Critical Research Methodology Research Articles

Focus groups as counterspaces for Black girls and Black women: A critical approach to research methods

When researchers intentionally account for the complexities of gendered racism, focus groups can become spaces for healing, community building, information exchange, psychological safety, and support for Black girls and Black women. This approach, when situated within race, gender critical perspectives, presents opportunities for ascertaining Black girls and Black women’s onto-epistemologies in ways that coincide with their identities. Given the alternative possibilities of focus groups, in this paper we advance strategies for employing focus groups as counterspaces, an anti-racist and anti-oppressive research method that educational psychologists can utilize to challenge current methodological approaches related to Black girls and Black women. To transform how educational psychologists spotlight Black girls and Black women as knowledge producers in research, we draw upon guiding theoretical frameworks (Black Girl Cartography and Critical Race Feminism) that highlight their voices and intersectional perspectives. We will (1) explain the theoretical perspectives that center this method as a critical approach for the gendered racialized experiences of Black girls and Black women, (2) share insights from the field where focus groups provide psychological safety and group collectivism, serve as an adaptive coping mechanism, and provide space for authentic communication styles, (3) consider areas for improvement and best practices for focus groups in research design, data collection and analysis, and (4) provide ethical considerations related to focus groups as counterspaces. Implications for critical research methodology approaches centering Black girls and Black women and the broader impact on the field of educational psychology are discussed.

Building consensus on priority areas for Sub-Saharan Africa's ageing population research: An e-Delphi study protocol.

Improvement in medico-social services has increased life expectancy and population ageing in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It was estimated that about 163 million people aged 65 and older will be resident in SSA by 2050. There is inadequate ageing research capacity in SSA which necessitates this study to (a) identify a decade-long ageing research opportunities, challenges, and solutions, and (b) prioritize critical ageing research areas and methodologies relevant to the SSA. We designed an e-Delphi protocol following the Reporting Guideline for Priority Setting of Health Research with Stakeholder. The stakeholders will be researchers, practitioners, older adults, and caregivers purposively selected through snowballing quota sampling to complete three rounds of e-Delphi surveys. Round 1 will involve open-ended questions derived from the study objectives. Responses from round 1 will be prepared as a checklist for stakeholders to rate during rounds 2 & 3, using a 9-point scale: low priority (1-3), moderate priority (4-6), and high priority (7-9). The criterion for reaching a consensus will be ≥ 70% of stakeholders rating an item "high priority" and ≤ 15% as "low priority." Quantitative data will be analysed using descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test will be used to assess the stability of stakeholders' responses, and qualitative comments will be analysed using content analysis. Setting aging research/practice priorities will help maximize the benefits of research investment and provide valuable direction for allocating public and private research funds to areas of strategic importance.

Review of Harvesting freedom: The life of a migrant worker in Canada by Gabriel Allahdua

The question of migration, land, labour, and food are intricately intertwined. In this book Harvesting Freedom: The Life of a Migrant Farmworker in Canada is a living narrative that recounts life in St. Lucia, and gradually reveals the enmeshed connections of slavery, colonialism, and racial capitalism manifested in Canada’s farm labour system. The book narrated by Gabriel Allahdua, a migrant farmworker becoming an incomparable migrant justice activist, is evocative of the power of critical research methodologies and knowledge production. Edward Dunsworth in his collaboration with Allahdua, brings to us, a first-hand account in a book format, all while setting up the stage and weaving a rich scholarship in the introduction. This is how decolonizing knowledge can look like in academia.

Research, Power, and Care: Limitations to Collaborative Research with Children and Youth

This article considers the obstacles and opportunities in collaborative action research. It focuses on two examples: a virtual participatory action research with five migrant Latina young women and a participatory action-oriented project in a middle school in Baltimore, Maryland. We argue that intentions alone are not enough to challenge the dynamics of knowledge production. Children and adult researchers continue to interact in the context of hierarchical power structures. Instead of adults “making space” for independent child subjects to participate, we suggest that pedagogies of acompañamiento and ternura, which emphasize nurturing and accompanying participants, are necessary to foster spaces of collaboration. We broaden conversations about critical research methodologies to emphasize actual processes of relationship building in the context of uneven interdependencies and care. We suggest the important role that radical educational pedagogies from Latin America played in shaping our own research approaches.

Evolving a Model of Critical Pedagogy to Deconstruct the Hegemonic Culture of the Conventional Teacher Centered Social Studies Classroom

Hegemony is a dominant ideology widely used in the educational field. But its adherents do not seem to be aware of its influence. When I encountered this ideology, I became excited and went back to the experiences I gained while studying social studies at the school level and the experiences I gained while teaching social studies at the school level. I carried out this study by incorporating my own experiences and the experiences of three renowned professors of social studies who have experienced hegemonic culture in their conventional teacher centered classroom. Art-based critical auto-ethnographic research methodology has been adopted in this study. In this research, I identified six different aspects of cultural hegemony that negatively impacted my social studies experiences, namely: traditional teaching methods; curriculum content; teacher domination; competitive assessment; perfectionism; poor classroom environment. Another important aspect of this study is that I have also identified the fundamental aspects of critical pedagogy that I experienced while studying and teaching at school, namely transformative teachers, encouraging students to have a critical voice, using new forms of knowledge, and emphasizing ethics as central. The result of this academic self-study is a far-reaching strategy for transforming the teaching of social studies. This strategy is divided into three steps i.e. before the implementation of the lesson, implementation of the lesson, and reflection. The second step of this strategy is the implementation phase. The implemented step can be divided in five sections such as structured overview and group formation, community contact and critical analysis, open dialogue for active engagement, confronting power and exposing hegemony, and evaluation of the whole process. This vision can be adapted and implemented by innovative teachers who want to enliven their social studies classrooms with more relevant, meaningful and stimulating learning experiences.

An Autoethnography of and in Solidarity: Post- and Decolonial Critique and Autoethnographic Positioning Analysis

This article explores autoethnography as a critical research methodology in dialogue with post- and decolonial critique. It draws on an (auto)ethnographic research on and within the transnational solidarity network of the Mapuche people in which encounters of solidarity across difference are understood as postcolonial “contact zones.” This contribution hereby suggests three important opportunities for autoethnographic positioning analysis by looking at (a) different layers of the author’s field access, (b) the author’s strategic membership within the international solidarity activism, and (c) experiences of being rejected. This article argues that the careful and systematic analysis of such ethnographic episodes is able to (a) generate important epistemological insights within a particular research field, in this case transnational solidarity and networked social movement activity, and (b) highlight and reflect upon the researcher’s “complicity” within fieldwork. The first part of this contribution briefly introduces post- and decolonial debates on solidarity across difference and moves on to suggesting autoethnographic positioning analysis as a methodological approach for studying/supporting the transnational solidarity activism, drawing upon the author’s research with the Mapuche.

Improving access to palliative care for people experiencing socioeconomic inequities: findings from a community-based pilot research study.

In Canada, people experiencing socioeconomic inequities have higher rates of late diagnosis and lower survival rates than the general population. Palliative care services focussed on this population are scarce. We developed a community-based nursing intervention to improve access to palliative care for people experiencing socioeconomic inequities and living with life-limiting illnesses in an urban Canadian setting. This community-based, qualitative research study combined critical and participatory research methodologies. The study was conducted in partnership with the Palliative Care Outreach Advocacy Team (PCOAT) based in Edmonton, Alberta, a team dedicated to serving populations experiencing socioeconomic inequities who require palliative care. Following an exploratory phase that served to delineate the intervention, we undertook a one-year pilot implementation during which a part-time registered nurse (RN) joined PCOAT. The RN engaged in trust building, resolution of health and practical needs and complex care coordination. Twenty-five patients participated in the intervention. Participants were interviewed at least once to explore their experiences with the intervention. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis. Most participants were men, were Indigenous and had advanced cancer. Participants had significant financial concerns, lived or had lived in precarious housing situations and had previously faced serious challenges accessing health care. Participants reported social and health needs including housing, finances, transportation, symptom control, harm reduction and end-of-life care. Participants reported improved access to health and social services and expressed satisfaction with the study intervention. Study findings suggest the study intervention may have contributed to improved access to palliative care, improved experiences for participants and increased equity in the delivery of care.

Critical Collaborative Research

This text discusses the Critical Collaborative Research known in Brazil as PCCol – Pesquisa Crítica de Colaboração - which is a practical-theoretical approach used in the development of investigations that focus on understanding and often challenging knowledge production and actions so as to promote de organization of decolonial-and-inclusive schools. Standing on Marxian, Vygotskian and Freirean underpinnings, the text was written from the recordings of two classes delivered by the authors in a Graduate Course called Critical Research Methodologies, with participation of some guest professors, such as Maria Cecilia Camargo Magalhães, who also authors this paper. The text is organized from the speeches of the authors on two occasions in which they collaboratively delivered lessons about PCCol, as well as the questions and interventions from the other course participants. The writing procedure interweaves speeches, treated as data, and their analyses, treated as the actual discussion of some of the concepts that base the Research Methodology itself, and that include relational and transformational agency, the Freirean notion of data production from the South rather than the North, professional practice that is personal and collectively responsive, but more specifically, we will discuss the role played by language for the implementation of collaborative interactions, as well as how this type of language is organized.

Defining the Contours of a Participatory Action Research Counterspace Developed by, for, and about Black Women in Higher Education

Although critical participatory action research (CPAR) has been cited as a means to cultivate more equitable systems in education, its promise has not been fully realized as a mechanism to enhance the experiences of minoritized cultural groups in U.S. higher education. As outsiders within academia who are multiplicatively marginalized, Black women’s engagement in CPAR demonstrates unique potential to address this gap. In this paper, I introduce an agentic diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging strategy embedded in a critical action research methodology known as a participatory action research counterspace (PARC). After situating the proposed methodology in existing literature, I describe a PARC study involving a group of Black women students, faculty, staff, and administrators at a predominantly white institution (PWI), as well as the defining contours of the methodology. A discussion outlining the benefits of the PARC methodology for Black women enrolled and employed in higher education is also included.

Wising up through jazz and the metamorphosis of perception

Today’s postnormal times marked by ‘complexity, contradictions and chaos’ require wisdom to heal ourselves and the planet. That wisdom is currently hidden, and a contribution to ignorance is epistemologies that are split into disciplinary silos. There has long been various theories and practices applied to ‘expand’ consciousness to access wisdom, and we draw upon one such practice that continues to be espoused by respected scholars today. Consequently, this paper argues for a pathway to wisdom that engages imagination and reveals alternative narratives through visual textual images that metaphors provide. The metaphor applied was jazz in its many expressions serving to ‘paint a picture’ of various disciplinary approaches in exploring potential perceptive and transformed knowledge systems. The critical futures research methodology, causal layered analysis (CLA) was applied to knowledges including mono-, multi-, inter-, trans and post disciplinarity. Mapping past, present and future led to a transformed future of radical new knowledges, the plausibility of which was examined through another futures methodology, the Futures Triangle. Potential pathways towards skills and knowledge-building were made visible through metaphor. This is but one pathway to consider in taking us beyond limited boundaries and ignorance towards unity and the wisdom so needed.

Critical reflection on VUCA in tourism and hospitality marketing activities

PurposeThis paper aims to provide an interpretative synthesis and critical reflection on the concept of “volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity” (VUCA) and its implementation in tourism and hospitality marketing activities and explain why it is useful and necessary.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on a critical reflection research methodology which allows for a synthesis of data from the traditional narrative review and on the authors’ experiences and observations.FindingsThe volatile environments in which entities from the tourism and hospitality industry (T&HI) operate necessitate a redefinition of the rules for designing marketing activities. The VUCA concept may serve as the basis for these changes. Its implementation requires specific managerial skills enabling T&HI entities to use an agile marketing strategy. The latter should be based on a flexible and customer-centric approach.Practical implicationsThis paper provides a VUCA framework for adapting marketing mix instruments to the rapidly changing hospitality and tourism industry. This paper also offers several useful guides for practitioners on different aspects of VUCA within the industry.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first attempts to reflect critically on the possibilities of using the VUCA concept in marketing by the T&HI and contributes to the discussion about the conditions for its implementation. This paper offers suggestions about the dynamic competencies of tourism and hospitality managers (enterprise and leader oriented), which are essential when designing marketing mix instruments in line with the VUCA concept, and indicates directions for future research.

Bibliometric, network, and thematic mapping analyses of metaphor and discourse in COVID-19 publications from 2020 to 2022.

The research contributions of metaphor as part of (critical) discourse studies have flourished during COVID-19; hence, it is necessary to consider their progress and foresee their future growth. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of COVID metaphor research in discourse and to identify the most recent research foci, bibliometric, network, thematic mapping and word cloud analyses were conducted in this study. The results showed that (1) research on COVID metaphors is largely shaped by Critical Discourse Analysis research approaches and methodologies; (2) the research production has investigated traditional genres such as news and emerging genres, including social media and multimodal data; and (3) research highlights the role played by metaphors in persuasion in public discourse. The findings of this study can assist future research in this or related fields by providing an overview of metaphor research in crisis communication.

Resistance and restoration: Healing research methodologies for the global majority.

Objectives: Recently, research has focused both on the influence of institutional racism and how the Global Majority, which includes Black, Indigenous and People of Color, heal from processes related to racial and other forms of oppression. We propose a framework of healing research methodologies that is situated within emerging diversity science trends. This framework specifically is designed to apply diversity science principles to develop research that is culturally relevant and can help explain intragroup processes related to healing from institutional racism. Methods: Drawing from the diversity science, liberation and critical research methodologies, and psychological healing practices literature, we propose a healing research methodologies framework. Results: The healing research methodologies framework consists of six critical components: maintains social justice ethics, adopts liberation methodologies, implements healing methods, embraces interdisciplinary approaches, catalyzes action, and promotes community accessibility. Conclusions: We offer recommendations to guide future diversity science healing research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

External business knowledge transmission: a conceptual framework

PurposeThis study aims to develop an original conceptual framework to guide research into knowledge transmission between professional external knowledge providers and their business clientele. As such, the framework aims to bridge a gap between theory and practice by explicating the processes which affect knowledge transmission and the conversion of knowledge for business application (i.e. knowledge transference).Design/methodology/approachKey concepts from disciplines of knowledge management, information management, communications, services marketing and business advice are reviewed and integrated into the development of this framework. Underpinned by a critical realist philosophical lens, it provides a robust research guide for examining business advisor knowledge actions in a changing open environment.FindingsThis study identifies that the process of knowledge transmission from a source external to a business is more complex than internal knowledge sharing. It addresses this complexity through a knowledge transmission framework, in a research design that is applicable to any methodological paradigm. Real-world application is identified in its applicability for evaluating mechanisms to facilitate knowledge transmission practices of external advisors to small business in regionally isolated communities.Research limitations/implicationsThe critical realist research methodology allows for causality in knowledge transmission to emerge; however, no assertion is made that the conceptual framework developed needs any particular philosophical paradigm for its application. Instead, what is asserted is that the research framework developed in this paper is specifically suited to the characteristics of external knowledge providers, their tacit knowledge and the businesses they service.Originality/valueThis study reconceptualises various theoretical perspectives and develops a sequential process for addressing a research lacuna by specifically examining the processes (or connections) between external business advisor’s knowledge and their advisory actions. With these processes clearly established, the role of external knowledge providers, as knowledge transmitters, deepens the understanding of knowledge transference that up until now has focused typically on internal organisation aspects.

‘To engage or not to’: translating civic education to civic engagement

ABSTRACT This paper draws from a broader study on citizenship education in Western Uganda to explain how civic education knowledge translates into civic engagement through people’s lived experiences. The paper addresses two questions, that is the contextual understandings of civic education and civic engagement by the partner NGO. Secondly, what explains people’s decision to engage or not to engage. We employed critical research methodologies with multiple data collection methods as a means of empowering rural community members to dialogue with stakeholders in civic education. We present the findings based on three themes, that is rationality, power dynamics, and mutual interests. We draw on Rational Choice Theory to theorise reasons for civic engagement. We particularly argue that drivers for and against civic engagement are largely individual and driven by assumed benefits and losses. Individual assumptions can also translate to group or larger social conclaves based on common drivers, beliefs and interests. We conclude by noting that actors in civic education and awareness programmes ought to note that civic engagement is rooted in individual rationality albeit contextual.

Incorporating equity, diversity, and inclusion in science: Lessons learned from an undergraduate seminar

AbstractQuestions of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the sciences have taken center stage in light of the COVID‐19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement of 2020. This paper focuses on the experiences of academics engaging in such work, particularly in their roles as educators, by sharing two of the authors' experiences introducing equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives in a first‐year science course at a Canadian university. Using critical research methodologies like narrative inquiry and memory work, we look at three separate instances where complex personal, institutional and course attributes fostered, allowed, or hindered efforts to bring these initiatives into the classroom. We consider how problematic incidents and obstacles relating to the organization of content on equity, diversity, and inclusion in science cropped up during the process, how they were perceived and handled in the moment, as well as the authors' reflections, takeaways, and lessons learned from the experience. These stories suggest that efforts to center discussions about equity, diversity, and inclusion in undergraduate science classrooms can be unpredictable and complex, particularly at the day‐to‐day level; this is especially the case when handling subtler microaggressions rather than clear instances of discrimination or harassment. Our study points to the importance of creating a more permanent institutional memory for initiatives that outlive those who initiated and organized them, so that they become embedded within the culture of a course or department.

Recovery as a minor practice.

This article investigates the methodological potential of interdisciplinary research to generate collective rather than interpretive or reflective knowledge practices for the study of recovery from addiction to drugs and alcohol. The question that informs this investigation of knowledge practices is how researchers participate in knowledge production and the possibility of building alternative interdisciplinary methods that connect experts to treatment services and service-users in new ways. In the first part, we trace and evaluate methodological debates on research methods in academic, professional and treatment service settings. In so doing we consider the role sociologists have played in engaging qualitative, quantitative and deconstructive methods for researching recovery from addiction, and the strengths and limitations of empirical and critical research methodologies in responding to drug policy on recovery. In the second part of the article, describing a research collaboration with the sociologists Nicole Vitellone and Lena Theodoropoulou, the visual artist and filmmaker Melanie Manchot, and research participants' from creative recovery services in Liverpool, we outline the possibilities offered by the concept of recovery as a minor practice to reconfigure the role of experts, methods, and participants in new collaborative lines of inquiry. Turning to observations of a set of cinema-based pilot workshops from 2019 and 2020 with people in recovery, we describe the effects and consequences of an interdisciplinary methodology for enabling a different way of thinking about recovery as a minor practice. In rethinking and reimagining recovery as a minor practice, the article provides a distinctive interdisciplinary approach for recovery-oriented practice and policy.

After All Is Said and Done: On Fluid Solidarity and Survival

After All Is Said and Done: On Fluid Solidarity and Survival

Mapping as critical qualitative research methodology

ABSTRACT This paper examines the contributions of mapping research to critical qualitative research methodology. Mapping research is introduced, along with its history, the prevalence of geo- and socio-spatial theoretical frameworks used with the methodology, and the predominant framing of mapping research in the field of education. The main goal of this paper is to share some of the wide variety of approaches to mapping research to help scholars understand where the methodology comes from, where it is going, as well as its scope, strengths, limitations, and possibilities for critical qualitative research. Three diverse examples of mapping research are analysed in detail with attention given to their theoretical and methodological contexts, prompts and generated artefacts, as well as strengths and limitations.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo: a transnational collaboration

ABSTRACT This article situates the adaptation of literature for the stage as a collaborative artistic practice and critical research methodology. We describe our experience of co-writing a play based on Christy Lefteri’s award-winning novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo (2019). As playwrights based in London and California, respectively, with life experiences rooted in Syria, the United Kingdom, and the United States, our collaborative process pushes against the borders of geography and our own identities. We share a belief in the power of theater for social change, and a desire to make visible the effects of inhumane immigration systems on refugees and asylum-seekers.