‘A friend who understand fully’: notes on humanizing research in a multiethnic youth community

Abstract

In this article, I conceptualize ethnographic, qualitative, and social language research with marginalized and oppressed communities as humanizing research. Humanizing research is a methodological stance, which requires that our inquiries involve dialogic consciousness‐raising and the building of relationships of dignity and care for both researchers and participants. I offer evidence that such humanization is not only ethically necessary but also increases the validity of the truths we gain through research. Working from a 2006–2007 study of language, literacy, and difference in a multiethnic high school and youth community, I provide examples from fieldwork that led to research that attempted to humanize rather than colonize the youth I worked with. I draw on the work of others to extend a long line of methodological thinking in pursuit of representation and humanization in interpretive studies in schools and communities.