In this portion of the panel, I examine the interaction between researcher and participant perspectives in Blueprint’s implementation of three RCT projects, and how the inherent complexity and messiness of participant behavior necessitates accommodation in the research design.
Participant voices within an RCT can be heard in numerous ways, both directly (e.g., participant interviews) and indirectly (e.g., consent and participation rates). Beyond just understanding participant satisfaction with the program being evaluated, which is often a core research question in an RCT, dialogue with participants helps to construct an account of what the story of an RCT looks like from their perspective.
We find that, like frontline practitioners, narratives of trust are centered in participant perspectives of an RCT, as well as their decisions about whether to consent and actively participate. Because the design of an RCT has tangible and immediate effects on participants’ lives-- for some participants, being randomized out of the program can trigger feelings of exclusion or rejection, and/or may prevent them from taking important steps towards self-development-- the importance for participants to fully understand the research, its benefits, and its longer-term importance cannot be understated.
Relatedly, we also learn that accounting for the messiness of participant behaviour (for instance, the tendency for life circumstances to prevent individuals from fully participating in the program within the timeframe that was originally planned) in the initial design of an RCT, while potentially onerous and complex, prevents this messiness from presenting itself in unanticipated ways later in the research process.
