Cultural Resonance as Counter-Story: A Relational, Humanizing Praxis to Center Marginalized Leaders

• In Event: The Stories We Tell: Theorizing Intersectional Justice in the Context of Working With Marginalized Communities

Abstract

Purpose
In consideration of intersectional justice as counter-story, this paper introduces cultural resonance as an actualization of an emergent conceptual framework called co-decolonization (Authors, 2020, 2023). Cultural resonance elevates and makes more conscious the humanizing interactions within research settings between people, including their ancestral lineages, and their relationship to nature. The purpose is to demonstrate concrete ways that cultural resonance, through co-decolonizing practices, counters white, hegemonic research by making explicit the importance of relationships and humanizing approaches, particularly when working with marginalized leaders, including leaders of Color with multiple intersecting identities (Author, 2015).

Theoretical Framework
Cultural resonance is the actualization of co-decolonizing research practices (Figure 1). It is the elevated sense of connection elicited from intentionally engaging in humanizing (Salazar, 2013) and cultural sustaining praxis (Alim & Paris, 2017). Relatedly, co-decolonizing practices are rooted in decolonizing methodologies that aim to dismantle colonial mindsets and practices. Co-decolonizing differs from decolonizing practices in its explicit consideration of researcher ‘positioning’ when working explicitly with marginalized peoples. Accordingly, co-decolonizing necessitates researchers to use their privileged ‘positioning’ as experts within dominant systems, including the Academe, to disrupt white hegemony and to advocate for racially minoritized and other marginalized communities (Boveda & Annamma, 2023).

Methods
We, a Black African American of Indigenous descent (Author 1) and a non-disabled, bicultural/racial Mexicana of Italian/Irish heritages (Author 2), combined qualitative and quantitative data gathered from two separate research projects in which a co-decolonizing approach was implemented. In consideration of intersectional justice (IJ) as counter-story (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002), we asked: (a) How is cultural resonance demonstrated among and between our research co-leaders (i.e., leaders of Color) within our respective projects? and (b) In what ways can/does cultural resonance offer new understandings for relational and humanizing leadership toward social justice efforts that are transformative and sustaining?

Data Sources
Data were gathered from the two authors’ respective research projects, Curando el Alma and Family as Faculty (FAF). Author 1 applied co-decolonizing approaches with 70 mostly Indigenous English, Spanish, and Mixtec language speakers/leaders. Author 2, worked with over 20 Black and Latine parent leaders of children with disabilities (from 2016 – present) to dismantle racism and ableism to special education teacher preparation courses.
Data examined for this paper included: audio/video recordings, transcriptions of individual and focus group interviews, community member and family artifacts (e.g., participant-generated illustrations/writings) and researcher observational data. Pre- and post-assessment surveys were also considered.

Results
In Curando el Alma, cultural resonance was demonstrated through Mixtec co-leaders’ drawing from their ancestral, medicinal practices to bring non-Westernized healing and educational modalities to the Mixteco community. In FAF, parent leaders shared personal stories with future educators about ways they integrated cultural, humanizing practices (e.g., cooking, storytelling) at home to assist their children with managing difficult behaviors (e.g., anxiety, distraction, depression) at school.

Significance
Cultural resonance centers marginalized family/community leaders’ onto-epistemologies to offer new understandings for educators in research and in school settings to apply more relational and humanizing applied leadership practices that elevate, respect, and honor students’ learning.

Authors

• Lorri J. Santamaría, California Lutheran University

• Cristina C. Santamaria Graff, Indiana University - Indianapolis