Catalytic validity

Some commentators see one kind of validity for research as relating to how participants are involved in the research process

“…researchers should engage in research not only to produce knowledge but also to make positive change in the lives of those who participate in research, change that the participants desire and articulate for themselves” (Moje, 2000: 25)

Moje, E. B. (2000). Changing our minds, changing our bodies: power as embodied in research relations. Qualitative Studies in Education, 13(1), 15-42.

According to Lather (1986: 67), catalytic validity “refers to the degree to which the research process re-orients, focusses, and energizes participants in what Freire (1973) terms "conscientization," knowing reality in order to better transform it. ...My argument is premised not only on a recognition of the reality-altering impact of the research process itself, but also on the need to consciously channel this impact so that respondents gain self-understanding and, ideally, self-determination through research participation.”

Lather, P. (1986). Issues of validity in openly ideological research: Between a rock and a soft place. Interchange, 17(4), 63-84. doi: 10.1007/bf01807017

This is an argument for research that is participatory and emancipatory.

This stance is sometimes contrasted with what has been called the ‘rape’ model of research where  “the researcher comes in, takes what he [sic] wants, and leaves when he feels like it” (Lincoln, reported in Beld, 1994).

Beld, J. M. (1994). Constructing a collaboration: a conversation with Egon G. Guba and Yvonna S. Lincoln. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 7(2), 99-115.

The language here is similar to Heron and Reasons’ (1997: 10) characterisation of the “view of Bacon that nature must be tortured to wrest her secrets from her”.

Heron, J., & Reason, P. (1997). A Participatory Inquiry Paradigm. Qualitative Inquiry, 3(3), 274-294. Retrieved from http://people.bath.ac.uk/mnspwr/Papers/Participatoryinquiryparadigm.pdf

Cochran and colleagues (2008: 22) report that “According to an Alaska Native saying, ‘Researchers are like mosquitoes; they suck your blood and leave’.”

Cochran, P. A. L., Marshall, C. A., Garcia-Downing, C., Kendall, E., Cook, D., McCubbin, L., & Gover, R. M. S. (2008). Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Implications for Participatory Research and Community. American Journal of Public Health, 98(1), 22-27. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.093641

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