1.2 Research on or with?

Apart from a basic lack of information, consent seeking and respect for people’s time, the scenario you considered in Activity 1 represents a missed opportunity to share power and leadership. One alternative could have been for the charity manager to respect the volunteer’s experience and autonomy and send questions to think about in advance. Or the focus could have been to find out the views of the children in the reading group.

Instead of research being done to or on someone (with them seen as the subject or object of research), it could be done with or alongside them (as participant or even co-researcher).