Narratives of Transnational Feminist Ethics of Care in Research and Relationships With Transnational Chinese Women

• In Event: Questioning in the Margins: Centering Qualitative Methodology and Methods in Historically Marginalized Traditions

Abstract

Ethical frameworks in qualitative research share similar importance as methodological, theoretical, onto-epistemological frameworks, as they shape how we design our data generation methods, approach our data analysis, and (re)present our findings (Bhattacharya, 2017). More importantly, ethical frameworks shape how researchers, as integral instruments in research, interact with our research partners, who are at the center of our work (Brinkmann & Kvale, 2005; Wiles, 2012). However, in most cases, dominant literature about frameworks of ethics is written by white, male, cisgender, and heterosexual scholars (e.g., Rachels & Rachels, 2012). Moreover, ethics is reduced or generalized to bullet points in “code of ethics” documents at most institutions or in professional organizations. Or, discussions about ethics only take place within the realms of Institutional Review Board training and approval for research projects (Head, 2020).

In my multi-year critical ethnographic study exploring the transnational language and literacy practices of one China-U.S. transnational family, I continuously interrogated the frameworks of ethics that I learned in my training. Specifically, as a Chinese transnational woman working with Meiyi, a 16-year-old girl from China, her aunt, Kai, and grandma, Nainai, I could not find my or my research partners’ ways of being and cultural knowledge reflected in the ethical frameworks I was taught. As such, I turned to an ethical framework of care that is rooted in understanding and dismantling women’s oppression (Brennan, 1999) and centers the relationality and care between women. In recent years, there is an increasing body of literature on feminist ethics and ethics of care (Caswell & Cifor, 2016; Graham, 2007; Held, 2006; Jaggar 2013) that enrich our understandings of the multiple dimensions of care in qualitative research. However, most feminist ethics of care literature is centered on a western perspective and excludes the knowledges and experiences of “Third World” women and women of color. As I made sense of ethics of care in my research with Chinese women living in the United States, I relied on these guiding theoretical frameworks: intergenerational care as my ancestral knowledge and transnational feminism (Herr, 2014; Swarr & Nagar, 2012). As such, in my work, I conceptualize transnational feminist ethics of care as a relationship-specific, culture-specific, and place-specific ethics of care that center intergenerational knowledge sharing and storytelling through constant vulnerable dialogue.

In this presentation, I will draw on my data corpus including interviews, researcher memos, pictures, videos, observations, and literacy artifacts to construct reflective narratives and vignettes about my process of making sense of transnational feminist ethics of care. Through these narratives and vignettes, I will illuminate the complexities and fluidity of ethical reasoning through the lens of care. Additionally, using transnational feminist ethics of care and my ancestral knowledge as the theoretical guides to understand my narratives surrounding ethical dilemmas as a critical ethnographer, I center the knowledge systems of women of color and propose new insights into ethics of care and its multiple dimensions. The audiences will (re)consider this question: What are cultural-specific ethical frameworks that are salient in your research context and process?

Author

• Tairan Qiu, University of Houston
  Presenting Author