ABSTRACT
The African continent experienced the pitfalls of the COVID-19 pandemic on research activities in higher educational institutions. Moreover, the pandemic prompted innovations and modifications in research methods that adapted to the restrictions imposed to contain the pandemic. Using the postgraduate research space, this chapter explores the impact of the pandemic on classroom-based research (CbR) in the Tanzanian context. The chapter examines the epistemological, methodological, and structural challenges that postgraduate students faced and the adaptive decision-making process prior to and during the fieldwork. The research space was influenced by research sites’ responsiveness, data collection techniques, self-perceived severity of the pandemic, and precaution against transmission and infection of the virus. The chapter concludes that CbR underwent modifications to adapt with the pandemic constraints partly due to the prevailing conditions and a general paucity of field data collection guidelines during the pandemic. Furthermore, we emphasize the notion and the characterization of emergency research methods, approaches, and procedures to support research integrity and the need to take into account the researcher’s adaptive capacities during disruptive times.
