Cultural Context

Cultural context consists of the broad background of beliefs and practices that guide the behaviors of both the researcher and research participants. Cultural context is an essential element of any research project because it affects not only the individual behavior of the researcher and participants but also their interactions with each other. Understanding both participants' cultural context and the researcher's place within it can be essential for successfully recruiting participants, conducting the research itself, and analyzing the data.

Concerns related to cultural context should not be isolated for exclusive use in cross-cultural research; instead, they should be viewed as “best practices” for qualitative research in general. These issues do, however, require particular care when working with participants from foreign countries as well as when conducting research with minority groups or subcultures in the researcher's own country. Although issues of cultural context are obvious when dealing with language differences, it is just as important to recognize the distinction between being “bilingual” and “bicultural.” For example, members of subcultures may share the researcher's language and many of the same broad cultural assumptions at the same time that they use jargon and engage in practices that are completely “foreign” to the researcher.

When there is a substantial difference between the researcher's and participants' cultural backgrounds, there may well be a need to develop trust within the community of potential participants. This often begins during the process of gaining access to the participants, either by building rapport with already trusted community groups or by relying on a liaison person from outside of the community. When participant observation is the primary method for data collection, key informants often play an essential role in helping the researcher to recognize and deal with cultural differences. The same advantages can also apply when interviewing is the primary method by using informants to learn about sensitive topics, appropriate language, and proper behavior during the interviews. In addition, key informants can assist interviewers with issues of cultural context by reviewing the content of the questions and by recommending initial interviewees who will be relatively tolerant of the researcher's “outsider” status.

Cultural context is also important in analyzing and reporting data. In most cases, the issues encountered during data collection will already have sensitized the researcher to the importance of the participants' cultural context when interpreting the meanings of their words and behavior. Even so, it is crucial to recognize that the researcher's own background and the implicit assumptions that go with it also create a cultural context that can affect the interpretation of the data. Many of these same issues carry over into writing up the results, where there is a need to recognize and deal with the difference between readers' and participants' [Page 182]cultural contexts so as to present the results in ways that facilitate an appropriate understanding of what was learned through the research.