Pláticas y Conocimientos: Motherscholar Saberes Beyond Educational Research Methods

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

Abstract

Objective: With an expanding field of Critical Maternal Studies rooted in Black and Chicana Feminisms, I offer my interview and data collection approach using pláticas (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016) and Siedman’s (2013) protocols interviewing first generation Chicana, Latina, and Indiegnous PhD Motherscholars. Employing a Chicana Feminist Methdologies and a Chicana M(other)work approach (Cabaellero et.al, 2016; Cruz, 2006; Delgado Bernal, Burciaga, & Carmona, 2012) in the collection of data with and for and by Motherscholars communities with children, I offer a co-mothering methodologies approach. Hidalgo et. al (2021) build on Anzaldúa’s spiritual connection and identify co-madre conocimiento as a form of spiritual knowings, in which mothers and caregivers embody, particularly informed by the structural and institutional barriers Mothers of Color confront in higher education. In addition, my positionality as an early Motherscholar during data collection and analysis, is rooted in saberes, knowings of comadre conocimiento, as a methodological approach between bonds of Motherhood and saberes between the research and collaborative participants in data collection.

Theoretical Framework and Methodologies: Building on Gloria Anzaldúa’s (2005) theorizing work of knowing, or saberes and applying a co-madre conocimiento sentiment, I highlight the untold instances of Mothering while data-collecting. Therefore, I offer the following guiding questions: 1) What is unique about a co-madre conocimiento method in data collection between a Motherscholar researcher and other motherscholars? and 2) How do we build on theoretical, methodological, and methods in the application of a Chicana Feminista approach? By applying an inclusion principle and in-depth interview protocols of phenomenological approach, captures the connections between everyday life of Motherscholars navigating the academy. Including the brave space principle allows a sharing vulnerability when a mother describes the everyday acts of resistance and survivance (Vizenor, 2008) as a potential space for healing.

Data Source: Drawing from my dissertation titled, “Strolling and Straddling Academic Boundaries: Chicana, Latina, and Indigenous Motherscholars in the Academy”, I base my paper from 10 interviews of over 120 minutes each, with Motherscholars. Including the research memos, note books, and reflections after data collection and analysis.

Findings & Significance: By offering the acts of data collection while documenting the lives of first-generation Chicana, Latina, and Indigenous Motherscholars enrolled in doctoral programs in the U.S. Southwest (Vega, 2019), I used a pláticas as a method in my interview process, coupled with Irving Seidman’s (2013) protocols, weaved within Chicana/Latina Feminisms. A plática is the act of data collection, and the protocols inform the objective and structure of the interview. A co-mothering methodology, informed by pláticas, allows the expansion of research practices when interviewing and conducting research with and alongside other mothers in institutions of higher education or in community. For example, I conducted an interview with a Motherscholar while both our children played t-ball. The recording captures the moments of cheering, snack-time, my child crying and the joys and frustrations of motherhood, mothering, and data collection.

Author

• Christine Vega, San Jose State University