Ethical Relationship Building in Action Research: Getting out of Western Norms to Foster Equitable Collaboration

Abstract

In this article, I discuss a pervasive ethical issue when undertaking action research (AR) projects with communities that have been historically marginalized: how outsiders’ learned, normative Western thinking makes building equitable relationships difficult. I then offer strategies for researchers coming from privileged, outsider positionalities to develop their reflective capacities in order to decolonize their thinking. The strategies are based on ten years of reflexive AR work with Quechua community members in rural Peru. The strategies offer guidance on how individuals might begin to transform their internal frameworks when thinking about “the other,” in order to be able to build equitable relationships during action research projects.