Creating Spaces for Justice-Oriented Research: Critical Reflections of a Researcher/Teacher and Her Adviser

• In Event: Social Justice as an Act of Praxis

Abstract

Justice-oriented research necessitates that we re-frame our scholarship to being simultaneously critical research and pedagogical praxis as we consider our role as advisors to future critical researchers. This paper explores the critical reflections of a doctoral candidate and her advisor on the design and implementation of the candidate’s study, how space was created for such scholarship, and the challenges and catalysts for successfully navigating and shifting trenchant epistemological and methodological positions. The discussion highlights the reconceptualization of research as service in marginalized communities, reciprocity as a design element, and data analysis as the pursuit of justice rather than as methodological rigidity. This reconceptualization is pedagogically relevant especially to students of marginalized backgrounds for whom traditional approaches to research are alienating.

Authors

• Kalisha A. Waldon, Florida Atlantic University

• Dilys Schoorman, Florida Atlantic University