Service users as peer
researchers
Mark Weinstein & Graham Bowpitt
Issues to be covered
•What is ‘peer research’?
•Why use service users as peer researchers?
•A case study from homelessness research
•What happened in practice?
•What lessons can be learnt for research
practice?
What is ‘peer research’?
•Peer research is an approach to research
design in which ‘researchers’ are drawn
from among the ‘researched’, i.e., from
among the subject group of the research
•The service user as peer interviewer arises
where both interviewers and research
subjects are recruited from among users of
services, in this case, for homeless people
Why do peer interviewing?
1. ‘Consumerist’: primarily benefits the
research by incorporating participant
perspectives into the research design &
conduct
2. ‘Democratic’: primarily as a vehicle of
empowerment in which control of the research
process is ceded to participants
•Raises issues concerning:
–Practical limits to involvement of different
groups
–The extent to which genuine empowerment is
possible & desirable
Researching homelessness
•Part of ESRC Multiple Exclusion Homelessness
research programme
•Aims to deepen our understanding of
homelessness:
–How do homeless people prioritise the
problems they face?
–How far do these priorities square with those
of different support agencies?
•105 interviews with homeless people in
Nottingham and London, plus 44 interviews
with key informants involved in the provision of
services
The peer researcher role
•As co-designers of the interview schedules
•As co-interviewers of single homeless
research participants, alongside a member of
the academic research team
•As co-analysers of the data through focus
groups at which early findings were
presented
•As co-disseminators of the findings through
involvement in the production of a DVD
Peer researcher recruitment,
training & preparation
•Potential peer researchers were identified by
Framework & Thames Reach from amongst
their ex-service user volunteers
•Initial briefing session to inform them of the
nature of the research & their potential role
•Focus groups in Nottingham & London to
develop the interview schedule
•Peer researcher interview training day
•Further London meeting prior to starting
interviews
Methodological issues encountered
•Deficiencies in gender mix of volunteers
•Variations in peer researcher knowledge,
confidence, skill & performance: when (should)
an academic intervene to cut off an irrelevant
line of inquiry, significant omission or
repetition?
•Does such intervention assist the peer
researcher or undermine their confidence?
•How does one balance the tension between
three conflicting interests:
–The needs of the peer researcher
–The patience of the respondent
–The demands of the research agenda
Ethical issues
•Research participants often commented that
the presence of peer researcher had
engendered an atmosphere of trust
•Peer researchers were often a calming
presence for the academic researcher
•Should peer researchers tell their own story /
advise respondents?
•Complexity of managing the interview & the
peer researcher simultaneously
•What to do when a peer researcher is absent?
•The importance of individual de-briefing &
periodic group sessions
Post-interview participation
•Data analysis workshops in Nottingham and
London to discuss emergent findings
•Invited to comment on our initial interpretation of
the data
•As equal participants through membership of the
project steering group
•As co-disseminators through the production of a
DVD
Benefits to all parties
•To the project in enhancing the trustworthiness
of the data
•To the respondents in improving their sense of
being heard & understood
•To the peer researchers in enhancing their
skills & employability: several have gone on to
secure jobs, often in housing support work,
since the end of the interviews
Challenges for research practice
•How do academic researchers induct & train
peer researchers to work effectively in an
environment that is alien to them?
•Should academics be more selective in
recruiting peer researchers?
•How do academics resolve the conflicting
priorities of training peer researchers &
fulfilling project expectations?
•In the end, what’s in it for peer researchers?
•How far is genuine empowerment possible in
the research process?