An Unequal Partnership

Abstract

This chapter addresses what Rickford referred to as an unequal partnership between researchers and the researched. In this chapter, Rickford's assertion of an unequal partnership within the field of sociolinguistics is extended to the field of communication sciences and disorders (CSD). A summary of the CSD literature on the Black speech community identifies shortcomings, leading the authors to argue that more can be done to equalize the partnership between CSD researchers and the Black speech community. The authors make the case for the establishment of service-in-return as a general principle of CSD research – especially when the researched community is a minority, marginalized, or underserved community. Ideas of ways that researchers can give back to the researched communities are provided. The authors also suggest ways that researchers can foster a sense of civic responsibility in student researchers in order to usher in a new generation of researchers who are more committed than past generations to equalizing the partnership between researchers and researched communities.