The real risk in research is treating people as objects, not contaminating results.

Evidence

The real danger of the investigation is not that the supposed objects of the investigation, discovering themselves to be co-investigators, might “adulterate” the analytical results. On the contrary, the danger lies in the risk of shifting the focus of the investigation from the meaningful themes to the people themselves, thereby treating the people as objects of the investigation. Since this investigation is to serve as a basis for developing an educational program in which teacher-student and students-teachers combine their cognitions of the same object, the investigation itself must likewise be based on reciprocity of action. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 309

Categorization

• QUESTION: This directly anticipates the reader’s concern about the facilitator who already knows the correct consciousness — does Freire’s own reciprocity norm hold when the investigator believes they ‘already know’ the critical attitude?
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s own note on banking education reproducing oppression: treating students as objects is the epistemic core of banking, and Freire here says investigation itself can commit the same sin.