The research process:
Realizing the vision
CHAPTER 2
Action research for programming and advocacy requires more than
simply making adjustments to the data-collection process. It
demands a return to the basic premises and debates of social science
research, to the way human beings are conceptualised, to the
implications of this for the methods used, and above all to
consideration of human rights as a key element in action-research
projects. International welfare organizations are increasingly turning
to participatory approaches in both programming and research,
seeking the participation of people who are most involved, both in the
definition of problems and in the solutions designed to improve the
situation. Participatory research is an integral component of this
rights-based strategy.
Participatory research
One obstacle to the success of a participatory research approach is
the common misconception that there is an unmistakable distinction
between the ‘qualitative methods’, with which it is associated, and
‘quantitative methods’ that are believed to be more ‘scientific’ and
superior. This fallacy is as common among academic social scientists
as it is among policymakers and programme workers; it acts as a
barrier to collecting and analysing data that are adequate for policy
making. But this need not be the case. Indeed, there are no
essentially participatory methods, nor are the data necessarily
unscientific or unquantifiable. Science is characterized by
methodology rather than by numbers (Beazley and Ennew, 2006;
Ennew and Plateau, 2004).
A key conceptual obstacle is that, when translated into research,
participation tends to become a series of techniques that encourage
people to express their experiences and views, but rarely produce
data adequate for analysis, or that form a reliable basis for policy and
programmes. It can be argued that, in its usual manifestations,
participatory research consists of techniques for data collection,
rather than research, because the latter should include proper
procedures for data collection and analysis. A human-rights
framework provides a way in which scientific research with children
can be developed on the basis of novel, and highly-useful,
participatory techniques.
Scientific principles in participatory research
The tyranny of participation has what might be called a negative link
with the tyranny of the quantitative, because participatory research is
almost always associated with descriptive rather than numerical data
(Beazley and Ennew, 2006). This is related to the unsystematic
approach often taken to both data collection and analysis in
participatory research approaches. Reports based on participatory
research may over-emphasise the authenticity of ‘peoples’ voices’
and tend to rely on descriptions, case studies and extended
quotations from research participants. Interesting and enlightening
as these may be, the research cannot be compared over time or
between different places, and programmes based on the results are
bound to be based on impressions rather than on scientific analysis
Participatory research that can claim to be scientific entails
researchers designing a research protocol, or instruction manual, for
every researcher to use at all times. Such a protocol details the
background to the research, research questions, ethical strategy and
research tools and enables researchers to collect data that can be
compared between different places, groups and times. If a research
protocol is properly used, it can be replicated to monitor both
ongoing situations and the effects of interventions.
Research tools typically contain exact details of the research methods
used, and how to use them:
• Aim of the particular tool;
• Method(s) used, for example, children’s drawings, followed by
focus group discussion;
• Sample of participants for each data-collection session;
• How many researchers are required for each data-collection
session (and any specific characteristics, such as gender);
• Instructions for seeking informed consent from this particular
sample of research participants, for this particular research tool;
• List of equipment required: for example number of informed
consent forms, number and size of pieces of paper for drawings,
number and type of pencils/crayons, question sheet for focus
group discussion, recording equipment – such as a tape recorder
if this is to be used, including the number of cassette tapes and
batteries;
• Exact instructions for researchers, including precise words to be
used if this is important for comparison;
• A copy of any pre-designed equipment for this particular research
tool (such as recording sheets, charts or visual stimulus).
A key tool is the standard observation sheet (CD-ROM), a copy of
which is completed by researchers after every data collection session
and attached to the data collected. All data are numbered and,
through the standard observation sheets, can be traced back in time
and space, according to the sample, the tool used and the
researchers who collected the data. This makes it possible to convert
apparently ‘soft’ or descriptive data into ‘hard’ numbers, using
various forms of counting – including sophisticated statistical
packages (Ennew and Plateau, 2004).
Methods used in participatory research
How human beings are viewed – either as objects in or subjects of
their lives – determines the overall research approach, or
methodology, which, in its turn, determines the techniques or
methods used in the research process. This is not always understood
in the applied-research processes associated with development, but
it is a key idea, not least because development workers are now
grappling with increasing demands to be ‘rights-based’ in their work
– which includes being rights-based in their research (Theis, 2004,
for example).
This means that, despite frequent references to ‘participatory
methods’ in the literature, there are only participatory approaches.
Collecting children’s drawings is not participatory unless the children
know why the information is being collected, understand the
methods, have given their consent and have the opportunity to
explain their drawings to researchers who record the information
adequately. Questionnaires can be participatory, provided that
children design them, use them to collect data and analyse the
results (Beazley and Ennew, 2006; Ennew and Plateau, 2004).
Direct questions, whether in the form of questionnaires or interviews,
should not be asked at the beginning of research, when researchers
do not know what questions to ask or what words to use in a
largely-unexplored field such as corporal punishment. First it is
necessary to discover, using indirect methods:
• What people think about the research topic;
• Whether or not they see it as a problem;
• What words they use to talk about it;
• How they ask questions.
This is true for all research with adults or children, but particularly so
of research on sensitive subjects such as violence. If researchers
begin by asking questions they have drafted before finding out how
people talk about the research topic, it is almost certain that their own
ideas will be confirmed and that they will not find out much about the
actual situation and what it means to research participants. By using
participatory and ‘indigenous’ (culturally-relevant) techniques,
researchers in the Philippines found that what adults see as discipline
can be perceived as ‘abuse’ by children (De la Cruz et al, 2001).
It is particularly important to design several research tools for any
protocol, using more than one method, so that data can be
cross-checked between methods and samples, and the research has
a better chance of obtaining valid results. Research results are not
validated by feedback to the respondents but rather by crosschecking
between different research methods and participant
groups, a process known as ‘triangulation‘. The tools should avoid
the familiar questionnaire format, be designed to be open-ended
and elicit ethnographically-rich data about respondents‘ own
experiences. Nevertheless, if they are designed to be administered in
a systematic way by all teams, they can also produce data suitable for
numerical analysis.