Echoes From the Margins: Navigating Methodological Challenges in Documenting Rural BIPOC Education Life History Narratives

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: The Biographical and Documentary Research SIG Roundtable (Table 4)

Abstract

This paper explores the methodological challenges and praxis in documenting the rural educational experiences of Black, Indigenous, Latino, and other people of color. Grounded in Black feminist/womanist methodology, this study employs life history and documentary methods to uncover subjugated voices, make multiple truths visible, and create spaces for self-definition. Additionally, it argues that integrating restorative history principles is, by praxis, a Black Feminist methodology. By addressing issues of power and labor in the research process, this work situates its methods within the methodological canon of Black feminist research. The study highlights the unique capacity of life history/narrative methodology as a Black feminist methodology to tell the stories of those often ignored and erased within rural education research.

Author

• Alexis Grant-Panting, Texas Woman's University