Community-based Research

Community-based and participatory research methods challenge many commonly held beliefs regarding the basic nature of research and the ethics that inform our research practices. Action research, the term commonly used to refer to a broad range of these more collaborative research approaches, “seeks to bring together action and reflection, theory and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern to people, and more generally the flourishing of individual persons and their communities” (Reason & Bradbury, 2001, p. 1). The core values of action research are founded in “a respect for people and for the knowledge and experience they bring to the research process, a belief in the ability of democratic processes to achieve positive social change, and a commitment to action” (Brydon-Miller, Greenwood, and Maguire, 2003, p. 15). These core values can be translated into a set of basic principles that inform the practice of action research throughout the research process. The table shown below provides a structure for guiding ethical reflection throughout the research process with the idea that researchers would use this to generate a set of critical questions at each stage challenging them to consider how their work reflects the key principles of Action Research. (For examples of how this process might operate go to http://www.arj-journal.blogspot.com and click on ethics.)