Qualitative Data Analysis Through a Queer Métis Lens

• In Event: Mobilizing Traditional Methods for Transformational Ends: Subversive Possibilities When Combining Critical Frameworks and Conventional Methodologies

Abstract

To do research in an ethical way with Indigenous peoples demands the use of an Indigenous research paradigm, rooted in Indigenous knowledges and an Indigenous worldview. An Indigenous research paradigm refers to both the individual as well as the collective, and the world, both physical and spiritual (Hart, 2010). These interconnected understandings of the universe mean that Indigenous research paradigms are not only honouring the information gathered within the literature review and data collected through the methods of the study, but also through ancestral memory, through dream, and through other traditional ways of knowing (Absolon, 2012; Lavallée, 2009). Though many Indigenous scholars have written about First Nations epistemologies and research (Chilisa, 2012; Kovach, 2009; Wilson, 2008), there is little literature exploring queer (2SLGBTQ*) Métis research paradigms and data analysis from a queer Métis perspective.

Through this paper, I delineate my journey as a queer Métis researcher learning what it means to analyze qualitative interviews through this queer Métis research paradigm. The interviews were collected as part of my doctoral research, exploring the educational experiences of 2SLGBTQ* Métis hip hop artists. Métis students are unable to see their own perspectives and communities represented within their own education, or they see them represented poorly, and thus educators are not creating culturally responsive spaces (Brayboy & Castagno, 2009; Cherfas, Casciano, & Wiggins, 2018; Hogarth, 2020). With an analysis of these interviews that attends to the social location of the participants, I advocate for changes to educational systems to better reflect queer Métis experiences, and through this qualitative research exploration, add to the growing body of Métis-specific research paradigms (Fiola, 2015; Lavallée, 2009; Lowan-Trudeau, 2012).

Author

• Lucy Fowler, University of Manitoba