Commentary: Critical Qualitative Methods and Disrupting the "Silent Expectations" Imposed on Women in Early Childhood Education (Poster 8)

• In Event: Rising Education Scholars Interrogating Research-Practice Partnerships in Pursuit of Truth and Justice

Abstract

A more just future for the field of early childhood education (ECE) will require desire-oriented research that honors educators’ humanity and supports them in their chosen work (Souto-Manning, 2022; Luthar & Mendes, 2020). Researchers must utilize established, and develop novel, critical methods to partner with educators (Garcia & Weiss, 2020) to foster relationships, secure funding, co-develop research agendas, engage stakeholders, evaluate effectiveness, and shape responsive policies and practices (NNERPP, n.d.). The enduring global crises and collective trauma of recent years have increased the urgency of justice-centered research-practice partnerships (RPPs). Currently available mental health supports for the ECE workforce have been insufficient (Tarrant & Nagasawa, 2020), and deeper understandings of their lived experiences during Covid-19 are needed. While nearly all educators in the ECE workforce identify as women (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020), remarkably few studies to date have utilized a critical feminist lens and trauma-informed methods to understand educators’ experiences. Rodriguez and colleagues (2022) address this gap in their recent paper, “Silent Expectations: An Exploration of Women Pre-Kindergarten Teachers’ Mental Health and Wellness during Covid-19 and Beyond.” This promising model of critical qualitative research inspires more humane partnerships with educators, which, as Denner et al. (2019) note, are of equal importance to research “findings” in RPPs. In this commentary, I contextualize this research and discuss its implications for the advancement of RPPs and critical qualitative studies.
First, I describe how Rodriguez et al. (2022) use the Self-in-Relation-to-Teaching (SiR2T) interview method and Five Awarenesses Framework (Rodriguez et al., 2020) to extend existing literature about the societal expectations of women during times of crisis (e.g., MacKinnon, 2009). Second, I highlight the reciprocity and therapeutic nature of the SiR2T method, which disrupts colonial traditions of extracting and exploiting damage-centered pain narratives (Tuck & Yang, 2014) and pathologizing women (MacKinnon, 2009) in research. From a trauma studies lens, I also remark on the ethical imperative of using trauma-informed methods, such as SiR2T, in RPPs in crisis contexts. Third, I echo the authors’ call for the development of new measures to better understand how educators’ intersectional identities may contribute to their experiences of teaching during times of crisis. Finally, I discuss promising future directions inspired by this work. For example, elements of the SiR2T interview may be leveraged as a race consciousness-raising activity within teacher education. Particularly for white teachers, who comprise roughly 60% of the ECE workforce, such activities play an important role in facilitating more racially equitable teaching practices (Fergus, 2017). Further, pairing Five Awarenesses and Critical Whiteness Studies frameworks may contribute to theoretical advancements by making more visible the often invisible (Lipsitz, 2018; Tandeka, 1999) ideologies and mechanisms through which racism is perpetuated (Picower, 2009). This may, in turn, help prevent and disrupt the harms of racism in education (Matias & Mackey, 2016). “Silent Expectations” is a timely and compelling model of critical qualitative research. This commentary encourages researchers to consider methods for engaging in more just partnerships with educators that amplify their truths to improve ECE practice, policy, and research.

Author

• Shana E. DeVlieger, New York University
  Presenting Author