SPEaR Good Practice Guidelines 2008: Context
The New Zealand social policy research and evaluation environment provides a unique context for setting standards to provide a framework for quality practice. While researchers and evaluators often have disciplinary Codes of Ethics, and public servants have Codes of Conduct, there is no specific guidance available to help achieve consistent quality research and evaluation practice given institutional arrangements, legislation, cultural practices and social conditions.
The institutional setting includes constitutional factors such as recognising the Treaty of Waitangi as a founding document of Aotearoa/New Zealand and as such lays an important foundation for the relationship between the Crown and Maori. The legal setting includes recognising the provisions of legislation such as the Official Information Act 1982, the Public Finance Act 1989, the Human Rights Act 1993, the Privacy Act 1993, the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992, the Copyright Act 1994 and the Employment Relations Act 2000, along with international conventions and case law. The statutes can be viewed on the NZ Legislation site at: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/ Also see "Doing ethical research legally: research ethics and the law'' Mike O'Brien, in "Research Ethics in Aotearoa New Zealand" edited by Martin Tolich (Pearson Education New Zealand Limited 2001. ISBN 0 582 54273 1
Institutional arrangements see over $30 million worth of social research and evaluation occurring per annum. Resources primarily flow through the Votes of Health, Education, Social Development, Labour, Justice, and Research, Science & Technology (via the Health Research Council $2-4m, the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology $12-19m) and to a lesser degree from the full range of departments. A very small amount is available from philanthropic trusts and private donors. The Marsden Fund (administered through the Royal Society of New Zealand) adds about $1-2m per year at the 'blue-skies' end of the social research spectrum. The Families Commission operates competitive research funds for family relevant research. The Tertiary Education Commission's Performance Based Research Fund (via each University internal system) is a source of some funds for tertiary sector scientists.
The population of this country is small by international standards (4.25 million) and is ethnically and culturally diverse. The major population 'groupings' are usually labelled as European/Pakeha, Maori, Pacific Peoples or Asian. These labels disguise considerable diversity in relation to values, attitudes and practices. Country of origin, first language, gender, education, age, socio-economic status, sexual orientation and locale introduce further key variables which researchers navigate. There are research capacity/capability issues and a relatively homogeneous experienced research workforce.
Effective policy and practice often needs to be able to draw on research and evaluation that is grounded in the diverse realities experienced by the full range of the population or the range of realities within a particular set of groupings. This often means that researchers and evaluators are required to commission and/or gather information from groupings with protocols and values somewhat different from their own. With relatively small numbers in particular groupings, and a relatively small overall population, there is a high risk of 'research fatigue' among some sections of the population which can have an adverse impact on the quality of the date through low response rates. This is turn impacts on the quality of the decisions based on the data.
With a relatively small research and evaluation practice community, bad practice and/or 'corner cutting' tend to quickly become known. Capability building and learning from each other is critical for building our capacity to produce credible information that will be used. There are ways in which the pitfalls can be minimised for the unwary, and experience and learning can be shared. These guidelines attempt to gather some of these ways into a readily accessible, practical and relevant resource.
The Social Policy Evaluation and Research Committee (SPEaR) was established in 2001 with functions which include: promote the utilisation of "best practice" approaches, tools and techniques through development (where necessary) and/or dissemination.
Consulting, developing and refining the SPEaR Guidelines, along with ensuring the evolving drafts were accessible on the SPEaR website, goes some way towards meeting this function.
The principles and protocols developed by Statistics New Zealand and available through the Statisphere website provide guidelines for those considering using official statistics or collecting data through a statistical survey www.statisphere.govt.nz/default.htm
