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Inclusive Research Methods: A Foray into the Literature, Part 1

Margaret D. Whitley, Sheri Notaro, Ai Rene Ong

 

The University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research (ISR) is recognized nationally and internationally for its research and education programs. These include widely used population surveys such as the Health and Retirement Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and many others, plus rigorous educational offerings, including pre- and postdoctoral training programs and summer courses. The ISR works to promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) across its programs, an effort spearheaded by Sheri Notaro during her two-plus years as director. One element of ISR’s broader DEI effort is its Educational Programs Working Group. This group, which all three authors participated in, explores and promotes DEI topics pertinent to education at ISR.

To foster conversation and knowledge about DEI and research methods, the Educational Programs Working Group created the Inclusive Research Matters seminar series. In this seminar series, available free online, experts from UM and beyond discussed methodological issues that impact DEI in research, such as response styles (Fernanda Alvarado-Leiton, Rachel Davis and Sunghee Lee), accessible survey design (Scott Crawford), diversity in online samples (Frances Barlas), and bias due to invalid and mischievous survey responses (Joseph Simpian).

Our approach to defining “Inclusive Research Methods”

Initially, we had not decided on a definition for “inclusive research methods” or identified a specific research paradigm or perspective within which we would work. Our organic approach worked well enough, but when a UM staff member asked us to suggest one or two seminal papers about inclusive research methods to share with students, we dove into the literature. Not surprisingly, we identified a range of papers that enhanced our understanding of inclusive research. The process pushed us to consider with greater intention what we meant by “inclusive research methods,” and how other scholars have used the term.

We had thought of inclusive research as a methodology (or set of methodologies), but we came to see it as more of an overarching research framework or ideology. So we summarized papers that examined inclusivity in research from the level of paradigms and broad approaches (e.g., Indigenous research paradigm, public health critical praxis), to constructs (e.g., families), to study design and analysis (e.g., quantcrit). We couldn’t read every relevant paper, but in these blog posts, we highlight some that we found particularly valuable.

 Value in defining and discussing Inclusive Research Methods

The Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas-based grantmaking organization, offers a useful description of inclusivity in research. They note that research inclusivity should go beyond simply bringing in “phenotypically different” scholars, suggesting that diversity in life experiences should also be represented, and that the research should be relevant and actionable.

Overall, we identified the importance of works that:

  • included participation from researched populations
  • worked through a more holistic lens that’s less centered on privileged (e.g., white, able-bodied, male) perspectives and that considers the benefit to researched populations
  • asked basic questions about the relationship between the researcher and the researched, who owns the results, and why we do research to begin with
  • established why inclusivity, diversity, and equity in research methods matter
  • offered guiding principles that we can consider regardless of the methods and populations we use and the research questions we ask

In part two of this two-part blog series, we offer examples of works that helped us define Inclusive Research Methods. Check back with the IAPHS blog next week.

About the authors

Margaret D. Whitley
Margaret D. Whitley Margaret Whitley is an associate policy researcher at RAND in Santa Monica, CA. Previously she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, where she studied the contribution of working conditions to population health inequities. Margaret’s research interests include occupational health, population health inequities, and complementary and integrative health approaches. She primarily uses quantitative approaches with large population-level datasets, and she also uses qualitative methods and contributes to community-based health promotion work. Margaret holds a PhD in public health (UC Irvine), MPH in community health sciences (UCLA) and BA in social welfare (UC Berkeley).

Sheri Notaro
Sheri Notaro Sheri Notaro serves as the Vice President for People and Culture at the Minnesota Orchestral Association. Her responsibilities focus on developing and executing a strategy that brings diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism into all facets of people operations. Prior to joining the Minnesota Orchestra, Notaro served as the director of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, where she spearheaded the execution of the ISR’s five-year DEI strategic plan. For 15 months during the pandemic, she additionally served as the ISR’s interim director of human resources. She has previously held a variety of positions over nearly two decades in academia, including working as a senior career development consultant in Human Resources at Washington University in St. Louis; associate dean for the graduate school at Washington University; and associate dean for inclusion and professional development and university diversity officer at Cornell University’s graduate school.Graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a BS from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, and an MPH in public health along with a PhD from the University of Michigan in developmental psychology, Notaro has published on topics ranging from the Stonewall riots to helping low-income women of color navigate the complexities of cancer care. She is a Society for Human Resource Management certified professional and served as a board member for the St. Louis Children’s Choirs from 2017 to 2020.

Ai Rene Ong
Ai Rene Ong Ai Rene Ong currently works at American Institutes for Research (AIR) as a Researcher/Survey Methodologist. She graduated with a PhD in Survey Methodology from the University of Michigan in 2022. Her dissertation research was on the measurement of network size and the mechanism of peer recruitment in Respondent Driven Sampling — a sampling method typically used for hard-to-sample populations. She has served as the student representative in the Institute for Social Research Diversity, Equity & Inclusion working group on educational programs for four years.

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