Humanizing Research Methods for White Scholars

• In Event: Disrupting Discourses of White Supremacy in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Purpose

Often, white scholars attempting antiracist educational research critique the practices of white teachers (Hughes, 2022) and identify teacher resistance to antiracist teaching (Lensmire et al., 2013) rather than exploring their own complicity with whiteness (Jupp et al., 2016; Lensmire et al., 2013; Matias, 2022). Further, white education researchers have long engaged in dehumanizing research that 1) blames students, families, and communities rather than systemic oppression for inequities, 2) reduces individuals to numbers (Paris & Winn, 2014), and 3) is disengaged from authentic problems of practice especially those that seek to end racial oppression and deculturalization (Matias, 2022). Here, I share examples from recent action research projects to propose methodological guidelines for humanizing research conducted by white scholars.

Theoretical Framework

Critical whiteness Studies (CWS) and humanizing research approaches frame my methodological recommendations. CWS aims to de-normalize whiteness as a racial category and way of being as well as "dismantle[e] white supremacy and reveal[] operations of whiteness that uphold white supremacy" (Matias, 2022, pp. 7-8). Paris and Winn (2013) "conceptualize humanizing approaches as those that involve the building of relationships of care and dignity and dialogic consciousness raising for both researchers and participants" (p. xvi).

Methods and Data Sources

I draw from two action research studies that took place in Spring 2022 in the Southwest U.S. in collaboration with 1) a Head Start teacher and two community college practicum students, each bilingual Latinas, and 2) a white monolingual fourth grade public school teacher, a white university professor, and two Latina preservice teachers one of whom is bilingual. Data sources include meeting notes, lesson plans, and classroom artifacts. Thematic analysis took place during Zoom meetings. An emerging theme is the shared power and mutual learning of our approach discussed below.

Findings

Each project emerged from authentic relationships between the researcher and the classroom teacher. Author volunteered in the Head Start teacher's classroom before they decided to collaborate through action research. Author met the 4th grade teacher at Author's summer antiracist book club, establishing common understandings and an openness to discussing race in education. Authentic relationships were the foundation for mutual respect and understanding of the educational context. We attempted to share power and maintain authentic collaboration at each phase of the project (see Table 1). Research questions were initiated by classroom teachers; the role of the researcher(s) was to infuse theory, facilitate research, and encourage idea generation. Rather than research and resources only benefiting the professional standing of the white researcher, they were used to improve the educational experiences of students of Color. As a monolingual newcomer, Author found herself learning essential cultural and linguistic knowledge from and sharing power with preservice teachers and practicum students.

Significance

Traditional research methods position the researcher as an expert despite the operation of systems of racial and cultural oppression often being invisible to white people. Further, educational research often fails to address real world concerns. These recommendations for humanizing research conducted by white scholars offer examples of how we might do research differently.

Author

• Rhianna K. Thomas, New Mexico State University
  Presenting Author