Unsettling Norms and Building Futures: Critical Quantitative Ethnography for Equity and Epistemic Justice

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 7:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Beyond the Numbers: Advancing Mixed Methods through Critical Race Theory, Quantitative Ethnography, and Network Analysis for Educational Justice

Abstract

This paper introduces Critical Quantitative Ethnography (CritQE), an emergent methodological and epistemological framework that integrates Quantitative Ethnography (QE) with Critical Social Theory (CST) to advance epistemic justice. While QE models meaning-making by combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, it often relies on epistemological assumptions that privilege consensus, marginalizing diverse interpretations. Through collaborative inquiry, we critique the norm of interrater agreement, proposing multivocal coding as an alternative that embraces divergence as a generative analytic resource. Drawing on data with Black American and Black immigrant college students, we demonstrate how multivocal coding reveals positional complexity and fosters ethical, inclusive analysis. Aligned with AERA’s call, CritQE offers a reimagined research approach that honors multiple ways of knowing and challenges dominant norms in knowledge production.

Authors

• Adaurennaya C. Onyewuenyi, The College of New Jersey

• Nichole M. Garcia, Rutgers University

• David W. Shaffer, University of Wisconsin - Madison