Research as Resistance: Critical, Indigenous, and Anti-oppressive Approaches. Eds. Leslie Brown and Susan Strega. Toronto, Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2005.
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Leslie Brown and Susan Strega. “Introduction: Transgressive Possibilities.” Research as Resistance: Critical, Indigenous, and Anti-oppressive Approaches. Eds. Leslie Brown and Susan Strega. Toronto, Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2005. 1-19.
9-10 “Critical, Indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches to research see research as part of an emancipatory commitment, and seek to move beyond a critical social science to establish a position of resistance (Ristock and Pennell, 1996; Tuhiwai Smith, 1999). This book is concerned [now page 10] with the development of research approaches that empower resistance. This is not empowerment as it is popularly understood as an essentially private activity, as in individual assertiveness or the psychological experience of feeling powerful, but empowerment that is tied to an analysis of power relations and a recognition of systemic oppressions. Research that empowers resistance makes a contribution to individually and collectively changing the conditions of our lives and the lives of those on the margins. By centring questions of whose interests are served not only by research products but also in research processes, it challenges existing relations of dominance and subordination and offers a basis for political action.”
21 “Emancipatory research is inclusive of a variety of research methodologies. Humphries, Mertens, and Truman (2000) list several research approaches arising from epistemologies in feminism, critical hermeneutics, postmodern, and critical theory, all of which share an emancipatory objective. An Indigenous framework can be added to this list. The epistemological assumptions of these varied methodologies contend that those who live their lives in marginal places of society experience silencing and injustice. Within the realm of research and its relationship to the production of knowledge, this absence of voice is significant and disturbing. To discuss liberating research methodologies without critical reflection on the university’s role in research and producing knowledge is impossible.”
Kathy Absolon and Cam Willett. “Putting Ourselves Forward: Location in Aboriginal Research.” Research as Resistance: Critical, Indigenous, and Anti-oppressive Approaches. Eds. Leslie Brown and Susan Strega. Toronto, Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2005. 97-126.
122: “myths of value neutrality and objectivity” (quoting Gilchrist, 1997, p. 80)
123: “It is time that academics recognize the validity of research processes that account for the influence of the researcher’s reality and experience. Locating self in research brings forward this reality.”
Susan Strega. “The View from the Poststructural Margins: Epistemology and Methodology Reconsidered.” Research as Resistance: Critical, Indigenous, and Anti-oppressive Approaches. Eds. Leslie Brown and Susan Strega. Toronto, Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2005. 199-235.
201: “[r]esearchers committed to social justice […] challenge not only research methods, but the ontological and epistemological foundations of these methods. As critical race scholar Ladson-Billings (2000) notes, taking up this challenge can be difficult:
‘How one views the world is influenced by what knowledge one possesses, and what knowledge one is capable of possessing is influenced deeply by one’s world view. The conditions under which people live and learn shape both their knowledge and their world views. The process of developing a world view that differs from the dominant world view requires active intellectual work on the part of the knower, because schools, society, and the structure and production of knowledge are designed to create individuals who internalize the dominant world view and knowledge production and acquisition processes.’ (Ladson-Billings, 2000, p. 258)
The hegemony of the dominant world view is more than one way to view the world; it is successfully positioned as the most legitimate way to view the world. The existence of non-Western, non-Eurocentric world views that are not founded on a hierarchical dualism, which posit that both existence and knowledge are contingent on others, and/or on the world and other living entities, have important implications for researchers. For example, some Indigenous peoples define the basis of knowledge as connection: everyone and everything in the world is connected, and understanding these connections is the beginning of knowledge.”
203: “Enlightenment epistemology rests on a dualistic foundation, in which qualities such as rationality, reason, objectivity, and impartiality are privileged over and opposed to irrationality, emotion, subjectivity, and partiality. […] rests on a hierarchical system of dualisms […] always oppositional and hierarchical, never neutral.”
The entire chapter is critical reading for framing any discussions of methods and theories. I hope to see this constantly and consistently on syllabi and for primary reading lists for reading groups.
And, notes are incomplete with need to stand in solidarity today.
2017-10-19