Abstract
In an exploratory case study of partnerships between educators and refugee families recently resettled in the U.S, we conducted follow-up interviews with each of the ten participating families during year one. In this paper, we report on themes from these interviews highlighted in three family case studies. We used methodological approaches that enabled us to reenvision and interrogate the power structure inherent in research relationships between ‘researcher’ and ‘researched.” The purposes of the additional interview were to conduct a member check on the data we had gathered, understand what had changed since our initial interview with the family, and gather families’ feedback about our comportment and methods. The two-part question was, How might decolonizing methods from a postcolonial lens serve as guideposts for disrupting research methods with families with refugee backgrounds?, and How did partnering with transnational student researchers inform ways of representing the family narratives? The follow-up narratives suggest a complex understanding of building knowledge within the limitations of a conventional research paradigm.
Highlights
There has been a great deal of writing on the dilemmas of translating practices that follow a biomedical model for qualitative social science research, with refugee-background populations (Block et al, 2013; DeHaene et al, 2010; Dyregrov et al, 2000; Ellis et al, 2007; Jacobsen & Landau, 2003; Nakkash et al, 2009; Perry, 2011; Schrag, 2010)
As a research team comprised of U.S.-born education professors and students, and students from the global majority (i.e., South Asia, Middle East, Africa), we organically explored decolonizing methods for determining how to partner with each other in a study called Centering Connections: Examining Relationships Between Refugee
This subject is part of a larger longitudinal study that examines the intersection of decolonizing research methods and postcolonial theory in a project with families with refugee experiences
Summary
There has been a great deal of writing on the dilemmas of translating practices that follow a biomedical model for qualitative social science research, with refugee-background populations (Block et al, 2013; DeHaene et al, 2010; Dyregrov et al, 2000; Ellis et al, 2007; Jacobsen & Landau, 2003; Nakkash et al, 2009; Perry, 2011; Schrag, 2010). Examining research methods with families and children who have endured transnational migration, as well as the ethical complications of representing their experiences, is a key issue we explore in this piece. As a research team comprised of U.S.-born education professors and students, and students from the global majority (i.e., South Asia, Middle East, Africa), we organically explored decolonizing methods for determining how to partner with each other in a study called Centering Connections: Examining Relationships Between Refugee
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