Community-Based Research and American Indians with Disabilities: Learning Together Methods that Work.

Researchers working with the American Indian Rehabilitation Research and Training Center in Arizona have found that culture is important in social research, especially with indigenous people. Community-based participatory research is one approach that has yielded outcomes valuable to researchers and community members. However, ethical concerns must be kept in mind when conducting community-based research. Potentially negative impacts of the research process on indigenous communities must be considered. Researchers have to be aware of the problem of proselytizing Western-based individualism in their work. Researchers working without the input of key collaborators or community experts in Indian communities can be sure that their own cultural biases influence their framing of research questions, their choice of methods, their gathering and interpretation of data, their conclusions, and their recommendations. Researchers in the United States can learn from the experiences of the world's indigenous peoples as they work with governments to define researcher practices that consider culture as essential context in research. In its comprehensive guidelines for the conduct of ethical research in indigenous studies, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies cited four principles: 1) the need for adequate and appropriate consultation with local communities; 2) sufficient community involvement in and control over the entire research project; 3) demonstrated benefit and sustainable outcomes for the community; and 4) the use of culturally sensitive procedures and methods. (Contains 55 references.) (TD)