original Article Link: <a href='https:\/\/journals.dut.ac.za\/index.php\/ajims\/article\/view\/969' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Read Original Article<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Download PDF: <a href='https:\/\/journals.dut.ac.za\/index.php\/ajims\/article\/view\/969\/743' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Click Here to Download PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Abstract<\/h2>\n<p>There are many challenges faced by scholars when designing research that is ethically compliant. These include issues of consent, confidentiality, and how to give feedback to participants, for example. However less is known about how non-South African researchers, specifically Zimbabwean doctoral students, navigate ethical dilemmas when conducting their fieldwork whilst being registered in South African universities. This gap is especially concerning given the high number of Zimbabwean doctoral students in South Africa. This paper poses the following questions: (1) What are the challenges encountered by a Zimbabwean doctoral student doing fieldwork in Zimbabwe whilst being supervised in a South African university? (2) How can these challenges be mitigated? In answering these questions, the paper uses a collaborative autoethnographic approach to empirically ground its arguments. The paper argues that South Africa\u2019s higher education institutions have a duty to ensure research integrity of its students even if those students are conducting fieldwork outside South African borders. We observe that there is often a disconnect between formal ethical administrative processes and what actually happens on the ground. Potential solutions are to increase the autonomy and improvisation of students and supervisors in overseeing and doing research in these contexts.<\/p>\n<h2>Authors<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Farai  Maunganidze (University of KwaZulu-Natal)<\/li>\n<li>Shaun  Ruggunan (University of KwaZulu-Natal)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Keywords<\/h2>\n<p>Migration, ethics, higher education institutions, Zimbabwe<\/p>\n<h2>References<\/h2>\n<p>References not available for this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article was originally published as: Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[2153,1269,1606,2046,1260],"class_list":["post-5209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-ajims","tag-ethics","tag-higher-education-institutions","tag-migration","tag-zimbabwe","wpcat-124-id"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe - IJSSASS Repository<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe - IJSSASS Repository\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article was originally published as: Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IJSSASS Repository\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-19T23:48:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-20T03:18:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"195\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771\"},\"headline\":\"Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-19T23:48:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-20T03:18:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/\"},\"wordCount\":269,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"ajims\",\"ethics\",\"higher education institutions\",\"migration\",\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/\",\"name\":\"Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe - IJSSASS Repository\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-19T23:48:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-20T03:18:28+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\",\"name\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\",\"description\":\"Open Access Library\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"IJSSASS\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\",\"name\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\",\"alternateName\":\"IJSSASS\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":195,\"caption\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe - IJSSASS Repository","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe - IJSSASS Repository","og_description":"This article was originally published as: Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in...","og_url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/","og_site_name":"IJSSASS Repository","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass","article_published_time":"2025-06-19T23:48:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-20T03:18:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":195,"url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771"},"headline":"Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe","datePublished":"2025-06-19T23:48:54+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-20T03:18:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/"},"wordCount":269,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization"},"keywords":["ajims","ethics","higher education institutions","migration","Zimbabwe"],"articleSection":["Articles"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/","name":"Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe - IJSSASS Repository","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-06-19T23:48:54+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-20T03:18:28+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/improvising-ethics-a-collaborative-autoethnographic-account-of-the-challenges-faced-when-doing-fieldwork-in-zimbabwe\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Improvising Ethics? A Collaborative Autoethnographic Account of the Challenges Faced when doing Fieldwork in Zimbabwe"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/","name":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES","description":"Open Access Library","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization"},"alternateName":"IJSSASS","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization","name":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES","alternateName":"IJSSASS","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png","width":300,"height":195,"caption":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal"],"url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5260,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209\/revisions\/5260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}