Transforming Research Methodology

Abstract

This chapter considers a key challenge for postgraduate researchers in the process of data collection, analysis, and interpretation, particularly when conducting research in the Indigenous community. The focus is on the issue of researcher neutrality, which the Western method considers fundamental and significant in making the result of research valid and reliable. The chapter argues that postgraduate researchers should go beyond the traditional Western approach when conducting research with Indigenous participants, without limiting the data to the researchers' research questions, protocols, and guidelines. The power imbalance between the postgraduate researcher and participants should be eliminated, while participants' voices and opinions should be heard and appropriately reported to reflect a decolonized Indigenous research methodology. The chapter noted that there are interjections between the Western methods and the indigenous methods. There is a need to combine the two perspectives where appropriate.