A Sensitive, Sensible, and Ethical Approach to Conducting Research With Vulnerable Populations

• In Event: Roundtable Session 42
  In Roundtable Session: Issues in Recruiting Participants and Collecting Data From Historically Underrepresented Populations

Abstract

The researcher will give an overview of her research on doctoral students and their experiences with racism and racial trauma, with a focus on issues recruiting, interviewing, and including participants in data analysis and the presentation of findings. This population was particularly vulnerable as participating in this study could mean experiencing severe psychological, physiology, emotional, spiritual, and political consequences (Carter & Forsyth, 2009; Clark, Anderson, Clark, & Williams, 1999; Harrell, 2000; Solórzano, 1998).

The researcher used criterion sampling to identify participants. She created an online questionnaire, which 360 prospective participants completed. In the end, interviews were conducted with 26 participants who met all criteria. The researcher will describe how she made the decision to interview some participants and not others, as not all of the participants that met the criteria were interviewed. She will also discuss how some prospective participants were unwilling to participate because they feared that they might experience backlash from faculty, administrators, and peers in their program. Other potential participants did not want to participate because they did not want to relive their traumatic experiences. One participant in particular agreed to participate in the study, but only after trust was established with the researcher during a telephone conversation. It was important for the researcher to accept prospective participants’ responses and value their time and knowledge regardless of the outcome.

The presentation will encompass why the researcher encountered complexities that were directly related to the racialized experiences of prospective participants during the participant recruitment and data collection phases of her project. Because most participants were in the midst of experiencing racism and racial trauma, some in politically charged environments and under unique circumstances, they were in highly vulnerable states. These participants expressed concern that their identities might be revealed simply by the nature of their racialized experiences or inadvertently revealed in the presentation of the data and findings. Special care was taken to protect the participants’ identities because of potential political consequences. Because these participants had been oppressed during doctoral studies, the researcher also made special considerations and provisions to ensure that the way in which she conducted research did not further marginalize participants.

The researcher especially conducted research in an ethical manner so as to counteract the unethical experiences many of these participants encountered during doctoral studies. The researcher fostered trusting relationships with the participants and maintained transparency throughout the research process, so that the participants were freely willing to share their experiences with her. In addition to driving the length and format of the interview, participants played a more important role in some of the decision-making. The researcher made special provisions for participants during data collection, data analysis, trustworthiness and quality assurance, and presentation of the findings. Ultimately, the researcher approached this study in a collaborative way with the participants while holding herself accountable to them. While this is something she did not learn in a qualitative course, she soon learned to adapt her approach to meet the unique needs of the population being studied.

Author

• Kimberly A. Truong, Northeastern University