Research and Service: Are You Here to Help Us or Study Us?

Scenario

Sarah, a sophomore political science student, is spending the summer living in a small community and working with a grassroots nonprofit which provides transitional housing and support to formerly incarcerated women. Sarah’s primary role at the site is to support their reentry services, working with the women as they seek employment and long term housing. At the same time, Sarah has been tasked with gathering data for a faculty-mentored research project. She has chosen to study the challenges faced by women when seeking employment after incarceration. Her faculty mentor has helped her to craft a research design which will gather data through direct community engagement. Sarah is excited to integrate this research component into her summer community engagement. She believes this will be a perfect way to prepare for graduate work in policy design and advocacy. 

Throughout the summer, Sarah tries to ask neutral questions of residents that don’t seem intrusive. She is acutely aware of the challenges of respectful community-based research. Despite these efforts, she senses discomfort from some of the participants. After approaching a resident to remind her of their research interview later that day, the resident asks, “Are you here to help us or study us?” Sarah feels torn. On the one hand she wants to build trust and authentic relationships, but on the other hand she has a research assignment to turn in at the end of the summer. She wonders whether a dual role is really possible in this kind of community engagement setting. Sarah is beginning to feel like her efforts are undermining both her research and her relationships in the community.

Discussion Questions

1. How could research—even with good intentions—feel extractive to a community? Do you think this tension can be mitigated? Why or why not? 
2. How would you be feeling in this scenario? What do you think the residents might be feeling or perceiving?
3. What challenges come with trying to be both a researcher and a participant in a community? Do you feel it is possible to effectively do both? 
4. What responsibilities do you have when collecting information in communities you are temporarily a part of?
5. What are the limits of “informed consent” in immersive settings?
6. How might Sarah (or her faculty mentor) have better prepared for these ethical dilemmas? 
7. How would you respond next?
8. What strategies could help build trust while still meeting research goals? Could Sarah adapt her project? Should she pause or revise it? When might this become necessary? 

Facilitator Consideration

• NAVIGATE UNCERTAINTY. Students often struggle to find a balance between contributing meaningfully to a community and fulfilling the demands of academic research. They need guidance to navigate situations where these goals seem at odds and where a “perfect” solution might not be possible.
• FIND MUTUAL BENEFIT. Students often feel that authentic engagement with a community is separate from research or academic activities. It can be helpful to outline the potential mutual benefits between the two considerations and how one can strengthen the other.
• LIVE WITH TENSION. Encourage students to name discomfort without rushing to fix it. Tensions can be generative; explore how that can be. Feel free to explore that a perfect solution is likely not possible and how students can interpret this reality and move forward within it. 
• EXPAND MORAL IMAGINATION. Normalize ethical complexity in immersive experiences; they are learning environments.

Closing Questions

• What’s one thing you learned or thought about differently during this discussion?
• Can you envision mutual benefits in this scenario? How might authentic partnership and trusting relationships contribute to academic research outcomes? How could academic research generate or contribute to authentic partnership and interpersonal connection?