Participants as Co-Researchers

Benefits of Utilizing Participants as Co-Researchers

Participants as co-researchers is an approach that promotes participant involvement in the research process. Participants have the opportunity to tell their own stories and give an insider perspective to the process of being the object or subject of research. Participants are also able to offer their own interpretation of the researcher's findings, voicing their opinion in response to the researcher, thereby giving voice to the community or group that is being researched. Together, the researcher and participant work to come to conclusions, engaging in dialogue and offering each other feedback.

Additionally, utilizing participants as co-researchers gives researchers the opportunity to use the experiences and knowledge of participants to learn about and discuss the research. Co-researchers contribute to the research by offering credibility to the findings and credibility to the researcher (within the community or organization). The involvement of an active participant encourages other participants to join the conversation and respond with their own interpretations. This encouragement allows the researcher to take on the role of student, allowing the research process to be a learning event.

The insider status of participants in research projects contributes to the benefit of “insider” status and, more generally, to the information gathered in the study. When [Page 600]participants are co-researchers, they share knowledge, access, and responsibility, which offers a perspective that would usually be unavailable to an outside researcher. Additionally, when participants take on a valid role in the research, they are further motivated to cooperat; that prompts others to become active participants as well. When participants are invited to be co-researchers in the process, they become equally invested in the success of the project. Participants become involved in the process of research from the initial inquiries of the investigation to findings and conclusions. Their feedback offers an opportunity to consider the perspective of the people being represented in the research. This method merges the experience of the participants with the research skills of the researcher. Participants as co-researchers transition from a role of being asked questions and being observed, to asking questions and observing. Co-researchers, however, are not necessarily credited as co-authors but rather as collaborators in the writing process.

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