The primary purpose of this research was to hear the voices of ECs who live and work in rural and northern Manitoba. The research question was: “How can Employment Counsellors in rural and northern regions best be supported to enhance their effectiveness in helping clients with multiple barriers achieve job success?”
Appreciative inquiry was the mode of action research and the overall participatory approach that was taken with the ECs. To understand appreciative inquiry, Cooperrider, Sorensen, Yaeger, and Whitney (2001) presented, “More than a method or technique, the appreciative mode of inquiry is a way of living with, being with, and directly participating in the varieties of social organizations we are compelled to study”
(p. 59). This chapter presents the research design for this project and describes the process for participant selection, data gathering, analysis, and the potential of ethical issues.
Doug Bartlett acted as sponsor and liaison with the NILA Board of directors and provided support as a member of the Project Leadership Committee. This key stakeholder group was organized around the ECs and their work–life connections. The Project Leadership Committee included myself, my project supervisor from RRU, Dr. Marilyn Hamilton, the sponsor from NILA, Doug Bartlett, and representatives of participants’ employers. My motto, when I left my first-year residency, was to find ways to speak so others may hear me. An inclusive stakeholder committee provided me with this opportunity, and I am now more aware of challenges I face when dealing with the intricacies of culture and languages. I consistently tried to present myself in a way that Stringer (1999) described as critical to establishing the researcher’s role. Stringer said, “The facilitator, therefore, first must establish a stance that is perceived as legitimate and non-threatening by all major stakeholding groups”
(p. 53).