If you wish to receive sharp slaps, why not? We'll call you for interviews": Understanding challenges of conducting interviews with Israeli Arab dying patients under a culturally responsive research approach

Introduction

In 2023–2024, we embarked on a qualitative study on palliative care among Israeli-Arab end-of-life patients. The study was conducted by a female Muslim Israeli-Arab Ph.D. student and supervised by a male white Jewish professor. Yet our cultural differences led to methodological challenges and tension. Over time it became clear that such obstacles could not be adequately addressed through "common" practices of reflection and positionality.

Goals and Methods

To achieve a better, more refined understanding of the challenges and their impact on the researchers, the participants, and the research at large, a culturally-responsive research approach was applied. Following the critical advocacy research design, this study analyzed the major challenges and solutions associated with conducting this research in Israeli-Arab society. Situational analysis methods were used to interpret and understand the data.

Results

Based on a five-stage analysis, four major themes emerged: Facing death and choosing research; relationships with participants and other related stakeholders; conducting interviews and feeling bound (or supported) by ethical guidelines; and supervisor-student relationship.

Conclusion

The discussion of these themes under the culturally responsive research framework provides a richer understanding of the ethical and methodological challenges of this sensitive research and of the concept of death and dying in the Arab Society. Taking a richer cultural look at these challenges forces us to resist traditional Western paradigms and epistemologies, while constantly reexamining and understanding our own identities and set of beliefs, within and outside our research activities. It also allows to draw micro, meso and macro level insights, thereby advocating change and further actions required to the original research, to academic supervision and to the society at large.