A Chicana/Latina Feminist Methodology: Examining Pláticas in Educational Research

• In Event: Cultivando Metodologías Feministas: A Chicana/Latina Feminista Praxis in Educational Research

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to analyze our experiences using pláticas that are grounded in Chicana/Latina feminisms. While pláticas are not necessarily a novel qualitative research method, not enough work has been done to fully conceptualize their use as a methodological approach. The paper is organized and guided by four questions: 1) What are pláticas and what are their origins? 2) What is the role of positionality in pláticas? 3) What do pláticas look like in research/practice? and 4) What are the future directions of pláticas in education?

Theoretical Framework & Methods: We situate pláticas through a Chicana/Latina feminist framework. Fierros and Delgado Bernal (2016) outline a set of contours that encompass a plática methodology. They shift pláticas from simple entryways or “small talk,” to a valid data collection approach. Specifically, these contours are that pláticas: 1) view and honor participants as co-constructors of knowledge; 2) incorporate everyday lived experiences as part of research inquiry; 3) are two-directional and based on reciprocity, vulnerability, and researcher reflexivity; 4) provide a potential space for healing; and 5) draw heavily from Chicana/Latina feminist theory. Unlike interviews, pláticas are not just a method of data collection, they are a framework for how to approach the entire research process; that is, pláticas are both methodology and method.

Data Sources: Our paper includes examples of how we use pláticas in our own research. The first author draws on 30 pláticas she conducted with Chicana mothers and daughters to illustrate what pláticas can look like with an adult population. She focuses on examining 1) the role of the researcher, 2) the potential for healing, and 3) the way everyday experiences become part of the research inquiry. The second author draws on three group pláticas she conducted with Latinx fifth graders to show what this methodology can look like with youth. She highlights how she 1) developed a close connection, even without knowing the collaborator(s) for an extended period of time and 2) how pláticas are the data itself, rather than a means to the data.

Findings: Collectively, our research shows pláticas are firmly grounded in a Chicana/Latina feminist epistemology. Whether they are being used with adults or young people, the examples illustrate how pláticas are an engaging process between researcher and collaborators, the significance of building genuine relationships, and the potential they have for healing. They also show how the everyday experiences of the research collaborators are central to the research process.

Significance: Pláticas allow for our full selves to be present in the research process, not just what we deem worthy of examining. They disrupt what Luis Urrieta (2003) describes as the “dismembering of human bodies” in data analysis, where we disconnect human emotion and human lives through the research process. As the scholarship on pláticas continues to expand, we need more examples of what this methodology looks like in practice, as well as areas that can be further examined and developed. Our paper aims to support scholars who are interested in using pláticas as a research methodology.

Authors

• Alma Itzé Flores, California State University - Sacramento

• Socorro Morales, California State Polytechnic University - Pomona