Questioning Traditional and Hegemonic Epistemologies

• In Event: 34.038 - Challenging Post-Truth Rhetoric Through Decolonial Frameworks: Learning From Participatory, Ethnographic, and Narrative Research in Education

Abstract

Research is implicitly or explicitly guided by the researcher’s assumptions regarding the nature of knowledge and truth. The assumptions that underpin competing epistemological paradigms frame and understand phenomena in very different ways. Denzin (2000) argues that the interpretation of phenomena is not a mechanical, formulaic process; rather, it is similar to telling a story to oneself and then sharing it with others.
Epistemology is knowledge that is subject to the evidence assembled on individual views through the subjective experiences of people in contact with subjects and their contexts (Creswell, 2013) and thus beliefs as the ways of knowing and learning in a social world (Ritchie & Lewis, 2003).
In this presentation, I reflect on how conceptual frameworks and research designs are influenced by my own epistemology – how I conceptualize and understand/make sense of the world around me. Guba calls this a “worldview,” principles which he defines as a “basic set of beliefs that guide action” (1990, p. 17).
In order for me to challenge traditional and hegemonic epistemologies and forms of research, I use ideas from Santos (2014) as he explains that there is an invisible abysmal line that divides those who have the scientific knowledge and those who have not. To this, I borrow two concepts El Buen Vivir and Sentipensante to encourage myself and qualitative researchers to dismantle this abysmal line as we amplify the knowledge of those who have lived at the margins of society.
The first concept that builds my worldview as it represents the possibility to mesh mxnkind with nature from a respectful point of view for ethical human coexistence in diversity as an opportunity against systemic violence (Dávalos, 2008). El Buen Vivir is performed as a critical reaction to dominant Western theories of knowledge and also presents possibilities beyond the modern world in which all humans live well and cohabit in relation with nature and mother earth (Gudynas, 2011). This term has also been used as holistic reaction for the term “development” and an alternative for a model of “civilization” (León, 2008) and as a counter hegemonic concept for decoloniality (Quijano, 2015).
The second concept, Sentipensante is a combination of two Spanish words: sentir, which means to sense or feel, and pensar, which means to think. Unlike schooling that teach us to divorce soul from body and mind and heart, Galeano (1992) invite us to be married with our hearts and our minds in order to speak the language of the truth. He conceives this synergic feeling/thinking construct as a stance for rationality and intuition that exists in counterintuitive synergic opposition that our ancestors have always shared as conscious and evolved beings.
Furthermore, I examine my role as a researcher and prompt others to do so as well. Brown and Strega (2005) argue that researchers must examine their “positionality” within their research, researchers should explore and reflect on how their position and location as (human) researchers affects their inquiry and as such how we involved participants in the research process.

Author

• Yecid Ortega, University of Toronto