Implementing participatory research with an urban American Indian community: Lessons learned

Abstract

Objective: Participatory research has proven an effective method for improving health equity among American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) by addressing power imbalances between communities and researchers, incorporating community knowledge and theory, ensuring mutual benefit and improving community capacity and programme sustainability. However, few studies have examined the implementation of these methods with urban Indian (UI) communities, a growing population currently comprising 71% of AI/ANs. This paper describes the experiences of two academic researchers (one a Native doctoral student and another a White assistant professor) who sought to engage in participatory research with an UI community in Maryland. Method: The methodology employed was a literature review of Indigenous participatory research methods that aimed to inform the work of a youth-led project, and a reflexive case-study analysis. Results: Researchers discuss the social, structural and political inequalities that challenged their ability to engage in this process and identify three lessons learned associated with conducting participatory research with this population: logistics and recruitment, identifying the constraints and/or competing priorities of the community, and the importance of reflexivity and communication throughout the process. In an epilogue, the researchers highlight and reflect upon how they have since applied these lessons to strengthen their relationship with the community, yielding new and mutually beneficial participatory research projects. Conclusion: The findings presented advance research on participatory methodologies with UI communities and call for increased economic and political support of and long-term commitment to UI organisations to address the structural inequalities underpinning existing health inequities.

What does it mean to conduct participatory research with Indigenous peoples? A lexical review

“…First, these connections speak of initiatives to intercede in, and/or affect wellbeing. This extends to the concept, experiences :We explained that the data collected at these initial encounters would then inform the semi-structured interviews intended to further explore the young people’s understandings and experiences of health in the hopes that this would lead to a youth-led project [67]. …”

Trainee-led research using an integrated knowledge translation or other research partnership approaches: a scoping review

“…As shown, many studies comprised more than one KTA phase. However, some papers ( n = 14) [ 40 , 45 , 46 , 50 , 51 , 54 , 70 , 74 , 80 , 101 , 104 , 105 , 108 , 109 ] did not fit into the KTA phases, as they were more reflective in nature.…”

“…Table 4 summarizes the key barrier themes identified from the included papers. Trainees’ lack of knowledge and skills posed challenges for IKT research [ 48 , 71 , 72 , 74 , 79 , 84 , 97 , 109 ]. IKT knowledge and skills were related to knowing how to apply an IKT approach and specific procedural techniques related to IKT research processes.…”

Health-Related Participatory Research in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities: A Scoping Review

“…Guidance on how studies that employ PR approaches should be conducted is widely available. Scholars have proposed general principles to guide the conduct of PR [5,111,112], organizations representing the interests of AIAN people have developed or collected guidelines and other resources for conducting PR in AIAN communities [113,114], and many of the articles reviewed in this study included practice recommendations based on “lessons learned” from prior research [17,115,116,117,118].…”

“…AIAN people had limited or no control over the objectives and conduct of research or the interpretation and public dissemination of results and research processes did not account for the socially- and culturally-embedded needs and expectations of particular communities [12,14]. By contrast with these research approaches, PR seeks to promote health equity and community empowerment and for this reason is often employed in research involving American Indian and/or Alaska Native (AIAN) communities and other minority populations and marginalized groups that experience social inequalities, political disempowerment, and health disparities [8,15,16,17].…”