Immersion Research using the Reality Check Approach
Through immersion by trained researchers, RCA offers governments, donors, development programmes, the private sector and others an opportunity to shed light on whether their policies and interventions are relevant and translate into tangible improvements in the lives of targeted individuals and communities.
"Digging much deeper to see, sense, witness and be part of the unseen and unreachable"
Reality Check Approach (RCA) is an internationally recognised qualitative research approach to immersions first used in Bangladesh in 2007. The approach uses immersive, experiential and observational research techniques, whereby researchers actually live with study participants in their homes for several days and nights and informally engage with them and the wider community. |

RCA immersion research is based on the principles of ethnography but its narrower focus (on relevance, usability, for example) and the short time for immersions distinguish it from ethnography. RCA is based on the premise that experiential knowledge is a critical element of research seeking to produce people-centred accounts. RCA seeks to understand the processes, motivations, behaviours and attitudes of people through ‘hanging out’ informally, two-way conversations, observation and experience over several days and nights. Relying on building informal relationships and adopting the position of learner, RCA researchers involve community members in analysis of their own situation so that insights emerge naturally. These emerging insights are collected through extensive debriefing sessions and then analysed into patterns and relationships using Grounded Theory.
Empatika believes that training is an especially critical part of successful, effective, and respectful, immersion research. All Empatika researchers have participated in our six-day RCA Level 1 training that prepares researchers for immersion through both classroom and in-field practicum prior to participating in any piece of research.
Empatika believes that training is an especially critical part of successful, effective, and respectful, immersion research. All Empatika researchers have participated in our six-day RCA Level 1 training that prepares researchers for immersion through both classroom and in-field practicum prior to participating in any piece of research.