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Thinking Critically About “Social Justice Methods”: Methods as “Contingent Foundations”

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Research Methods for Social Justice and Equity in Education

Abstract

This chapter offers reflections on emancipatory research methods and examples of maneuvers in feminist qualitative methodology that are oriented toward social justice, crystallizing in the specific space, time, and moment of inquiry. In the spirit of Lather’s (Getting lost: Feminist efforts toward a double(d) science. Albany: SUNY Press, 2007) advocacy to keep methodology “alive” and “loose” (p. 27), I argue that inquiries with emancipatory aims, and that conceptualize, conduct, and represent research aligned with those aims, must work against defining and freezing any method, tool, approach, theory, or representation at the outset of a study as inherently just. Casting a critical eye on “social justice methods,” I argue that all researchers are subject to shifting forms of normalization and that we should work toward keeping methods as contingent and dynamic, to serve educational projects with varied allegiances and aims.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example, one article noting the proliferation of journals and scholarly outlets cites 1.8 million articles produced yearly, an impossible mass to read, conceptualize or grapple with, while academic demands continue to rise. See Eveleth, R. (2014). “Academics write papers arguing over how many people read (and cite) their papers.” Smithsonian.com. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/half-academic-studies-are-never-read-more-three-people-180950222/. Retrieved July 31, 2018.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA

    Lucy E. Bailey

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  1. Lucy E. Bailey
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Correspondence to Lucy E. Bailey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Educational Psychology and Research Methodologies, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA

    Kamden K. Strunk

  2. Educational Policy and Leadership Studies, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Leslie Ann Locke

Suggested Readings

Suggested Readings

  • Dillard, C. (2012). Learning to (re) member the things we’ve learned to forget: Endarkened feminisms, spirituality, & the sacred nature of research and teaching. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

  • Lather, P. (1986). Research as Praxis. Harvard Educational Review, 56(3), 257–278.

This essay brings a critical perspective to social justice research methods by underscoring the importance of researchers’ awareness of broad political and academic discourses shaping inquiry, of keeping methods varied and flexible, and offers examples to demonstrate these points in action.

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Bailey, L.E. (2019). Thinking Critically About “Social Justice Methods”: Methods as “Contingent Foundations”. In: Strunk, K.K., Locke, L.A. (eds) Research Methods for Social Justice and Equity in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05900-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05900-2_8

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