'Earning the Right': Conducting Community Based Research

In this article, we examine the process of conducting community-based research within graduate coursework, discussing and analyzing student reflective narratives on various aspects of the research process as a way of providing insight into the challenges, dilemmas, and joys entailed in conducting community-based qualitative research. In particular, we focus on the process of gaining entry into a research site; negotiating one's role as a researcher, and how researchers can be observant participants rather than just participant observers; and building reciprocal and collaborative relationships with participants. We also explore how our experiences in the community helped us challenge pejorative stereotypes about low-income communities and communities of color and lead to expanded views of the role of researchers within community contexts, as well as more nuanced and critical notions of researcher reflexivity that consider how researchers themselves are implicated in the issues and contexts that they study. We articulate the notion of dialogic reflexivity, which calls attention to how reflexivity involves on-going and collective refection and discussion with research team members and community members.