6 Action Steps on Inclusion you Should be Using in your Research Work or Projects.
This week, I am giving you 6 simple action steps you can use in your research project or funding proposal to show that you have been mindful about the topic of inclusion and how it affects your entire work. This can make you standout thus saving you the trouble of over explaining to your supervisor or review board.
But first, the REASON you should align your work on the topic of Inclusion is that it continues to be a transformational leadership challenge in many of our societies, socioeconomically and politically. By addressing such, you are bridging both the knowledge and implementational gap that exists in solving such challenges. Also, due to social mobilizations sweeping around the world such as #Metoo movement, #BlackLivesMatter and others, many organizations have been criticized for not doing enough to include minorities in their staffing, amidst constant public calls for more ‘Diversity and Inclusion.’ On a personal note, these 6 actions steps have always come handy in my research work as a Gender and Development Analyst, guiding me to ask the right questions (on power dynamics and accessibility) whether I am writing a research paper or at any workshop.
1. YOUR TARGET/INTEREST GROUP: Who or whom is in your target group and why? Who is risky and vulnerable and why?
Your target group presents a level of uniqueness in understanding/giving a relevance on who is the most affected and who should be prioritized. This is why you must clearly identify how your interest group is socially differentiated in terms of class, age, gender, race, education, ethnicity, location, etc. matters. For instance, my master’s thesis on rural development focused on smallholder farmers who are directly engaged in commercial sugar contract farming in Hoima (Uganda) and those who were displaced by it (NOT the rich farmers). By asking such, it becomes clear to answer why you are choosing A from X and why its significant for your research. By detailing your target group’s main characteristics as much as possible, you will finally begin to start asking relevant questions that speak truly speak their social experiences.
2. SOURCE OF LIVELIHOOD.
Generally, this looks at activities and other social ventures that people are involved in, that helps them to meet their basic and other physiological needs. You can call it their resource base. Often times there is a hierarchy, and a certain order people must follow to access resources in society. This component helps you to understand who the gatekeeper is, who has rights of access and why, and who is being excluded. For instance, women only support programs tend to exclude men on the basis that women are the most marginalized in the community due to patriarchy and lack of property rights.
3. GENDER DYNAMICS (We are all doing gender whether we see it or not).
Gender dynamics portray the moral fabric of how society has recreated itself overtime and for generations. This helps us to understand the relationship between men and women, male and female, male/female and the other sex or gender in our daily interactions. Gender dynamics are very nuanced in cultural, religious, political, and economic order and direct our social behaviour in terms of roles and responsibilities we are assigned. For instance, look out for a particular activity that is dominated by men or women or both, or the youth and children, and the reasons behind it. In my opinion, if there is anything that has been overused as card of excluding women from various opportunities, sex/gender has been one of the greatest of all.
4. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF YOUR STORY (what is political and how do you intend to address it?).
You might be passionate about exposing human rights abuse and whistleblowers but that does not mean you can simply research it. There are rules and regulations and issues of personal security you must consider. Therefore, without ethical considerations, we can obscurely be leading to misrepresentation or misinformation resulting into political persecution of your targeted group or legal suits against you and your organization/company. Before that pilot study is done, ask yourself “what things can lead to potential damages and how can I lessen or address them without causing any further harm to anyone?” Also, how will your data be collected and what protocols do you have in place to always protect yourself and your participants? Arguably, it is important to make an appointment with your Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Research Ethics department in your organization/company, for further guidance.
5. REPRESENTATION MATTERS.
You have finally figured out your interest group, the location, and the right sample, the next thing to consider is how representative it is and generally, your study. The big question here is, how equitably are you trying to capture the voices of the unheard in your work? If there is a limitation to why you cannot achieve such a goal, be sure to label it. Representation is key to inclusion because it rooted in achieving fairness, and so should be your work. If you use someone else’s ideas, be sure to appropriately give them credit for it.
6. TYPE OF RESEARCH (extractive or action based?).
I would simply ignore this, but I think a lot times we do not ask ourselves about the component of giveback when we have finally produced that report. We forget that we have a social responsibility of communicating our research findings to our studied community for sensitization purposes leaving us extractive in a sense. Therefore, if people take time to honor your call by participating in any of your projects, be sure to check back with them and share your findings. You never know whom in the society this information could help in dealing with a certain challenge they might be facing (hence action-based research).
Conclusion:
The above is a gateway to kickstart you on thinking how INCLUSION can be incorporated in your daily work especially if you work on social justice issues. There are other important factors such as time-frame, source of funding for your project, data collection methods, close supervision and other cases by case bases that determine the success of your project. My hope is that these can be your guide in your daily design thinking process and or prepare you in facing that research committee or review board. Be sure to attend as many workshops on inclusion as much as you can, where you can also ask questions and get instant feedback. Also, learn how to custom tailor your project design to current socioeconomic challenges, because it can win you that much needed funding or excellence research award you might not have anticipated. Finally, what do you think? Are you familiar with these or have a different approach you are using? Please share with us in the comments section below.
