Engaging in research with Pacific communities as a non-Pacific researcher: reflecting on lessons learnt

Abstract

A key challenge for the cross-cultural researcher is how to maintain authenticity in the stories of participants, paying careful attention to any inherent power imbalances. In this article, we share our respective experiences of conducting research with Pacific students and their families in Aotearoa New Zealand as non-Pacific researchers. We discuss tensions we encountered regarding power and positionality, highlighting the importance of engaging with Pacific perspectives and methodologies to help counter these tensions. In our respective studies, we aimed to promote the voices of our participants and conduct research which prioritised Pacific values. We further appreciated that we must not let our own research agenda override the needs of our participants. We explain why we believe these ideas to be so important and draw tentative conclusions on ways to engage in research with Pacific families based on what we have learnt. The data presented from our respective studies highlight our approaches and present some of the challenges, as well as our efforts to engage in reciprocal, respectful relationships with our participants and their families. We hope that, in sharing our reflections, we may offer some useful insight to other researchers embarking on a similar journey to us.

Research ethics as practice

“…Furthermore, despite acknowledging the need to consider cultural differences, how we do this is still determined through a Western lens. From my reading of the literature and evaluation of this, I have identified four common ethical principles underpinning Indigenous research (e.g., Anae, 2019;Flavell & Cunningham, 2022;Massey University, n.d.;National Health and Medical Research Council, 2018;Sherwood & Anthony, 2020;University of Otago, 2011) which are presented in Table 3.…”

“…The significance of Whakapapa and Manaakitanga for most participants demonstrates their cultural awareness. This suggests that in meeting our responsibilities as researchers, we need to consider our cultural competencies, especially if we are researching into a different culture to that of our own (Anae, 2019;Flavell & Cunningham, 2022;. It has been argued that the universal ethics approach is construed through a Western ethical lens.…”

“…Hence, despite acknowledging the need to consider cultural differences, this is still determined through a Western lens. It is paramount that researchers acquaint themselves with the paradigms of other cultures, for example, the Pacifica concept of teu le vā (Anae, 2019;Flavell & Cunningham, 2022), the Māori ethical framework of Te Ara Tika , and Te Tiriti o Waitangi . Acknowledgement of the cross-cultural nature of ethics is an important aspect of institutional ethics.…”