Q: Carole wonders, “Are you familiar with equalizing relationships between researcher and those researched?”

A: Hi Carole,

I am familiar with equalizing relationships between the researcher and those researched. I’m trained as a Community Psychologist and practice the tenants of Action Research. I think ethnographic research is one of the few research approaches that is truly a collaboration between the researcher and the research participants. Because ethnographers take an inductive approach to understanding, they depend heavily on their participants for guidance and direction. Good ethnographers assume they don’t know very much about “what is going on” and ask their participants to take an active role in guiding their understanding. The ethnographer enters into a collaborative process with the participant of gathering data, developing theory and checking that theory with more data. At the same time, participants are learning. Often when I’m finished doing fieldwork, participants tell me how much they have learned about themselves (or another household member) and how much they enjoyed the process.

Melinda