My research question(s) have not changed since my SSHRC proposal. Because of my background in social work, I am hardwired to recognize inequalities and work towards social justice. I felt that if I were to move forward with this research proposal in real life, it would have to sit comfortably with the same values and practices I hold as a (former) social worker.
What became more obvious as I worked through this proposal are the many similarities between librarianship and social work. This realization led me to grounding my research within the social work paradigm of Anti-Oppressive theory even though I could not find any literature applying this framework to librarianship. This led me to proposing the fairly unorthodox method of participatory research as a layer to the qualitative survey and questionnaire design of my SSHRC proposal.
While participatory research is uncommon (possibly non-existent) in information science, my literature review as well as the principles of Anti-Oppressive social work research both pointed to the need for ground up involvement of people living with autism and other disabilities.
Although I have no intention of moving forward with research in my professional career, the importance of research is not lost on me. Research shapes our lives in seemingly invisible ways and I'm confident that my classmates who move forward with research professionally will find new ways to expand our knowledge and improve the world around us.
Cheers INF1240! It's been a slice :)
It is interesting that you say that participatory research is uncommon and maybe even non-existent in information science because the impression that I got from Research Methods is that it seemed to be an area of research that is closer to those done in the social sciences! In fact, I suggested a participatory approach for my research proposal because as an anthropology major in undergraduate, I've learnt that there are problems with power dynamics between researchers and participants and I did not want to simply examine what my participants experience without examining my own experiences and thoughts.
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Glad to hear that it's more common than I thought! I would love to see more researchers address problematic power dynamics in their research :)
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