Identifying Empirical Evidence of Whiteness Through Research Design: A Critical Examination of Whiteness Methodological Framework

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 4:20 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Advancing Qualitative Methodologies: Centering Healing, Intersectionality, and Trauma-Informed Critical Insights for Social Change (Table 6)

Abstract

Whiteness is hegemonic and covert to its benefactors, and is therefore challenging to empirically examine in education research. In particular, pervasive whiteness in education often persists unaddressed because it is deeply embedded in education history and ongoing structures stemming from white supremacist colonialism and slavery in the U.S. To redress this research gap and need, I developed a critical examination of whiteness (CEW) methodological framework to identify empirical evidence of whiteness in qualitative research. Combining critical concepts of whiteness with qualitative methodologies, the CEW methodological framework informs critical research design and sensitizes researchers to identify and examine whiteness throughout the data collection and data analysis process, even when participants are unaware of whiteness or its manifestations within their organization.

Author

• Deborah E. Southern, University of California - Los Angeles