Equity and Engagement in Research

Equity and meaningful engagement are foundational to ethical, impactful, and high‑quality research. How research questions are shaped, whose knowledge is valued, who participates, and who benefits all influence the relevance of research. This page brings together resources that support researchers in reflecting on power, inclusion, and responsibility throughout the research lifecycle.

These resources explore key approaches such as equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI); community‑based and participatory research; and decolonizing research practices. Together, these perspectives emphasize collaboration, reciprocity, and respect for lived experience, cultural knowledge, and community priorities. They challenge traditional research norms that have excluded or marginalized certain voices, and promote practices that are accountable, inclusive, and responsive.

Whether you are developing a research idea, building partnerships, designing methods, or translating findings into action, these resources are meant to support ongoing learning and critical self‑reflection. Equity and engagement are not checkboxes – they are continuous commitments that strengthen research and its real‑world impact.

• Presentation: Honouring our social obligations: Incorporating social accountability & responsibility throughout the research process by Dr. Tejal Patel, Neha Arora and Janelle Panday [Video | Slides]
• Book chapter: Potts, K. & Brown, L. (2015). Becoming an anti-oppressive researcher. In S Strega and L Brown, Research as resistance: Revisiting critical, Indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches (2nd Ed.). pp. 255-286. Canadian Scholars’ Press, Toronto.
  • For a copy of this book chapter, contact Neha Arora

Decolonizing Research

Decolonizing research is a process of conducting research with Indigenous communities that places Indigenous voices and epistemologies in the center of the research process. There is no fixed path for decolonizing research methodologies; publications in the section provide a broad framework for decolonizing methodologies and Indigenous research paradigms.

• Presentation: Indigenous Ways of Knowing: How should we conduct research together? By Amy Montour [Video | Slides]
• Journal article: Held, M. B. (2019). Decolonizing research paradigms in the context of settler colonialism: An unsettling, mutual, and collaborative effort. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18, 1609406918821574.
• Journal article: Gerlach, A. (2018). Thinking and researching relationally: Enacting decolonizing methodologies with an indigenous early childhood program in Canada. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17(1), 1609406918776075.
• Book: Smith, L. T. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples.
• Presentation: Research involving Indigenous Communities by Renee Corbiere
• Web article: Want to reach out to an Indigenous scholar? Awesome! But first, here are 10 things to consider by Jesse Popp (The Conversation)
• Book: Potts, K. & Brown, L. (2015). Becoming an anti-oppressive researcher. In S Strega and L Brown, Research as resistance: Revisiting critical, Indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches (2^nd Ed.). pp. 255-286. Canadian Scholars’ Press.
• Journal article: Kandasamy, S., Jonathan, Y., Majid, U., Farrah, K., & Vanstone, M. (2021). Indigenous women’s experiences of cervical cancer screening: Incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing into a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative research. Global Public Health, 1-14.
• Presentation: Indigenous Data Ownership – Research Data Canada Webinar

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research

• DFM resource: Inclusive Language Tip Sheet
• Journal article: Dunn, D. S., & Andrews, E. E. (2015). Person-first and identity-first language: Developing psychologists’ cultural competence using disability language. American Psychologist, 70(3), 255.*
• Journal article: Katz, A. S., Hardy, B. J., Firestone, M., Lofters, A., & Morton-Ninomiya, M. E. (2020). Vagueness, power and public health: use of ‘vulnerable ‘in public health literature. Critical Public Health, 30(5), 601-611.*
• Journal article: Simon, C., Brothers, S., Strichartz, K., Coulter, A., Voyles, N., Herdlein, A., & Vincent, L. (2021). We are the researched, the researchers, and the discounted: the experiences of drug user activists as researchers. International Journal of Drug Policy, 98, 103364.
• Presentation: Race in Research by Dr. Anjali Menezes and Neha Arora, Research Knowledge and Skill Builder. [Video | Slides]

Community Engaged Research

Type of partnership approach where individuals as patients or communities are engaged in research as members of the research team to help shape the research priorities, scope, implementation and outcomes.

• Guide: PERC Advisory Board (October 2017). Building Patient Engagement in Research: A Guide for Research Teams. A product of the INSPIRE-PHC Patient Engagement Resource Centre (PERC)
• Presentation: Working with the experts – involving people with lived and living experience in research by Dr. Claire Bodkin and Jammy Pierre, Research Knowledge and Skill Builder [Slides | Video | Resources]
• Presentation: Community engagement in DFM prison health research: practices and reflections by Dr. Fiona Kouyoumdjian and Lindsay Jennings, Research Knowledge and Skill Builder [Video | Slides]