Policy Press
Seventeen Community researchers in an adolescent risk reduction intervention in Botswana: challenges and opportunities
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Discuss the importance and benefits of involving communities in research about their social concerns
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Demonstrate an indigenous community research approach that breaks power barriers and builds relationships between the researchers and the researched
Against the backdrop of disillusionment from communities in developing countries and the Indigenous communities of the world (that they are over-researched and tired of research always asking the same questions and reproducing the same answer, that their world views are ignored and/or dismissed and that the outcomes of such research fail to see the world from their perspectives) there is mounting pressure to involve communities in research about their social concerns. In this chapter we describe community research informed by postcolonial indigenous research paradigms. A postcolonial indigenous paradigm articulates a relational ontology that addresses relations among people and promotes love and harmony in communities (Wilson, 2008; Chilisa, 2012). Study participants make connections with each other while the researcher is viewed as part of the circle of relations. A postcolonial indigenous paradigm is informed by a relational epistemology that values communities as knowers, and knowledge as the well established general beliefs, concepts and theories of any particular people which are stored in their language, practices, rituals, proverbs, revered traditions, myths and folktales. The research process is informed by a relational ethical framework that moves away from conceiving the researched as participants to seeing them as co-researchers (Chilisa, 2012).
This chapter looks at the ways in which community research was utilised in the design and implementation of an adolescent risk reduction intervention.1 We describe the role of community advisory boards, adolescents and their parents (or guardians) as participant-researchers in the research process.
-
Discuss the importance and benefits of involving communities in research about their social concerns
-
Demonstrate an indigenous community research approach that breaks power barriers and builds relationships between the researchers and the researched
Against the backdrop of disillusionment from communities in developing countries and the Indigenous communities of the world (that they are over-researched and tired of research always asking the same questions and reproducing the same answer, that their world views are ignored and/or dismissed and that the outcomes of such research fail to see the world from their perspectives) there is mounting pressure to involve communities in research about their social concerns. In this chapter we describe community research informed by postcolonial indigenous research paradigms. A postcolonial indigenous paradigm articulates a relational ontology that addresses relations among people and promotes love and harmony in communities (Wilson, 2008; Chilisa, 2012). Study participants make connections with each other while the researcher is viewed as part of the circle of relations. A postcolonial indigenous paradigm is informed by a relational epistemology that values communities as knowers, and knowledge as the well established general beliefs, concepts and theories of any particular people which are stored in their language, practices, rituals, proverbs, revered traditions, myths and folktales. The research process is informed by a relational ethical framework that moves away from conceiving the researched as participants to seeing them as co-researchers (Chilisa, 2012).
This chapter looks at the ways in which community research was utilised in the design and implementation of an adolescent risk reduction intervention.1 We describe the role of community advisory boards, adolescents and their parents (or guardians) as participant-researchers in the research process.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xv
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Theoretical and methodological issues
- Community research: opportunities and challenges 3
- A critical communicative perspective on community research: reflections on experiences of working with Roma in Spain 21
- Authenticity and validity in community research: looking at age discrimination and urban social interactions in the UK 37
- Community research with Gypsies and Travellers in the UK: highlighting and negotiating compromises to reliability and validity 55
- Involving community researchers in refugee research in the UK 71
- Universities as agents in the empowerment of local communities in Germany, Finland and Russia 89
- Data analysis and community research: capturing reality on housing estates in Bradford, UK? 105
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Ethics, power and emotion
- Participation in community research: experiences of community researchers undertaking HIV research in South Africa 123
- Power and participation in community research: community profiling in Italy 139
- The pedagogy of community research: moving out of the ivory tower and into community organisations in Canada 155
- Engaging community researchers in evaluation: looking at the experiences of community partners in school-based projects in the US 169
- Are we recovery oriented? An Australian encounter of learning from people with lived experiences 185
- Ethics in community research: reflections from ethnographic research with First Nations people in the US 201
- Avoiding ‘best’ being the enemy of ‘good’: using peer interviewer methods for community research in place-based settings in Australia 215
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Managing the research process
- Mental health service users and carers as researchers: reflections on a qualitative study of citizens’ experiences of compulsory mental health laws in Northern Ireland 235
- Community organisation and community research: women’s struggle for food security in India 253
- Community researchers in an adolescent risk reduction intervention in Botswana: challenges and opportunities 269
- Recruitment and capacity-building challenges in participatory research involving young people in Northern Ireland 283
- Translating lives: cross-language community research with Polish migrants in the UK 299
- Mentoring refugee community researchers in the UK: an empowerment tool? 315
- Index 331
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- List of contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xv
-
Theoretical and methodological issues
- Community research: opportunities and challenges 3
- A critical communicative perspective on community research: reflections on experiences of working with Roma in Spain 21
- Authenticity and validity in community research: looking at age discrimination and urban social interactions in the UK 37
- Community research with Gypsies and Travellers in the UK: highlighting and negotiating compromises to reliability and validity 55
- Involving community researchers in refugee research in the UK 71
- Universities as agents in the empowerment of local communities in Germany, Finland and Russia 89
- Data analysis and community research: capturing reality on housing estates in Bradford, UK? 105
-
Ethics, power and emotion
- Participation in community research: experiences of community researchers undertaking HIV research in South Africa 123
- Power and participation in community research: community profiling in Italy 139
- The pedagogy of community research: moving out of the ivory tower and into community organisations in Canada 155
- Engaging community researchers in evaluation: looking at the experiences of community partners in school-based projects in the US 169
- Are we recovery oriented? An Australian encounter of learning from people with lived experiences 185
- Ethics in community research: reflections from ethnographic research with First Nations people in the US 201
- Avoiding ‘best’ being the enemy of ‘good’: using peer interviewer methods for community research in place-based settings in Australia 215
-
Managing the research process
- Mental health service users and carers as researchers: reflections on a qualitative study of citizens’ experiences of compulsory mental health laws in Northern Ireland 235
- Community organisation and community research: women’s struggle for food security in India 253
- Community researchers in an adolescent risk reduction intervention in Botswana: challenges and opportunities 269
- Recruitment and capacity-building challenges in participatory research involving young people in Northern Ireland 283
- Translating lives: cross-language community research with Polish migrants in the UK 299
- Mentoring refugee community researchers in the UK: an empowerment tool? 315
- Index 331
