Illuminating Truth-Telling in Education Through Intersectional and Qualitative Research Methods

• In Event: Critical Inquiry for the Social Good: Methodological Work as a Means for Truth-Telling in Education

Abstract

Introduction:
In educational contexts around the world, inequality (understood as unfair practices and systems that result in unequal or blocked access to opportunities, rights, and cultural capital) has individual and societal costs, which are widely understood to negatively impact life chances, well-being and limit one’s ability to reach their greatest human potential.
Objective:
The objective of our work is to examine Foucault’s sense of parrhesia (or truth-telling) and Aristotelian notions of phronesis (or practical wisdom) through intersectional-informed and qualitative methods for engaging with truth, social justice, and social good in education.
Theoretical Framework:
We utilize parrhesia and phronesis as a point of departure to illuminate methodological approaches and methods that draw upon intersectional and/or qualitative methods in the context of studying socially marginalized populations in educational environments. We draw from studies of education in informal and formal learning contexts and examine the experiences of diverse groups of students attending elementary schools, high schools, colleges and universities, and faculty working at post-secondary institutions. We find that the identified approaches hold great promise for truth-telling and in exploring students’ experiences in terms of access, success, and outcomes for marginalized groups.
Modes of Inquiry:
We advance a critical qualitative mode of inquiry and methodology that seeks the truth and liberates through driving policy changes. We situate truth-telling within approaches that center indigenous “ways of knowing” as a means of investigating, assessing, and communicating “truth”. We believe this investigation will provide new insight into the lived experiences of under-represented minority students, furthering the discourse on recruitment, retention, and progression of these populations in education. We rely upon narrative, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case study.

Our analysis will be driven by the following questions:

Knowledge: What are the ontological and epistemological understandings of knowledge? How is knowledge framed? Whose knowledge is valued?

Positionality: How does position (power/privilege) influence research? What is the researcher’s position? How should the researcher act in ethnically responsibility ways?

Process: How does knowledge and positionality inform the process of data collection? How are data collected in ethically responsible ways? What is the context for data
collection?

Measurement: Where does the lens of measurement originate? How do parrhesia and
phronesis inform measurement?

Data analysis: What knowledge is privileged in analyzing the data? What are
assumptions underlie the analysis?

Interpretation: How are the complexities of social categories made sense of? How do
insider’s perspectives of phronesis inform meaning-making?

Action: What is the research uptake? How are relations of inequity addressed? How is social justice advanced?
Conclusion & Scholarly Importance
This paper connects a set of conversations about change in higher education that often proceed separately but need to be brought together within the institutional and national policy arenas. Our framework allows people working under the umbrella of equity, diversity, and inclusion to exchange change agendas with those working under the umbrella of community, public, and civic engagement. Our paper aim for full participation to address the access and success of underserved students.

Author

• Jill Robinson