One size doesn't fit all: Research methodologies in a language variation study of Sudanese teens

The research reported here draws on a study of five teenagers from a Dinka-speaking community of Sudanese settling in Australia. A range of factors including language proficiency, social network structure and language attitudes are examined as possible causes for the variability of language use. The results and discussion illustrate how the use of a triangular research approach captured the complexity of the participants' language situation and was critical to developing a full understanding of the interplay of factors influencing the teens' language maintenance and shift in a way that no single method could. Further, it shows that employment of different methodologies allowed for flexibility in data collection to ensure the fullest response from participants. Overall, this research suggests that for studies of non-standard communities, variability in research methods may prove more of a strength that the use of standardised instruments and approaches.

Living on the ground research: Steps towards white women researching in collaboration with indigenous people

De Ishtar discusses ways in which Whites could develop research epistemologies and methodologies which responded to and reflected those being developed by Indigenous researchers across Australia and around the world. She details her own explorations in developing a methodology which enabled her to work in collaboration with a group of Indigenous women elders from Western Australia's Great Sandy Desert. She stresses that if collaborative research with Indigenous women is to be possible, White feminists must learn how to do research which is culturally unobtrusive, and that means taking responsibility for their own cultural practices, attitudes and values.

Thoughts about research from an Indigenous prespective

The experience in research activities of a person is presented from Indigenous perspective as an individual, a tertiary student, a health professional and an academic. He describes the importance of structural issues and the critical role of protocol, appropriate process, and establishing enduring linkages in advancing health research