Cultural Awareness and Respect

Knowing and respecting the cultures where you work is another basic human trait that you either have or you don’t. As a researcher, it’s essential to help with empathy, the next point. Cultural awareness and respect helps build understanding of different social and cultural values. Norms, customs, and perspectives are all given the dignity they deserve – including yours and your team members’.

You need to understand where your values sit, identify any clashes or areas of alignment, to make sure you can do your job as a researcher in the best way possible. How you can make space for, and value, different perspectives which clash with your own beliefs is a crucial skill (for all humans obviously, too). From a research perspective, it helps you to better design inclusive studies, ensuring that research methods and questions are culturally sensitive. It also then enhances the validity and relevance of your findings, by making space for cultural norms and values.

Empathy

A personal skill that can’t really be taught, this is a JEDI skill that allows researchers to connect with people on a human level – which in turn makes them trust each other. By understanding the lived experiences of diverse individuals, researchers can design studies that are more responsive to the unique needs and challenges of different communities.

It’s also fundamental to ethical research practices, and prioritises peoples’ wellbeing and dignity. skill promotes ethical research practices by prioritizing the well-being and dignity of participants.

Intersectionality and Sensitivity

Recognising and understanding intersectionality and how it plays out in real life also helps us empathise with people, because we can better understand their various identities. [More on intersectionality here].

Understanding how their identities shape peoples’ perspectives, their relative powers, and their oppression can also put their perspectives in a broader context. A researcher can then design studies that capture the multi-dimensional aspects of participants’ experiences, leading to more nuanced research.

Inclusive Language

From pronouns up to speaking in peoples’ preferred language – promotes a sense of belonging among participants and can help break the ice in tricky situations. It’s also another key human characteristic, and to many (myself included), the bare minimum. Just think about the last time you were at a dinner with people who spoke a language you could not communicate in. Language also includes all forms of communicating to others, as I see it – which includes sign language.

As a researcher, you need to create a welcoming environment for everyone which is also equitable. That may mean having the same numbers of people across language groups so there’s equal representation. This creates a welcoming environment for diverse groups, making it more likely that people from underrepresented backgrounds will engage with and participate in research studies. It also helps with the point above on empathy and understanding – you may be bringing people together who don’t often meet in a work setting, and this can help build connections. This skill contributes to your work’s overall credibility and ethical conduct.

Adaptability

Research environments are dynamic, and you need to be able to respond effectively and nimbly to changes – both within and outside your control. The scope may shift, within reason, with new priorities. Your context may also go through political shifts which affect your work – all of which will need you to understand how it affects your work, and compensate.

It’s also a useful skill to help you accommodate diverse needs. For example, you may not have planned for participants at a group interview to attend with their guardians, and they may share that wish closer to the time. How you can accommodate that request will say a lot about your research skills.

Bias Awareness/Self-Awareness

All researchers should have a keen awareness of biases, especially their own and those of participants, to assess the data and do their job well. As a human it’s important for you to know where you can’t be objective, or where your perspective may cloud your ability to do your job well. For example, I am a super atheist (scientific term), and when I work with religious communities or a faith-based organisation as a client, I need to be acutely aware of all the ways that bias affects my conduct and my technical work.

As a researcher, this is invaluable for your Positionality Statement and the Biases and Limitations section of your report. You and your team will need to clarify all your prejudices, biases, privileges, and other limitations – including the scope of your methodology – and how that may affect the findings. You can then find ways to actively mitigate them, to make your findings as objective or useful as possible. It’s another great tool to ensure you are remaining accountable to your research ethics too.