HMoob Research Methods: Thaam Pem and Visitings

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Refusing the “Magic” of Western Knowledge Systems: Toward Epistemic Justice in Black and Asian American Education (Table 33)

Abstract

Purpose
This paper documents how I, a HMoob community scholar, engage in HMoob-informed research methods and methodologies within my research dissertation, which explores HMoob teaching and learning. My work positions visiting and thaam pem as HMoob research praxis that reconnect me to HMoob elders and community members through our community’s practices of relationality.

Perspective
Indigenous methodologies such as talk story (Affonso et al., 2007), yarning (Kovach, 2010), and Chicana/Latina feminist methodology of pláticas (Flores & Morales, 2022) reminded me of visiting and thaam pem in my community. It is how our knowledge is shared and passed from generation to generation. These methodological frameworks privilege orality, relationships, and informal knowledge sharing between people. They also provide ways to gather knowledge and information in ways that reciprocate care, hold people accountable for each other, and resist exploitative research practice.

Methods and Data Sources
This conceptual paper pushes forward two research methods that center HMoob methodology of relationality. Through the many forms of visiting such as cov zog, moog saib kwv tij neej tsaa, saib phooj ywg, hab moog loj leeb, moog ua si, moog ncig, hab moog kawm txuj ci , thaam pem also happens. I utilize thaam pem as a method of gathering information and data from elders and community members as well as a process by which teaching and learning can occur. Through thaam pem, people familiarize themselves with each other by figuring out their relational ties within the HMoob social web. It is a process that is not structured. Rather, it could be ramblings, gossip, and involve multiple people having different levels of conversations. Visiting and thaam pem builds strong intergenerational relationships.

The data source for this paper stemmed from my initial conversations with my elders and those I connected with for my research work. In particular, I will examine the ways we engaged in thaam pem during my research visits.

Scholarly Significance
Centering HMoob research methodologies acknowledge the significance of my community’s contributions to their young people’s futures, like mine. In return, I am putting into practice and writing the legacy of my ancestors, elders, and community members. I hope this work will usher more research that centers our community’s practices and knowledge. Larger implications of a developing study of HMoob research methodologies and theories would transform how educators and researchers examine knowledge production from HMoob and other marginalized communities.

Author

• Thong Vang, University of Minnesota