Partnerships with Participants

As many documents on this site describe, there are lots of different ways of thinking about ‘partnerships’ and many different models of research which acknowledge the role of ‘service users’ in research. The particular approach that we have adopted for our work is described in a number of documents (see Why do partnership research? and What is partnership research?)

The most important element of this work relates to trying to share control of the work with service users who have generally not been included in research. This approach is particularly appropriate to research design with people with learning difficulties and people with long-standing illness or incapacity. All participants agree at the outset that they have much to learn from each other, and wish to engage in on-going negotiations about how to maximise that learning. Of course, this approach raises lots of challenges as well as possibilities and these are discussed in Partnerships: Questions and Challenges.

A 'partnership' approach differs from what is known as 'emancipatory research' where "researchers have to learn how to put their knowledge and skills at the disposal of their research subjects, for them to use in whatever ways they choose" (Oliver, 1990: 111). See Emancipatory/ Participatory approaches

Partnership Research is also distinct from Participatory Action Research (McTaggart et al, 1997) where the method is regarded as a ‘tool’ for empowerment of the participants, and the process takes precedence over any formal research outputs.

There are two documents linked to this one which explore how you might begin working in partnership with people who might ordinarily be seen only as participants in research (see A 'Speakability' group talk about their work and The 'Things to do' group)

‘Speakability’ is a national charity. They have ‘self help’ groups that meet regularly. All members have Aphasia as the result of a stroke or head injury or other neurological condition. Someone with aphasia may have problems with any one, or more, of the following: talking, listening, understanding, writing and using numbers. (For more information about Aphasia see: www.stroke.org.uk or www.speakability.org.uk)

The 'Things to do' group grew out of a 'Community Activity Scheme'. The group is made up of six adults with learning disabilities, Hazel Cant and another volunteer. The group has been working in partnership to do research on things to do in their area for adults with learning disabilities.

With many thanks to all those who helped with these documents.

References
McTaggart, R., Henry, H. and Johnson, E. (1997) Traces of Participatory Action Research: Reciprocity among educators, Educational Action Research , 5, 1, p123- 140.

Oliver, M. (1990) The Politics of Disablement . Basingstoke : Macmillan.