Writing to Resist, Remember, and Reclaim: Employing a Critical Race Feminista Epistolary Methodology

• In Event: Women of Color Reclaiming Voice: Engaging Transformative Methodologies to Honor Women of Color Experiences

Abstract

Objectives: Few qualitative studies in the field of Education incorporate epistolary writing as central to the research methodology. In her 2018 work, Nora Cisneros addressed this gap by offering the Indigenous Epistolary Methodology, positioning it as a tool that challenges oppressive written representations of Communities of Color. Responding to Cisneros’ (2018) call, we employ opportunities for creative writing during the research process by providing two examples of how we incorporate a Critical Race Feminist Epistolary Methodology (CRFEM) into our research with Chicana/Latina scholars. Specifically, we respond to two guiding questions: (1) What constitutes a Critical Race Feminista Epistolary Methodology (CRFEM) in education research? and (2) What does the empirical application of a CRFEM look like in research that centers the educational life experiences of Chicanas/Latinas? In centering Women of Color perspectives, a CRFEM provides opportunities for researchers and collaborators to reclaim and rewrite narratives of educational resilience.

Theoretical Framework: For Women of Color, research methodologies are extensions of their ways of knowing and central to how they embody research (Saavedra & Salazar Perez, 2014, p. 78). We pair Critical Race Theory in Education (CRT) with Chicana/Latina Feminist Theory (CLFT) to form a Critical Race Feminista Praxis (Delgado Bernal & Alemán, 2017). These frameworks provide theoretical and methodological tools that we utilize to honor and document our research collaborators’ knowledge and educational life experiences.

Methodology: We ascribe to a Critical Race Feminista Praxis (Delgado Bernal & Alemán, 2017; Delgado Bernal, Perez Huber, & Malagon, 2018) by triangulating qualitative data which presents in the form of pláticas (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016) and two iterations of a Chicana/Latina Epistolary Methodology. The first study examines 42 handwritten letters and 24 pláticas to make sense of the educational life histories of Chicana/Latina mothers and daughters who attend college at the same time in the U.S. Southwest. The second study examines 21 pláticas and 43 Latinx Immigrant Cartas to document the educational journeys of citizen Latina daughters in mixed-status families.

Findings: Collectively, findings reveal that a CRFEM honors the historical legacies of Women of Color epistolarians and positions letter writing as central for providing insight to the past and present experiences of Women of Color. Moreover, a CRFEM carves out unique opportunities for researchers and collaborators to reclaim their agency while writing back to relatives, institutional agents, future generations, and the self. Ultimately, this praxis-based methodology unsettles dominant forms of data collection in qualitative research, and serves as a transformative research tool that combats racialized and gendered oppression alongside Women of Color.

Significance: In addition to disrupting traditional modes of data analysis in qualitative inquiry, this research responds to the AERA 2022 call to humanize the research process by collaborating with community members historically marginalized in the research process. Moreover, it provides insight to the possibilities that emerge when applying Chicana/Latina Epistolary Methodologies to education research. Finally, this research contributes to the construction and preservation of a rebel archive (Lytle Hernández, 2017) that uplifts Women of Color intergenerational knowledge and community memory.

Authors

• Cindy R. Escobedo, University of California - Los Angeles

• Yadira Valencia, University of California - Los Angeles