Snowballing in the Caribbean Tropics

Download or read book Snowballing in the Caribbean Tropics written by Shearon Roberts and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 2015 to 2017, a faculty-student team conducted fieldwork in several Caribbean countries as part of an initiative to encourage minority U.S. students to engage with and study the Latin American and Caribbean region. This case study discusses ways in which researchers can work to establish trust in the research process on sensitive topics, where trust has been historically compromised between North American scholars and their international research subjects. The case study outlines the project's experiences with activities like choosing funding sources, communicating with transparency, and designing research activities that allow research informants and subjects to commit to participation in research projects. For research projects that aim to seek out minority or marginalized groups in Caribbean communities, a snowball method is one that worked in these field visits to establish mutual trust that can be sustained for future research. This is important because primary informants, when engaged, included, and empowered, then serve as ambassadors and advocates for research teams as they seek to achieve meaningful fieldwork outcomes.