BackHome
Refresh: OffView Personal Schedule
Paper Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Ebbing and Flowing Together: Centering Relationships Within Participatory Action Research Approaches

Mon, April 20, 8:15 to 10:15am, Virtual Room

Abstract

Objectives
This paper presents emergent narratives (Sheehan, 2011) about research projects with Indigenous communities by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars. Specifically, we explore the dynamic confluence of our histories through the development of a service-learning study abroad project where students from Oaxaca and North Carolina enter into ongoing collaborations in Peru. We center relationships of being "among, within, between, a collective of us (Tuck, 2009a, p. 62, emphasis in original) and shared commitments to dismantling forms of oppression. As such, we problematize a focus on action or change in participatory action research (PAR) methods and describe how emphasizing relationships—specifically flexibility and responsiveness—develops meaningful, sustainable collaborations. 

Theoretical Framework
Utilizing decolonizing theories (Mignolo, 2002; Smith, 2012) with PAR methods (Sandoval, Lagunas, Montelongo, & Díaz, 2016; Zavala, 2013), we ask: How can attending to relationship building (Campano, Honeyford, Sánchez, & Vander Zanden, 2010; Whetung & Wakefield, 2018), specifically flexibility (Smith, Bratini, Chambers, Jensen, & Romero, 2010) and responsiveness (Fine, Tuck, & Zeller-Berkman, 2008) promote horizontal communication and generate positive interdependence amongst participants for a study abroad program? This paper traces the dynamism of relationships that have made projects possible with Indigenous and non-Indigenous administrators, teachers, and students from universities in three countries with various linguistic, racial, religious, economic, and other background experiences (Jones & Jenkins, 2008).
 
Data Sources/Methods
We draw from fieldnotes, correspondences (e.g., messages, emails, meeting notes), recordings of meetings/events, and collaborative analytical memos. Our analyses engage in a reflexive, collaborative coding (Erickson, 2004), and consensus-building with constructive conflict dialogues (Maclean, Robinson, & Natcher, 2015). Presented as inquires around the themes of flexibility and responsiveness, the emergent narratives explore “a deeper situational awareness that generates many divergent spaces where innovation can contribute positively to the well-being of the whole” (Sheehan, 2015, p. 70) through the weaving together of authors’ histories of collaboration. 

Findings/Scholarly Significance
We present the emergent narratives of how our previous works in Oaxaca, Mexico, and Lima, Peru has led to the creation of program where students from Oaxaca and North Carolina collaborate with Indigenous community members in Peru in archaeological projects and schools. Genuine care amongst each other fosters our projects and importantly, keep us wanting to work together. Further, taking the time to nurture our connections facilitates dynamic understandings of peoples, places, and ourselves, which we argue enhances the work. In engaging in horizontal communication to generate positive interdependence amongst participants to value multiple perspectives, flexibility and responsiveness have been essential themes that sustain our projects.
Within PAR, the emphasis on change can cloud a closer look at the relationships amongst people. Although our shared commitment to actions that dismantle oppression systems certainly plays a large role in how our projects work toward enacting change, we instead trust that change will occur because of our investment in relationships. As such, these emergent narratives are not illustrative of best practices, but rather of ethical choices we have made based on centering relationships in research, and the complications that arise as well. We conclude with recommendations for prioritizing relationships.

Authors