Courageous Conversations: Intentionally Anchoring Our Work in Critical Epistemological Foundations

• In Event: Courageous Conversations: The Power and Possibilities of Participatory Inquiry With Youth

Abstract

Participatory action research (PAR) is often tied to Freire’s (1970/2000) critical pedagogy, taking an action research (AR) approach in a radical direction that seeks to confront social inequity and oppression (Fals-Borda & Rahman, 1991; Fine & Torre, 2006). The PAR movement is grounded in epistemology that defines knowledge as multiple and democratically co-constructed (Brydon-Miller & Maguire, 2009). This approach challenges traditional hierarchies by opening up the research process, redistributing power, and centering the expertise of community members (Fals Borda & Rahman, 1991; Levin, 1999), who “hold deep knowledge about their lives and experiences” (Torre & Fine, 2006, p. 458). This process itself is often seen as transformative or ‘empowering’, as it can lead to conscientization (Freire, 1970/2000) among both oppressed individuals as well as oppressors (Call-Cummings, 2018). Yet as PAR becomes more accepted as rigorous methodology and is increasingly used in educational institutions, it has in some cases become unmoored from its epistemological foundations for the benefit of policymakers’ agendas and the reproduction of schooling and research norms (Bettencourt, 2018; Brion-Meisels & Alter, 2018; Call-Cummings, Hauber-Özer, Byers, & Peden Mancuso, 2018; Rubin, Ayala, & Zaal, 2017).
Despite our intentions to authentically collaborate with organizational stakeholders – educators and students alike – in solving the urgent problems of American schooling, we have discovered in our own work with youth (e.g. Call-Cummings & Martinez, 2016; Call-Cummings et al., 2018) that enacting PAR epistemology is complex and fraught with potential pitfalls. Even well intentioned researchers and educators can fail to recognize the layered power dynamics that inhibit authentic collaboration, expression, and equity within the collective (Bettencourt, 2018; Call-Cummings, Hauber-Özer, & Ross, 2019). Despite the difficulties inherent in PAR praxis, we still believe that PAR is a powerful way to disrupt unjust schooling practices by posing “uncomfortable questions” (Kemmis, 2010) and engaging students, teachers, and other organizational stakeholders in taking counter-hegemonic action towards structural change based on their first-hand knowledge (Brydon-Miller & Maguire, 2009; Tintiangco-Cubales, Daus-Magbual, Desai, Sabac, & Torres, 2016).
We launched the Courageous Conversations collective in 2017 with these goals in mind. Following the lead of our school-based co-researchers, we aimed to work out PAR principles in everyday conversations, planning, decision making, participatory data analysis, and presentation of our findings. As this collaboration continues into its third year, we offer in this paper reflexive examples of the ways that we, as university-based researchers, have gotten it ‘right’ as well as how we have failed to intentionally and consistently ground our work in PAR’s critical epistemology. With the awareness of our own failures as an impetus to improve our praxis and informed by our ongoing efforts to get it right, this paper calls for an intentional return to PAR’s critical roots and illustrates its powerful potential for gaining awareness, building relationships, and, we hope, creating meaningful change in our schools and communities. This paper adds to the growing body of AR literature that calls for reflexive, intentional, relational, and process-focused praxis (e.g. Bettencourt, 2018; Fox, 2019; Rubin et al., 2017).

Author

• Melissa Hauber-Özer, George Mason University