Exploring the approaches of non-Indigenous researchers to Indigenous research: a qualitative study.


Journal

CMAJ open
ISSN: 2291-0026
Titre abrégé: CMAJ Open
Pays: Canada
ID NLM: 101620603

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
Historique:
entrez: 28 8 2019
pubmed: 28 8 2019
medline: 28 8 2019
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Given the history of unethical research in Indigenous communities, there is often apprehension among Indigenous communities toward research carried out by non-Indigenous researchers. We examined the approaches, experiences and motivations among non-Indigenous researchers at a research-intensive Canadian university conducting research with Indigenous communities to understand approaches to ethical research with Indigenous peoples. We performed a critical constructivist qualitative study incorporating decolonizing methodologies. We conducted semistructured interviews with 8 non-Indigenous University of Toronto researchers with a research focus/interest related to Indigenous health between August and October 2017. The interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed through an iterative process. Shared experiences among the researchers were arranged into primary themes. We identified 4 primary themes related to the conduct of Indigenous research by non-Indigenous researchers: 1) relationships with communities are foundational to the research process, 2) non-Indigenous researchers experience a personal self-reflective journey grounded in reconciliation, allyship and privilege, 3) accepted knowledge frameworks in Indigenous research are familiar to most but are inconsistently applied and 4) institutions act as barriers to and facilitators of ethical conduct of Indigenous research. Four core principles - relationships, trust, humility and accountability - unified the primary themes. We identified strengths and areas for improvement of current policies and practices in Indigenous research by non-Indigenous researchers. Although non-Indigenous researchers value relationships, and their research is informed by Indigenous knowledge, institutional barriers to implementing recommended elements exist, and certain policy statements such as the Tri-Council Policy Statement 2 lack applicability to secondary data analysis for some non-Indigenous researchers.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
Given the history of unethical research in Indigenous communities, there is often apprehension among Indigenous communities toward research carried out by non-Indigenous researchers. We examined the approaches, experiences and motivations among non-Indigenous researchers at a research-intensive Canadian university conducting research with Indigenous communities to understand approaches to ethical research with Indigenous peoples.
METHODS METHODS
We performed a critical constructivist qualitative study incorporating decolonizing methodologies. We conducted semistructured interviews with 8 non-Indigenous University of Toronto researchers with a research focus/interest related to Indigenous health between August and October 2017. The interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed through an iterative process. Shared experiences among the researchers were arranged into primary themes.
RESULTS RESULTS
We identified 4 primary themes related to the conduct of Indigenous research by non-Indigenous researchers: 1) relationships with communities are foundational to the research process, 2) non-Indigenous researchers experience a personal self-reflective journey grounded in reconciliation, allyship and privilege, 3) accepted knowledge frameworks in Indigenous research are familiar to most but are inconsistently applied and 4) institutions act as barriers to and facilitators of ethical conduct of Indigenous research. Four core principles - relationships, trust, humility and accountability - unified the primary themes.
INTERPRETATION CONCLUSIONS
We identified strengths and areas for improvement of current policies and practices in Indigenous research by non-Indigenous researchers. Although non-Indigenous researchers value relationships, and their research is informed by Indigenous knowledge, institutional barriers to implementing recommended elements exist, and certain policy statements such as the Tri-Council Policy Statement 2 lack applicability to secondary data analysis for some non-Indigenous researchers.

Identifiants

pubmed: 31451446
pii: 7/3/E504
doi: 10.9778/cmajo.20180204
pmc: PMC6715113
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

E504-E509

Informations de copyright

Copyright 2019, Joule Inc. or its licensors.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Competing interests: None declared.

Références

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Auteurs

Alexandra Kilian (A)

Faculty of Medicine (Kilian, Fellows), University of Toronto; Wilson Centre (Kilian, Kuper, Whitehead, Richardson); Office of Indigenous Medical Education (Fellows, Pennington, Richardson), Department of Pediatrics (Giroux) and Division of General Surgery (Pennington), University of Toronto; Division of General Internal Medicine (Kuper), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Department of Family and Community Medicine (Whitehead), Women's College Hospital; Department of Medicine (Richardson), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont. alexandra.kilian@mail.utoronto.ca.

Tyee Kenneth Fellows (TK)

Faculty of Medicine (Kilian, Fellows), University of Toronto; Wilson Centre (Kilian, Kuper, Whitehead, Richardson); Office of Indigenous Medical Education (Fellows, Pennington, Richardson), Department of Pediatrics (Giroux) and Division of General Surgery (Pennington), University of Toronto; Division of General Internal Medicine (Kuper), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Department of Family and Community Medicine (Whitehead), Women's College Hospital; Department of Medicine (Richardson), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.

Ryan Giroux (R)

Faculty of Medicine (Kilian, Fellows), University of Toronto; Wilson Centre (Kilian, Kuper, Whitehead, Richardson); Office of Indigenous Medical Education (Fellows, Pennington, Richardson), Department of Pediatrics (Giroux) and Division of General Surgery (Pennington), University of Toronto; Division of General Internal Medicine (Kuper), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Department of Family and Community Medicine (Whitehead), Women's College Hospital; Department of Medicine (Richardson), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.

Jason Pennington (J)

Faculty of Medicine (Kilian, Fellows), University of Toronto; Wilson Centre (Kilian, Kuper, Whitehead, Richardson); Office of Indigenous Medical Education (Fellows, Pennington, Richardson), Department of Pediatrics (Giroux) and Division of General Surgery (Pennington), University of Toronto; Division of General Internal Medicine (Kuper), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Department of Family and Community Medicine (Whitehead), Women's College Hospital; Department of Medicine (Richardson), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.

Ayelet Kuper (A)

Faculty of Medicine (Kilian, Fellows), University of Toronto; Wilson Centre (Kilian, Kuper, Whitehead, Richardson); Office of Indigenous Medical Education (Fellows, Pennington, Richardson), Department of Pediatrics (Giroux) and Division of General Surgery (Pennington), University of Toronto; Division of General Internal Medicine (Kuper), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Department of Family and Community Medicine (Whitehead), Women's College Hospital; Department of Medicine (Richardson), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.

Cynthia R Whitehead (CR)

Faculty of Medicine (Kilian, Fellows), University of Toronto; Wilson Centre (Kilian, Kuper, Whitehead, Richardson); Office of Indigenous Medical Education (Fellows, Pennington, Richardson), Department of Pediatrics (Giroux) and Division of General Surgery (Pennington), University of Toronto; Division of General Internal Medicine (Kuper), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Department of Family and Community Medicine (Whitehead), Women's College Hospital; Department of Medicine (Richardson), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.

Lisa Richardson (L)

Faculty of Medicine (Kilian, Fellows), University of Toronto; Wilson Centre (Kilian, Kuper, Whitehead, Richardson); Office of Indigenous Medical Education (Fellows, Pennington, Richardson), Department of Pediatrics (Giroux) and Division of General Surgery (Pennington), University of Toronto; Division of General Internal Medicine (Kuper), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Department of Family and Community Medicine (Whitehead), Women's College Hospital; Department of Medicine (Richardson), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.

Classifications MeSH