What can we learn from this week?

Perhaps the most prominent academic issue discussed during the week was the distinction between academic and community research.

• participants often question how these methods relate to other research methods such as academic research or “action research”. 
• participants also ask whether community research is as reliable as academic research. The question is whether community research can, for example, guarantee a solution in the same way as academic research.

One of the main differences between them is that academic research is based on earlier research. The purpose of research is defined in these conditions, while community research begins by asking the local population to participate in the design of the research objective in relation to an issue in society.

Another difference is that academic research aims to provide replicable results by working in large numbers, so that the relationship discovered has a predictive value for similar situations. But CBR tests its locally developed solutions in its own locality: only the methods are generalisable. Specific solutions must be re-tested in other situations where stakeholders differ and the causes of the problems vary.

These concerns will be covered again over the next two weeks, so please continue to raise any of these difficult questions or concerns. We will continue to learn together.

Over to you

In the forum, you can post your questions to the educators. You can do this at any time during the week.

Also, please ‘Like’ the other questions you would most like to have answered. Then at the end of the week the educators will begin posting their replies to all the most popular questions.

Finally, we look forward to seeing you next week where we will:

• Identify appropriate research methods to answer your research question
• Develop research skills appropriate to community based research