文章基本信息

标题：Adapting Western Research Methods to Indigenous Ways of Knowing
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作者：Vanessa W. Simonds ; Suzanne Christopher
期刊名称：American journal of public health
印刷版ISSN：0090-0036
出版年度：2013
卷号：103
期号：12
页码：2185-2192
DOI：10.2105/AJPH.2012.301157
语种：English
出版社：American Public Health Association
摘要：Indigenous communities have long experienced exploitation by researchers and increasingly require participatory and decolonizing research processes. We present a case study of an intervention research project to exemplify a clash between Western research methodologies and Indigenous methodologies and how we attempted reconciliation. We then provide implications for future research based on lessons learned from Native American community partners who voiced concern over methods of Western deductive qualitative analysis. Decolonizing research requires constant reflective attention and action, and there is an absence of published guidance for this process. Continued exploration is needed for implementing Indigenous methods alone or in conjunction with appropriate Western methods when conducting research in Indigenous communities. Currently, examples of Indigenous methods and theories are not widely available in academic texts or published articles, and are often not perceived as valid. To change health inequities, researchers have recognized the need to build true partnerships with communities. 1 Indigenous communities and researchers have voiced a variety of concerns with “research as usual” and emphasized the value of true partnerships, including decolonizing research to instill a balance between Indigenous and Western frameworks and methods. 2–4 We use a case study of an intervention research project to exemplify a clash between Western research methodologies and Indigenous methodologies and how we attempted to reach reconciliation. We provide implications for future research based on the lessons we learned through this process. The authors of this article are a Native American junior researcher (V. W. S.) and a white researcher with more than 15 years of experience conducting research in Native American communities (S. C.). For this article, we use the term Indigenous knowledge to describe local, culturally specific knowledge unique to a certain population. Indigenous knowledge is often depicted as being alive, in current use, and transmitted orally. 5–7 Indigenous knowledge of one population may be useful to another group; or in other words, Indigenous knowledge may be generalizable. 6,8 There is a rich body of literature on Indigenous knowledge written mostly from the perspective of Indigenous people. 7,9–11 There is another literature on Indigenous knowledge that comes from the development field to describe, for example, agricultural methods or uses for botanicals that come from local knowledge. 8 The focus in this article is on the first body of literature. A key point to consider is that gathering data from an Indigenous person does not necessarily indicate that Indigenous knowledge has been gathered. The use of Indigenous knowledge is driven by ethical protocols including treating it with respect and care 12 with the acute understanding that it is shared to benefit others. 5 These protocols may have overlap among tribal nations, and may also be local. 13 As we learned and describe in this article, these protocols determine certain research methods and use of theory that may or may not be appropriate.