Section outline

  • Course Overview

    This course empowers researchers to conduct culturally responsive studies by understanding diverse cultures, designing inclusive research, avoiding common pitfalls, and effectively recruiting participants. It emphasizes ethical practices, managing sensitive data, and ensuring positive impacts for marginalized groups, fostering a deeper appreciation for cultural diversity in research. 

    Learning Outcomes

    This course will help you to:

    1. Embrace cultural responsiveness to enhance research impact on marginalized groups 
    2. Take your initial ideas and refine them with your chosen community using codevelopment approaches  
    3. Evaluate the true cultural relevance of your research  
    4. Contextualize research by considering historical, social, and cultural contexts to avoid biases 
    5. Balance benefits and harms from your research in culturally responsive ways  
    6. Ensure you are able to apply culturally responsive anonymity and confidentiality procedures   

    • Course Instructor: Carol Rivas

      • Carol Rivas

        Carol's diverse background in applied health services research spans ethology, secondary data analysis, and health economics. With an MSc in Cognitive Neuropsychology, she specialized in aphasia and autism, fueling interests in psycholinguistics and AI. Her methods include conversation analysis, multimodal analysis, and text mining.  Carol's career supports innovative AI use, conversation analysis, and behavioral economics. At Queen Mary University of London, she worked on a Cochrane review, leading to her PhD in Medical Sociology. She led the NIHR Research Design Service London qualitative methodology stream and public engagement work.  Involved in e- and m-health projects, Carol focuses on vulnerable groups. She edited a special issue on disability, leads an EDI module for SAGE, and co-edits a SAGE textbook. Carol is a Lead Quality Assessor for the Office for Students and serves on several editorial boards. 

        View Bio for Carol Rivas

      • Pre-Course Self Assessment

        Before you dive into this course, spend a few moments reflecting on your familiarity with the topic and your current level of skills confidence. 

        You will then re-visit the same questions in our Post-Course Self Assessment and reflect on how the course has helped you develop in confidence and grow your skills. 

        • Module One: What Is Culturally Responsive Research?

          This module will help you to:

          1. Appreciate the many meanings of culture and how they intersect 
          2. Embrace cultural responsiveness to enhance research impact on marginalized groups    
          3. Recognize how cultural diversity influences and enriches your research  
          4. Address cultural biases to support marginalized groups and tackle systemic inequalities 

        • Module Two: Designing Culturally Responsive Research

          This module will help you to:

          1. Take your initial ideas and refine them with your chosen community using codevelopment approaches  
          2. Evaluate the true cultural relevance of your research
          3. Select and recruit participants from your chosen community, and check it is the appropriate community  
          4. Use appropriate research methods, epistemological perspectives, and data collection processes  

        • Module Three: Avoiding Common Mistakes in Culturally Responsive Research

          This module will help you to:

          1. Avoid stereotypes in research by better conceptualizing cultural groups 
          2. Effectively use categories, recognizing their limitations, and collect identity data through self-identification 
          3. Contextualize research by considering historical, social, and cultural contexts to avoid biases 
          4. Use inclusive, respectful, and accurate terms to represent diverse cultural group 

        • Module Four: Recruiting and Setting Up Participation

          This module will help you to:

          1. Recognize gaps in existing data with regard to inclusion  
          2. Balance benefits and harms from your research in culturally responsive ways  
          3. Appropriately engage the community in your design considerations and ethics processes 
          4. Recruit participants effectively and use culturally responsive consent formats   

        • Module Five: Collecting and Handling Sensitive Data

          This module will help you to:

          1. Highlight the importance of a data management plan  
          2. Ensure you are able to apply culturally responsive anonymity and confidentiality procedures   
          3. Recognize what data cannot be used, so as to protect your participants  
          4. Appreciate the different data management considerations needed for different methods  

        • References and Glossary of Key Terms

          In addition to the glossary you’ll find woven throughout the course, you can find the full glossary collated in one place here.

        • Post-Course Self Assessment

          Now you’ve completed the course, spend a few moments reflecting on where your familiarity with the topics and your confidence skills levels are at now. 

          Has the course helped you develop new skills and grow your confidence?

          You'll need to complete the Post-Course Self Assessment in order to download your certificate. If you didn't do the Pre-Course Self Assessment before starting the course, please go to the top of the page and reflect on your familiarity with the topic and your level of skills confidence before you started the course.

          • Completion: Certificate

            Completing all modules (plus the pre and post-course assessments) will unlock the course certificate, which you can then download here. Your course certificate will only be made available once you have completed all these sections.

            If you have difficulty accessing your certificate, please contact the Sage support team at: onlinesupport@sagepub.co.uk. You can also check out this FAQ page which may be helpful.

            • Give Feedback About This Course

              Did you enjoy the course? Please take two minutes to share your feedback. We use learner feedback in future course updates and developments to provide an excellent learning experience.

            • Accessibility

              We have high standards of accessibility on Sage Campus and as of May/June 2024 all activities within this course are keyboard and screen reader compatible. For more details on accessibility standards, please see the Sage Campus Accessibility Guide.

              For those using assistive technology, please note that within this course:

              • Tab components: JAWS and NVDA behave slightly differently. For NVDA to keep reading, it is best to exit focus mode and go back to browse mode. 
              • Matching: JAWS does not read out question label on dropdown focus.