Values and Validity: Navigating Messiness in a Community-Based Research Project in Rwanda

Rebecca Walton Utah State University ; Maggie Zraly Utah State University ; Jean Pierre Mugengana

Abstract

Community-based research in technical communication is well suited to supporting empowerment and developing contextualized understandings, but this research is messy. Presenting fieldwork examples from an interdisciplinary technical communication/medical anthropology study in Rwanda, this article conveys challenges that the authors encountered during fieldwork and their efforts to turn the messy constraints of community-based research into openings. Explicitly considering values and validity provided a strategy for our efforts to democratically share power, maximize rigor, and navigate uncertainty.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2015-01-02
DOI
10.1080/10572252.2015.975962
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Cited by in this index (39)

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