Who's the Boss? Confronting Whiteness and Power Differences within a Feminist Mentoring Relationship in Participatory Action Research

Abstract

In this article, we discuss the sometimes problematic and always challenging nature of feminist mentoring, particularly in a participatory action research project aimed at interrogating whiteness. We analyze our relationship by examining the multiple contexts in which it was embedded-power relations within the institution in which the research was conducted, our expectations of one another both during and after the research experience, our complementary and conflicting agendas, whiteness, social class and gender. We illuminate the nuanced complexities of our relationship providing feminist researchers and scholars with a lens that elucidates the kaleidoscope that is woman-to-woman academic relationships. Our experiences suggest possible strategies for white educators and researchers who seek to both rethink the meaning of whiteness and reimagine feminist mentoring relationships through creating liberatory research methodologies. In addition, we suggest that as feminist researchers we need to continually demonstrate our reflexivity through (re)articulating how we problematize power, privilege and the multiple unequal hierarchies that exist in feminist research.