Current Absence and Future Potential of Korean Methods and Methodology in Disability Studies in Education

• In Event: 44.053 - Diverse "How" to Do Qualitative Research: Challenging White Qualitative Research Methods and Methodologies in Disability Studies in Education

Abstract

This presentation has two objectives: first of all, it will share challenges the researcher had in the process of carrying out traditional ethnographic research methods in a Korean American urban community setting. Second, it will raise a question about the meaning of “de-colonizing” methodology (González & Lincoln, 2006) in the historical and geographical context of Korea.

The researcher’s current dissertation study, Making Sense of Transition to Adulthood from the Perspective of Korean-American Youth Labeled with Intellectual Disability has generated critical experiences in using qualitative research methods and methodologies throughout different research stages. The purpose of this study was to understand the urban lives of Korean-American youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities, who are often multiply marginalized because of their intersecting identities, through DSE lens. This study has three dimensions: the daily experience of Korean American youth with disabilities in their community; cultural practices relating to disability and adulthood; and the relationship of transition to the less visible broader societal structures such as gender, race/ethnicity, and class. In order to explore these multi-dimensional questions, the researcher incorporated a critical ethnographic method (Carspecken, 1996), which included participant observation and interviews with Korean American youth with disabilities in their community.

From the very beginning of this research, Korean culture was working not as steady object that the researcher needed to find and look at, but as living thing that researcher continuously had to feed and deal with in order to go forward. For example, in the recruitment process, since disability is often shamed and hidden in Korean families, it can be insulting to acknowledge children’s disabilities and ask for their participation in the research. Before actually explaining the research plan and asking for participation, it was necessary to do “안면을 트다,” which means “removing objects between faces.” The most important aspect of this process is to determine the age hierarchy between two parties. My relationship – even as a researcher – to a participant varied significantly depending on whether I was older or younger than him/her. In this presentation more cultural impacts on each research stage will be discussed.

While alternative qualitative research methods and methodologies as a decolonizing tool have been actively discussed and implemented by indigenous scholars (e.g., Kovach, 2009; Kulago, 2012; Weber-Pillax, 2004), “Korean qualitative methods and methodologies” have not been reconstructed yet in academia. During and after the colonial era, much of Korean culture and identity was forcibly removed by Japanese and western imperialists, but in addition, Korean intellectuals actively disconnected themselves from the Korean tradition of study, in order to transform Korea into a strong, modern, westernized nation. This removal and disconnection resulted in the irony of Korean social science that only the western framework is used to interpret social phenomenon in Korean cultural context. This presentation will discuss whether it is possible and in which ways individual study can constitute a step toward gathering cultural knowledge, recognize the ways a community perceives social issues, and reconstruct a problem-solving process in a community, in particular around disability issues.

Author

• Eun Young Jung, Elmira College