Gaining access to research participants for data collection in doctoral studies: evidence from a rural area of Bangladesh

Abstract

This chapter is a part of the first author’s PhD works’ data collection experience in the rural community in Bangladesh as titled Community Empowerment Initiatives of Faith-based NGOs: A Case Study on Islamic Relief Worldwide in Bangladesh where data were collected using convergent parallel mixed-methods research design. The paper neither shares the plethoric field data nor any conceptual jargon about the Ph.D. Work. Rather, it focuses on field experiences during data collection that aims to investigate the nature of the contribution of the Islamic Relief Worldwide (IR), a faith-inspired international NGO to community empowerment from a village of Bangladesh. The chapter discusses some challenges about the accessibility into the community for data collection. Issues cover such as blocking community threat, understanding of local culture, clarifying study objectives, conducting uninterrupted surveys, interviews. Besides, other concerns from the researcher’s perspective are maintaining the professional probity, commitment, and devotion to data collection. The chapter finds the adoptions of different social and institutional gatekeepers, community mapping, applying local contextual examples to clarify study objectives, and recalling positive memories as effective ways to deal with the nuances in the field and data collection. The findings could be useful for the researchers interested in researching the rural area, particularly in the poverty-driven or disadvantaged community