Decolonising Research Methods Training for Antiracist Researcher Development

• In Event: Advancing a Transnational Comparative Framework for Racial Equity in Higher Education

Abstract

As a result of discussions and work carried out at the ICARE4JUSTICE summits, institutional movement at The University of Nottingham, has focused on decolonising researcher training. Racial injustice continues to plague educational opportunity (Begum & Saini 2019). In the UK, this can be seen in the marginalisation of racialised minorities in postgraduate research and subsequent academic roles (Mueller, 2023). Black people are particularly under-represented with only 56 Black women full professors which makes up less than 0.01% of professorships in UK Higher education.

Supported by ICARE4JUSTICE collaborators within the Researcher Academy at the University of Nottingham, ICARE4JUSTICE global values were embedded throughout the Summer School for Rising Researchers, a pilot research methods summer school for REM students, which seeks to address the under-representation of ethnic minorities in postgraduate research. The Summer School included practical workshops on writing a research proposal and applying for PhD funding’. A commitment to decolonising research methods training was embedded throughout. Our workshop on Race, Science and Power Relations in Research foregrounded how unethical research has been conducted by white researchers on REM communities. The importance of critically examining positionality, worldview, and epistemologies in research was emphasised throughout skills training in qualitative and quantitative research methods as well as our workshops on what is knowledge and research, identifying a research gap and formulating a research design.

Reflecting on our pedagogical practices and co-production of knowledge with our students, in this paper, we analyse decolonising research methods training and embedding anti-racist values in our approach to researcher development. Simultaneously, the space was created where students felt able to share their experiences of racism and marginalisation at university. Thus, a decolonial approach to research training in this space made possible the collective reflection of everyday encounters with white supremacy in the university.

Also informed by ICARE4JUSTICE values, we have developed and delivered, over the year, a series of 3-day rolling interactive workshops on research epistemologies and study design. Making visible the white supremacist power lens, these workshops challenge ‘standard’ notions of scientific objectivity. They introduce researchers to robust epistemological debates that expose the value of: lived experience; minoritized ‘seeing’ and ‘listening’; equity and diversity; reflexive humility and transparently reported study design impacts on all science and knowledge claims. 90 researchers have been through these workshops which are purposefully designed to be safe spaces of hope, where researchers can bring dilemmas and uncertainties that are compounded by (unacknowledged) power dynamics within a hierarchical institution (Grant & Woodson 2020). Exploring the impact of these workshops, a cross-faculty interdisciplinary research group, funded by the University of Nottingham, are completing a scoping review (Anthony-Stevens & Matsaw ,2020; Barrett et al., 2014; Hogan & Topkok, 2015; Kaomea, 2016; Parker et al., 2018; Suaalii‐Sauni & Fulu‐Aiolupotea, 2014; Tamimi et al., 2021) and a minoritized research associate is collecting anonymised data from workshop participants to understand the impact of this decolonising initiative in research training.

Authors

• Neema Begum, University of Nottingham

• Alison Edgley, University of Nottingham

• Pearl Agyakwa, University of Nottingham

• Shardia Briscoe-Palmer, University of Nottingham

• Hannah Robbins, University of Nottingham