Case Study

Empowerment, identity and participatory research: Using social action research to challenge isolation for deaf and hard of hearing people from minority ethnic communities

What was the research question(s)? Was the research designed in an effort to resolve specific problems? What were they?

The research aims at answering the following questions:

What are the complexities that researchers are confronted with while understanding the needs of the people within their communities?

What are the most important aspects to an Ethical Code?

What is the significance of analysis of issues of identity for an understanding of the experience of an individual and their communities?

What was the researcher's role in the study? Did the researchers take a collaborative approach to conducting the research?

The researcher played a participatory role. Participatory research has three key elements: people, power and practice. It is centered on people to the extent that it is they who provide information during the process of critical inquiry and responds to the experiences and needs of the people involved. Participatory research has to do with power. Power is crucial to the construction of reality, language, meanings and rituals of truth, the power works in all knowledge and every definition. Power is knowledge and knowledge creates truth and therefore power. Participatory research also has to do with practice. It recognizes the inseparability of theory and practice and critical awareness of the dialectic between the personal and political.

The researcher adopted the collaborative approach. Since the participatory research approach makes learning a central part of the participatory research process. Research is not done just to generate facts, but to develop understanding of self and context. It's about understanding how to learn, which enables people to become self-sufficient learners and evaluate the knowledge that others generate. A good participatory research helps develop relationships of solidarity calling for people to research, study, learn and then act. There is no set formula, a step by step method or a 'correct' way to do participatory research. Rather, the participatory approach is best described as a set of principles and a process of engagement in research.

In your opinion, what were the ethical considerations? Explain

Addressing the ethical dimension of the evaluation of CPP involves taking into account multiple perspectives, not just the attitudes of researchers towards participants. As for researchers, lead such an investigation inevitably underlies a lot of personal commitment, since they must spend considerable time in community meetings, negotiation skills in a context where the political dimension may be pregnant, manifest a sense of fairness in order to establish and maintain good relations with participants, etc. We talked in this respect an "ethics of involvement", characteristic of the approach of researchers engaged in this kind of research. This involvement also includes as a personal involvement, human relationships.

In terms of communities, the CPP are nothing trivial. Opportunities for participants to enter into social interactions more or less sustainable with outside speakers, such research can move social equilibrium established, immediately introduces disturbances that can have lasting repercussions, especially if done with researchers who are not members of ...