Rethinking Participatory Research with Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

NAIS 1:2 FALL 2014 Rethinking Participatory Research with Indigenous Peoples 69 JANICE CINDY GAUDET Rethinking Participatory Research with Indigenous Peoples Introduction: Situating Research and Researcher in the Participatory Paradigm CONCEIVING CREATIVE WAYS to engage in participatory research in spite of contradictory norms, knowledge, and values is often a challenge for both community members and academic researchers (Colorado 1988). A relatively new approach in academia, participatory research is both a theoretical and a methodological inquiry that emerged with the rise of critical Indigenous space and scholarship, encouraged among authors by internationally recognized Māori scholars Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999; 2000) and Russel Bishop (1998; 2005). The emergence of participatory research within social and health sciences stems from the awareness that research initiatives are sustainable with the participation of the people themselves (McTaggart 1994; Minkler 2005; Smith 1999). In the last few decades, researchers have been encouraged to reexamine epistemological foundations as part of the methodological shift from an objective model of science to a humanistic approach (Colorado 1988). Colorado reminds us that “the ground rules that should guide new practices are not immediately evident” (98). Despite the uncertainties of new practices, there is an increasing push to improve collaborative research partnerships with Indigenous communities; the literature suggests an urgency to taking ownership and responsibility of our human actions and choosing to do research differently. As a result, the differing views of ethics, science, and human action have brought to the forefront what Leroy Little Bear refers to as “jagged worldviews colliding” (Castellano 2004, 103). “Aboriginal world views assume that human action, to achieve social good, must be located in an ethical spiritual context as well as its physical and social situation” (103). This speaks to a more holistic approach and resituates the hierarchical way of doing research. Some scholars argue for a participatory process that directly addresses the inevitable issues of power and control, thereby mutually recognizing the limitations of the methodology (Varcoe et al. 2011). In this essay, I seek to Janice Cindy Gaudet NAIS 1:2 FALL 2014 70 understand the ways in which participatory research either reinscribes or challenges dominant relations of power. This is a step toward what Māori education scholar Bishop describes as “participatory mode of consciousness ” (quoted in Denzin, Lincoln, Smith 2008, 14). “The participatory mode of knowing privileges sharing, subjectivity, personal knowledge, and the specialized knowledge of oppressed groups. It uses concrete experience as a criterion for meaning and truth” (Denzin, Lincoln, Smith 2008, 14). From this empirical understanding of “participatory,” I will integrate within the literature glimpses of the teachings that emerged from my incipient stages as an Indigenous researcher. The literature emerging over the past few decades offers ethical thought, guidelines, and experiences geared toward research practices that cease to reinforce imbalanced power relations (Castellano 2004; Denzin, Lincoln, Smith 2008; Smith 1999). To highlight its practical application, Castellano explains ethics in a manner that allows for the sought-after humanistic approach to research: “Ethics, as the rules of right behaviour, are intimately related to who you are, the deep values you subscribe to and your understanding of place in the spiritual order of reality” (103). In reflecting on this claim, an ethical relationship with the self at the center of our research practices can help to move away from subjugation and toward engagement with others involved in the research. Such a way of conceiving ethics serves to remind the researcher that relationship comes from an understanding of where we place ourselves in the “spiritual order of our reality” (Castellano 2004, 103). With that, the mode of participatory engagement is defined by one’s epistemological foundation and a theoretical framework that emerges from the meaning and thought behind what is true for the participants themselves (Denzin, Lincoln , Smith 2008). This way of positioning theory as congruent to methodology inspires a shift in researcher-and-researched power dynamics. Castellano’s terms of reference in relationship to ethical understanding helps me to learn and unlearn how I am meant to “do” and to “be” in research. Prior to the ambiguous idea of a relationship-building field trip to Moose Factory First Nations community, Maria Campbell, Métis elder, educator, and artist, strongly advised...