Constructing a Mosaic of Blackness: Methodological Considerations

• In Event: Elevating Black epiSTEMologies: Theories, Methodologies, and Praxis for Dismantling Racial Injustice in Postsecondary STEM Education

Abstract

Purpose. This presentation introduces mosaic ethnography as a racially-just qualitative methodological approach for conducting national studies of race-focused research within and across disciplinary domains and learning contexts. Informed by principles of anti-essentialist theoretical frameworks including critical race theory (CRT), Black liberation theology, and Black feminisms, mosaic ethnography provides the mechanisms for identifying similarities in onto-epistemologies among similar a similar raced-group while also accounting for nuances or divergences in the lived experiences of individuals that are contextually and culturally influenced. Situating this approach within the Black epiSTEMolgoies project, we present the mechanics of mosaic ethnography, how it is applied to examine Black students’ conceptions and embodiments of Blackness in postsecondary STEM across six distinct geographic locations, and implications of this methodological approach for offering empirical data on Blackness from a multidimensional-multiplicative perspective.
Perspective. This work is informed by two leading perspectives, theories of identity and consciousness and methodological approaches leveraged to ascertain individual and collective sociopolitical ideologies. “Black” is conceptualized in a myriad of ways across disciplines and fields of inquiry. This is evident within subfields of education research, where “Black” can refer to anything from a static, demographic variable to an assumed historical experience and set of political commitments. Some studies do not even offer citations or sufficient context to help make sense of what “Black” might mean, and how that meaning might inform their findings. The varied operationalization of “Black” (and “Blackness”) threatens the validity and reliability of research on students described as “Black,” and undermines the potential of sustained conversations about Blackness across studies. It also presents challenges for honoring the heterogeneity within Black, noting the role racial identification plays in racial identity embodiment—how one “performs” their Blackness as a sociopolitical endeavor. We identify three models of Black identity: Black as a social construct, Black as a social category, and Black as an essence. These models are not mutually exclusive in research or in how individuals live out their Black identities. However, each model holds distinct implications for interpreting outcomes specific to Black social and material conditions.
Qualitative research methods serve as a process by which scholars can investigate both shared and nuanced sociopolitical embodiments of identity, particularly given the exploratory nature of qualitative research and the ability to construct meaning from stories, perspectives, and artifacts. In considering the power of ethnography to capture culture—and all of the social, political, inter/intrapersonal considerations embedded within it—we note the possibilities of ethnography to support understandings of “Black culture” and Blackness within the U.S. However, unpacking what an examination of “Black culture” means given the diversity of Blackness across the U.S., methodological adaptations that account for geographical, generational, and other identity-based differences that inform Blackness are necessary.
Significance. Understanding Black as a social construct turns attention to the performative elements of Black identity, understanding Black as a social category turns attention to the material oppression of Black communities, and understanding Black as an essence turns attention to the phenomenology of the Black experience. In recognizing the implications of these perspectives for naming a “Black experience” that can be reflected in national and institutional racial equity policies and practices that strive to transform culture, maintaining a methodological approach that supports a shared and nuanced perspective of Blackness is necessary. Outcomes from this presentation thus provide implications for how to gather, at a national level, research data that ethically and equitably reflects the complexity of Blackness and Black experiences.
Theme Alignment. If education researchers hope that our parallel research efforts to interrogate the relationship between “Black” and schooling will reparate the historical, economic, sociopolitical, and moral debt owed to students described as Black (Ladson-Billings, 2006), then the disconnect in how Black is defined must be resolved. This presentation thus aligns with the 2024 AERA Presidential theme of dismantling racial justice, as it offers a methodological approach for investigating the shared and nuanced perspectives of Blackness that can be appropriately coalesced to support the formation of racially just educational policies and procedures.

Authors

• Ashley N. Woodson, Black epiSTEMologies

• Lul M. Baba, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Kiana Foxx, Georgia State University