3 Relational Accountability

In addition to social justice and applying research solutions to participants’ lives, research should actively benefit participants and meaningfully include the communities they belong to. Historically, social research has been conducted in isolation from its subject matter and has been patronizing toward vulnerable populations^[1]. To counteract this trend, we encourage you to design your research to benefit participants. For example, through  volunteering with youth, you might  decide to design and evaluate a program to help with their education. Participation Action Research (PAR) embodies helping participants to create solutions to their problems. The following video and examples provide more context about the ways PAR works and can support research.

Video 3.1 Participatory Action Research by Vera Institute of Justice

Combining Research and Respect

When thinking about your research topic, you must also think about how the processes and outcomes show respect and concern for your participants’ welfare. Practicing reciprocity, monitoring power dynamics, obtaining ongoing consent, permitting participants to tell their stories, and empowering them as allies in the research process are among the important guiding principles that convey respect. According to Hutchinson and colleagues (1994), when we embed these research principles into our engagement with participants, we create opportunities for healing. For example, qualitative interviews can be cathartic, validating participants’ feelings and experiences (self-acknowledgment), offering a sense of purpose, fostering self-awareness (gaining new perspectives through reflection); promoting healing (by providing an outlet for emotional expression) and amplifying voices of the disenfranchised ^[2]. [2]. This means that when considering issues you are already connected to or wish to connect with, you should also consider the interest, agency and proximity of the groups who may be willing to be a part of your study. This will be partly conditioned by your positionality.

Relational Accountability

Relational accountability refers to the ethical responsibility researchers have to the Indigenous people and communities their work involves and represents. Importantly, it emphasizes the idea that the relationship established by research must be approached with honesty, respect, and reciprocity ^[3]. “As a researcher,” Wilson (2001) asserts, “you are answering to all your relations,” implying that your research ought to: (1) know its relations and (2) gain knowledge “so as to fulfill [your] end of the relationship” (p. 177). With Wilson’s concept in mind, we suggest engaging in  relational accounting as you generate your research question – considering your relationship to the voices and variables that will form the datum of your argument – and making yourself accountable to the group that is granting you access to their knowledge and experiences. Not only will you better understand your research participants, but so will your purpose for gathering information about them.