Black Liberation research: qualitative methodological considerations

Abstract

This article provides an overview of critical qualitative considerations for Black Liberation Research. The methodological considerations focus on: (a) resistance research as paradigm, (b) researcher positionality, (c) naming Black deprivation as the problem of study, (d) situating Black Liberation as the aim of analysis, and (e) centering emotions as humanizing methods. Taken together, the articles in this special issue provide an example of how Black Liberation Research can support the #BLM movement and simultaneously seek to disrupt Black deprivation in the academy.     

On truth,voice, and qualitative research

If a testimonial is questioned for its presumed inaccuracies, then the contesting work of such testimonial must meet the criteria of impartiality, reliability, and validity for the counter-data it presents. This article probes Stoll's response to Menchu's work in terms of the quality of data it offers and the arguments it weaves through the analysis. His work is found to provide weak use of alternative interview and documentary sources, to engage in selective use of evidence, and to leave out important contextual aspects of life in civil-war and contemporary Guatemala. Hence, it is asserted that Stoll's book, far from constituting an attempt to carefully reconstruct the experience and trajectory of Menchu in unprejudiced terms, affords him the opportunity to diminish the importance and rightfulness of revolutionary action in Guatemala and the role of individuals in building a collective memory.     

Student voice as a methodological issue in academic literacies research

Academic literacies research has been identified as an emerging but significant field in higher education. This article extends the discussions around methodology in academic literacies research by drawing on the current text and context debates in sociolinguistics and linguistic ethnography. It uses illustrations from a recent academic literacies research project to reflect on methodology and to emphasise the importance of a prolonged engagement with participants’ writing practices and experiences as well as the collection and analysis of a range of types of data to allow the researcher to become more familiar with the context. Methods such as allowing students to interpret their own writing, classroom observation and students’ written literacy histories gave the researcher real insights into the way students made connections to their own familiar contexts in order to learn. The research also highlighted the manner in which communication between students and teaching staff can break down because teachers misinterpret student utterances when they do not understand or know the contexts that the students are drawing on. At the same time, however, the researcher sounds some caution about the use of dialogue in ethnographic methodologies because communication is a two-way process and allocation of linguistic resources has been unequal. Therefore, where students’ resources do not match the context, they may struggle to communicate with the interviewer and to interpret their written texts. In these cases, interviewees who are first language speakers from privileged schooling backgrounds may be able to contextualise and interpret their writing more fully than interviewees who are speakers of English as a second or foreign language and who come from poorer rural schools.     

A methodological framework for studying policy-oriented teacher inquiry in qualitative research contexts

System-based and collaborative teacher inquiry has unexplored potential that can impact educational policy in numerous ways. This impact can be increased when teacher inquiry builds momentum from classrooms and teaching practices and simultaneously addresses district, state, and national discourses and networks. In this conceptual paper, I encourage scholars and practitioners to consider ways to methodologically, theoretically, and collectively strengthen teacher research and inquiry to increase its impact on policy. I propose a methodological framework for policy-oriented teacher inquiry that highlights multilayered research approaches and collaborative inquiry. I situate my arguments and the proposed framework in the context of qualitative research and Marx’s dialectic method.     

Methodological considerations in child-centered research about social difference and children experiencing difficulties at school

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ethical and methodological significance for children and university researchers to participate together in data collection and research interpretation. We examine this process in the context of a three-year study with the aim of understanding how children become identified as having difficulties in a diverse, semi-urban minority French-speaking Catholic elementary school in Ontario (Canada). First, we review the literature on child informed consent. Then, we describe the setting and the process of how children in this study became informed participants. We describe how the children became active in exercising their discretionary consent to be observed during the data collection process, then how they progressively became engaged in observing their social context in terms of their own sense-making of the research project. We discuss how the children gave a new direction to the original project proposed by the university research team investigating on identification and special needs children. Lastly, we revisit the ways in which we addressed the various subject positions that became possible for us and for the children as co-researchers within the social relations of the classroom-based research team in a French minority language school. It became apparent throughout the research that informing consent was more than an act on the part of researchers to explain and thus establish a research framework in which collecting data from children would take place. Rather, we found that our research with children involved children's active participation as co-researchers informing the project from its design to its data analysis.     

论教育研究中量化研究与质化研究的结合

在教育研究整个发展历程中,存在两种研究范式：量化研究与质化研究。本文结合这两种研究范式的历史发展,在比较它们的差异基础上,探求如何将量化研究与质化研究结合起来,以促进教育研究事业的繁荣。     

A pluralist view of generalization in qualitative research

A common way of discussing generalisation is to search for one conception – a monist view. Another approach is to create a dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative research, each having a single definition – a dualist perspective. A pluralist view is argued for here, i.e. the existence of several lines of reasoning, each of which can be evaluated in specific cases in terms of usefulness, strengths and weaknesses. Five different lines of reasoning about generalization, which could possibly be useful in qualitative research, are presented. They are: ‘studies that undermine established universal “truths”’, ‘the ideographic study’, ‘enhancing the generalisation potential by maximizing variation’, ‘generalisation through context similarity’ and ‘generalisation through recognition of patterns.’ Each is critically commented on.     

Integration statt Konfrontation! On the methodological discussion about the respective values of quantitative und qualitative research

Zusammenfassung Wenngleich in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschungspraxis die gemeinsame Nutzung qualitativer und standardisierter Ans?tze weit verbreitet ist, zeigt sich in methodologischen, wissenschaftstheoretischen und professionspolitischen Debatten weiterhin h?ufig das altbekannte Schisma zwischen den beiden Forschungstraditionen. Dieser Trennung wird hier widersprochen und anhand von Beispielen aufgezeigt, wie gerade eine an Entwicklungsprozessen interessierte Forschung durch die Kombination beider Zugangsweisen gewinnen kann. Unter einer solchen Perspektive ger?t die Frage nach der methodologischen Gründung der verwendeten Techniken in den Blick. Postuliert wird hier der Verzicht auf Sonderwege methodologischer Begründungen qualitativer Verfahren und der Gebrauch der existierenden einheitswissenschaftlicher Methodologie. Ausgehend von der gemeinsamen Erfahrung als empirische Forschungspraktiker werden über Problemstellungen aus dem Bereich der Lebensverlaufs-und Biographieforschung die spezifischen St?rken und Schw?chen der jeweiligen Ans?tze kontrastiert. Unter dem Blickwinkel der Kombination kann gezeigt werden, dass dieses multimethodische Vorgehen einerseits die Absicherung von Erkl?rungen verbessert und andererseits ad?quate Modelle der betrachteten Prozesse entworfen werden k?nnen. Im Falle inkompatibler Ergebnisse zeigt dieses Verfahren eine weitere St?rke: Jetzt k?nnen Modifikationen bestehender Erkl?rungsmodelle empirisch begründet vorgenommen werden.

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Summary Integration, not confrontation! On the methodological discussion about the respectve values of quantitative und qualitative research Although the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods is widely employed by research practitioners in the social sciences, the well established schism between the two research traditions still frequently emerges in methodological debates. While many authors in the educational sciences pretend that only a standardized and statistically oriented methodology is able to deal with the relevant questions in this field, others propagate qualitative methods as the only appropriate approach to the specific problems of this research field. This article contradicts both views and goes on to show that especially those research programmes centred on developmental processes can benefit from an integration of both perspectives. Associated with this research strategy is the problem of the methodological foundations of the different techniques. Instead of developing alternative methodological deliberations for the qualitative research, a common methodology for scientific research in general is postulated. Starting from practical experiences with biographical and life-course research, the strengths and weaknesses of each approach are contrasted with one another. The benefits of their combination are then considered. A multi-method approach leads to an improvement in the validity of conclusions drawn out of research findings. The utilization of different methods — which are often grounded in different paradigms — sheds light on the problem that research findings often show different phenomena and not the different aspects of one phenomenon. The discussion of the relationship of the findings to one another (congruent, complementary or divergent) shows that another strength of this multi-method approach lies in the empirically induced modification of existing models and theories, as well as in the development of new explanations.

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At best, one can know what has not yet been ruled out as false. (Cook/Campbell 1979, S. 37)     

高等教育多学科研究之反思——从学科性视角到方法论视角的转向

我国的高等教育研究具有鲜明的学科指向性,多学科研究方法引入高等教育研究也未改变其学科指向性。近30年的高等教育研究表明,高等教育学学科建设只是在某种程度上完成了学科的外部建制,内部建制还任重道远。其原因主要在于多学科研究的引入还停留在学科性视角层面,方法论视角在高等教育多学科研究中还未受到足够重视。欲达臻学科建设之目的,既要重视多学科研究的学科性视角,更要重视立足高等教育实践,从方法论视角开展高等教育多学科研究,最终实现从学科性视角到方法论视角的转向。     

浅议定量研究与定性研究的对比与整合

定量研究和定性研究是教育科学研究领域的量大基本范式和方法,各自有着不同的概念,在本质、认识论、理论基础、研究程序和预先设计、研究目的、研究方法上也各不相同,本文在阐述两者的特点和优点的基础上,分析了两种研究范式结合的意义、条件和可能方式。     

确认并讨论研究方法中可能出现的误差

在任何学术研究中第一手资料和第二手资料的研究都是必要的。所有的资料来源于这些研究,这些研究也给学术的调查提供了主要的资源。因此,每一位研究人员都应该认识到自己调查研究中会出现的一些偏差。这篇文章就是针对调研中可能出现的一些偏差进行了一定的研究和解释,并且讨论了怎样可以使其降低至最少并介绍了一些可能办法。     

Using blogs in qualitative educational research: an exploration of method

When compared with wider social research, qualitative educational research has been relatively slow to take up online research methods (ORMs). There is some very notable research in the area but, in general, ORMs have not achieved wide applicability in qualitative educational contexts apart from research that is inherently linked to the Internet, for example, research on educational technologies or students' online behaviour. This paper demonstrates how ORMs can be useful in qualitative research projects. It describes how on-going, reflective, qualitative data were collected using a popular, community-based online tool – blogs. The research project that utilized this approach aimed to trace how a group of international students in the United Kingdom responded to their new environment over six months. This article attempts to provide a new understanding on the use of blogs as a tool for data collection.     

论声乐演唱的音乐心理研究探析

音乐心理是人类对客观音乐现实的反映,音乐心理活动又能调节人的音乐行为。声乐既是表演的艺术,也是情感艺术,在声乐演唱中,调控好自身的心理因素,才能使歌曲的表达更准确,演唱的效果更完美。     

Beyond "cool" and "hip:" engaging the question of research and writing as academic Self-woman of color Other

This article presents a self-reflexive analysis of the situatedness of the author and her work - research and writing - as a woman of color in the academy. The author critically examines self-reflexivity in relation to her research by drawing on her lived experiences as academic Self-woman of color Other, first as an international doctoral student and now as a junior faculty member. Drawing on critical and feminist perspectives, she argues that such self-reflexivity allows for an openness which eliminates the apparent dichotomy of Self-Other and offers new spaces for re-presenting difference(s). In particular, she construes her writing as a self-renewing site of activism and resistance to Othering and her teaching as praxis and self-assessment. She concludes that cutting-edge research and writing, when rigorously self-reflexive, are beyond "cool" and "hip," allowing us to maintain integrity and agency as educators and researchers.     

走向生命关怀的教育研究

教育研究曾长期致力于科学化的建设,把实证研究的方法运用其中,在19世纪中叶的西方曾引发了一场声势浩大的科学研究和人文研究之争。实证的科学研究以对待"物"的方式对待"人",在教育研究中已经丧失了鲜活的生命。教育是直面生命的活动,具有生命的品性。教育研究必须从实证科学的"无视生命"走向"关怀生命",这就是人文科学的"理解的教育研究范式"。     

Challenges and promises of overcoming epistemological and methodological partiality: Advancing engineering education through acceptance of diverse ways of knowing

The purpose of this paper is to explore some challenges and promises when the epistemological diversity embedded in qualitative research traditions is introduced to research communities with one dominant research paradigm, such as engineering education. Literature is used from other fields and empirical data are used from engineering education, including the practices of the European Journal of Engineering Education and the Journal of Engineering Education, with the expectation that the ideas that are presented are relevant to a broad range of education disciplines. A number of challenges are identified as the epistemological diversity of qualitative research is introduced to the primarily positivist field of engineering education. Ultimately, embracing epistemological diversity holds the promise of researchers being able to ask: ‘What questions and answers become possible from these newly created positions and what can be learned from these alternative approaches?’.     

A methodological framework for practice-based research in networked learning

This paper presents a methodological frameworkfor practice-based research in the field ofnetworked learning, based on the author'sapproach to carrying out a case studyevaluation of a networked professionaldevelopment initiative for information servicesstaff in higher education. The theoreticalcase for the framework is made with referenceto principles associated with constructivistprogramme evaluation as well as withinterpretivist and critical traditions inaction research. The purposes and politics ofthis approach, and the question of validationcriteria for claims about its effectiveness forbuilding theory, as well as for evaluating andimproving practice, are discussed. Issues todo with using computer-mediated communicationas a medium for participatory research are alsoraised. An overview is given of the way thisresearch approach was implemented in practice(including the use of a combination of on-lineand face-to-face data collection methods) andsome methodological issues that arose in thecourse of carrying it out are highlighted. Thepaper concludes by suggesting that as amethodology for evaluating, theorising andimproving practice, `networked action research'also offers an approach to pedagogical design,most obviously in the context of networkedprofessional development for educators andlearner support staff.     

Living at the Border: between multiculturality,complexity and action research

The author looks into the phases of her personal experience in order to present the difficulties as well as the richness of ‘living at the border’ and of building bridges between different worlds. The prevailing Anglo-Saxon culture, above all in the world of research, obliges those who do not belong to this culture to undergo a form of tension between adaptation to language rules and ways of thinking that are foreign to them, and the need to maintain cultural and personal differences while trying to communicate. The experience of ‘contagion’ between ideas and ways of representing the world, that was seen within the Environment and School Initiatives Project (ENSI) project and that the author had the opportunity to share with John Elliott, shows the possibilities offered by these encounters. Issues such as those of the complexity and quality of learning have interweaved with those of action research and evaluation, and have crossed and enriched the values and cultures of which we were implicitly and explicitly the bearers. In the final section the author makes an attempt to illustrate the risks of today's globalisation and the tendency to eliminate borders, viewed as obstacles to individual freedom, for a kind of equalisation which, by eliminating the differences, also eliminates the possibility of development and of creativity.