(Re)Framing Qualitative Research as a Prickly Artichoke: Peeling Back the Layers of Structural Ableism Within the Institutional Research Process

• In Event: Critical Qualitative Research, Disability, and Community: Seeking a Disability Justice Framework for Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

Within this space, we would like to take a moment – a thoughtful moment about the historical legacy of qualitative research and contributions in context of disability, in relation to democracy, socio-spatial justice, equity, and social change. Qualitative research reflects the importance of considering the role of one’s positionality in shaping one’s methods and methodology worldview-- in counter response and protest to the notion of the objectivity of research. Yet, the objectification of research participants is a tainted and lingering problematic reality that sometimes remains unexamined. In particular with disability there is a long history that documents the marginalization of disabled mindbodies through exclusion of their voices, their experiences, and their needs, while also failing to improve the quality of disabled people’s lives. Essentially, disability is routinely objectified – as a neutral nameless “existence.” In response, scholars have urged for emancipatory disability research, a framework that encourages a collective collaboration between researchers and disabled participants throughout the research design and process. This framework enables a space to create more inclusive and empowering research practices that shifts the notion of ownership. Yet, an underlying problem(s) persist – until very recently the process of qualitative research remains unexamined from the lens of disability scholarship, and while emancipatory disability research celebrates inclusive practices with disabled participants, the voices and experiences of disabled researchers remain absent or exist as the “unexpected guest.”
What is research?
What constitutes researcher?
What ways can we disrupt the current unspoken ableist assumptions about research/er?
What is research/er methods missing by centering the able body?
What would research/er look like if we centered the disabled body?
In an effort to disrupt the silence around the voices and experiences of disabled researchers, collectively and individually, we explore and address the previously mentioned questions through collective autoethnography. Throughout our own social locations along with the development of our scholarship, we have, over time, peeled back underlying structural ableism within the notion of research/er in a variety of contexts (e.g., pre-research phrase to the write up process, Institutional Review Board process, and within research methods courses). Each revelation presents an opportunity to consider alternative ways of stretching the boundaries of the embodiment of the philosophical and praxis of qualitative research/er. Furthermore, revelations reflect the significance of addressing the branches of implicit biases and micro/macroaggressions within the context of structural ableism that controls what is constitute research/er. Instead through a collective process, disability becomes central within the dialogue rather than existing on the sideline of presumed incompetence. Hence, disability, as a teacher, presents alternative ways of engaging with qualitative research/er in the grander scheme of diversity, socio-spatial justice, democracy, inclusion, access, and social change within ivory tower and outside within the community.

Authors

• Brianna J Dickens, Syracuse University

• Holly Pearson, Framingham State University