Provoking Change in Researchers’ Roles: Using a Community-Based Research Approach to Address Research Needs in the Community

Abstract

This article is based on a community-based research practicum conducted with a Headstart program in western Canada. The purpose of the text is to describe the progression of one researcher’s roles from inception to completion of a year-long research project while working in collaboration with a community partner. Following a brief review of principles of community-based research, a case study is used to show how principles were adhered to in a practicum. A variation of traditional role theory is introduced as a useful framework to navigate burgeoning researcher roles and role multiplicity. These are (a) researcher as researcher, (b) researcher as collaborator, (c) researcher as relationship builder, (d) researcher as teacher, and (e) researcher as learner. Considerations for ways to promote researchers—students and academics—to develop skills to correspond with changing researcher roles are presented, along with future directions to empirically examine researcher roles in community-based research.

Keywords

• Community-based Research
• Researcher Roles