Considering Positionality: The Ethics of Conducting Research on Marginalized Groups

• In Event: 25.027 - Multimethod Approaches to Research for Social Justice and Equity in Education

Abstract

Dismantling the white, patriarchal, cisgender, straight structures of society cannot be done by applying the same research methods we have always used. Research has been traditionally located in our white, patriarchal higher education system, and those traditional research structures are racialized, sexist, and marginalizing - we cannot expect to understand and explore the experiences of traditionally marginalized individuals using the same methods, approaches, and lens we have always used. Research done even with the intent of “helping” marginalized groups, but conducted unethically, without considering our position as researchers, in society, our privilege, and the power/knowledge system will, at best, not truly represent their experiences and needs, but at worse, could worsen their marginalization, and take advantage of them, both on an individual level, but also as a group. As researchers, we hold a privileged status within the research process, regardless of our other salient identities, a status that influence the research process from the selection of research questions to who we choose as participants, our research methods, and how we report and share findings. This privilege imparts significant power, therefore, in the power/knowledge cycle which is why it is so important to be mindful of our role in the process and how we reproduce existing power/knowledge frameworks that marginalize underrepresented groups.
In this poster presentation, I discuss how to acknowledge and address the ethical concerns and potential methodological obstacles that can occur when conducting research on underrepresented, marginalized, or minoritized groups and provide strategies to acknowledge, address, and mitigate those concerns. I begin by discussing the implications of conducting research from a position of privilege and critiques around privileged group members doing research with or “on” marginalized populations, including positionality, insider/outsider status, reflexivity, and the relationship between power and knowledge. Second, I discuss key strategies in the research process, beginning with the research questions we ask, who participates in our research and how they participate, and how we report results. Finally, I present several research methodologies that incorporate ethical and participatory research methods as examples of ways to conduct research on marginalized populations from their standpoints that empowers participants and leads to suggestions for meaningful change. The relationship between power and knowledge means that considering how our decisions are impacted by our privilege and position in society is critical for our research to create knowledge that contributes to great social justice, instead of diminishing it. If we do not consider our positionality throughout the research process, we run the risk of creating ethical issues associated with conducting social justice research as a privileged outsider, which includes whitewashing, overlooking, misunderstanding, ignoring, exploiting, and framing as deficient the lives and experiences of our participants.

Author

• Laura Parson, Auburn University