Abstract: This paper discusses the main common challenges faced by researchers involved with community participation. The challenges discussed in this paper are from experiences we lived during the data collection from Nyanga informal settlement in Cape Town. The research that got us involved with field work is basically on the use of different means of food and drinks preparation before selling them.
During our data collections at Nyanga transport interchange, some challenges were faced. Some of the challenges we faced are listed below and discussed afterwards: 1) locating the participants, 2) choosing meaningful information from them, 3) Language barriers, lack of trust and the researcher‘s security, 4) validating information, 5) time arrangements.
The methods used in this qualitative research were mainly, participants’ observation, depth interviews/questionnaires and technical experiments. Of these, participants’ observation is the typical qualitative method in that the subjects are studied in their environment.
It was seen that information given by the participants does not reflect actual status of the phenomenon; observation and experiments make a difference between real and verbal apparent.
Keywords: scientific research, community participation, challenges, observation.
Title: Scientific Research Tied With Social Science Research: Challenges to Expect and Ways to Overcome Them
Author: Rissa Niyobuhungiro, Judith Favish, Harro von Blottintz
International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Innovations
ISSN 2348-1218 (print), ISSN 2348-1226 (online)
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