Social Justice and Equity as Research Education: Applied Critical Leadership in the Mixteco/Indígena Community

• In Event: Contemplating Contextualized Decolonization, Intersectionality, and Antiracism: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (U.S.); Hopi Country; and New Zealand Perspectives

Abstract

This paper chronicles ways in which Applied Critical Leadership (ACL) was practiced in an Indigenous migrant serving, Indigenous led non-profit through a “strengths- based model of leadership practice where leaders consider the social context of their communities and empower individual members of these communities based on the leaders’ identities as perceived through a CRT lens” (Author, 2012, p. 5). Theoretical framing will expand ACL to this context through qualitative research methodology, namely oral testimonios (Chase, 2005) collected as critical oral histories (Anderson et al., 1987) from research team members and project leaders. Additional data sources include document analysis of the research materials, and the transcriptions of semi-structured interviews. Narrative analysis will be used in order to glean understanding from the highly oral data sources in this multilingual research endeavor (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996). Data analysis will consist of the constant comparison (Glaser & Strauss, 1968) applications of grounded theory organizing the data around the tenets outlined in ACL. Finally, data will be organized and discussed within relation to the three categories identified in this symposium: decolonization, intersectionality, and anti-Racism.

Over the course of three-years, this inquiry revealed itself an exemplar for decolonized research, though funded by the state of California through a project designed to increase the number of migrant Indigenous (and often undocumented) referrals to mental health clinics run by a large county. The organization hosting the research was Indigenous led with a 51% Indigenous Executive Board and 80% employees serving upwards of 20,000 migrant Indigenous families in the community.

The project became an expression of social justice in action, when state and county funders came to the realization project personnel were capable of meeting empirical research goals, as a result of the non-profit hiring a former academic with extensive research experience to serve in the role of principal investigator (PI). Following a series of trainings centered on mixed-methods research methodology, a Spanish, English, and Mixteco variant speaking team of Mixtec, Chicanx, and Afro Latina women led by the Black Indigenous descent woman PI, engaged the inquiry in a culturally affirming manner. The research functioned by sourcing wisdom, knowledge, and ways of being with and in service to the team’s Indigenous communities. Familiar with ACL in multiple contexts, the PI observed tenants of the critical race theory (CRT) grounded leadership framework reflected in the Mixteco/ Indígena community project as a clear expression of social justice, equity, and inclusion in projects with which she was familiar (Author, 2012; 2015).

This contribution is significant because it demonstrates ways in which adult learners can learn how to engage research to support the questions relevant to their communities. It also demonstrates ways in which Indigenous migrant multilingual community members can learn how to become research leaders of themselves, rather than have ‘others’ constantly asking for access to conduct research “on” the community, particularly an Indigenous migrant community. Finally, findings provide yet another application for applied and critical leadership contributing to the saliency and timeliness of this leadership theory for the 21st century and beyond.

Author

• Lorri J. Santamaría, California Lutheran University