Co-developing approaches that respect and value lived-experience
A powerful element of participatory research is that participants and co-researchers often draw on their lived-experience as part of the co-creation of data.
Participants may share information they have not previously shared before with anyone and their contributions must be handled with respect at all times. Sensitive and respectful methods should be developed and co-designed to ensure that the research foci can be explored in a safe and meaningful way (Lenette, 2022). A helpful reflection of this is articulated in Ozkul (2020):
“Despite the pressure from funders to find out innovative methods – participatory researchers would benefit from understanding participants’ own ways of conceptualising and investigating a phenomenon, in order to build their methodology...There seems to be a grave error, therefore, if researchers prioritise or select specific methods for participants. If one wishes to find out about a phenomenon that the participants themselves are interested in understanding, in the first place, one must employ techniques that the participants themselves would use.” (Ozkul, 2020, p.229 - p.232).
Key Insights
Key Literature
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Cite as: Scott-Barrett*, J., Marshall-Brown*, A., Livingstone-Banks, M., Chrisinger, B., Scher, B., Hickman, M. (2023) Participatory Research: Researcher Insights. University of Oxford *(joint first authorship)