Abstract:
Resistance is understood as social, collective activity (Anzaldúa,1987), and how we approach education research will influence the academe, policy and social fabric of Australia and beyond, into the future. This paper focuses on innovation in qualitative methodologies, as resistance to dehumanising research in education. My PhD qualitative research methodology is designed to de-centre the participants as objects of curiosity through mapping perceptions, interpretations and experiences of Indigenous Allyship as a phenomenon. I will share the process of coming to my design and the decisions that led the way. This research methodology is socially geared to contest the values of modernity, which persists, despite the current justice agenda of curricular and pedagogical decolonisation being addressed in teacher education (Hughes & Fricker, 2024). Questions remain about how this is possible, and which approaches are valued, in professional spaces, that cross cultural and relational borders. Exploring articulations of the phenomenon Indigenous Allyship, in higher education in the Northern Territory, is to find out whether asking a different question in a different way, through new language, gets different results. The aim is to use a new lens with the purpose of collecting and reorganising knowledge and to introduce new knowledge. Phenomenography (Marton, 2004) provides the qualitative method of mapping data, centring the phenomenon instead of the participants, in line with Kirkness and Barnhardt’s (1991) research responsibility, a critical inclusion, to decolonise the research. Borderlands theory, (Anzaldúa, 1987) provides a framework for navigating the in-between spaces of cultural and identity intersections, whilst guided by the 4Rs principles of Kirkness and Barnhardt (1991). This presentation is an opportunity to share how to breathe new life into the continued political problematisation of marginalised peoples in education, by designing socially-just qualitative methodology, for social change. This paper presents one attempt at bypassing modernity's pervasive roots in education research. What’s your education research resistance, and how do we do it together?
References
Anzaldua, G. (1987). Borderlands/La frontera: The new mestiza. Aunt Lute Books.
Hughes, R., & Fricker, A. (2024). Decolonising practice in teacher education in Australia: Reflections of shared leadership. The Australian Educational Researcher, 1-19.
Kirkness, V. J., & Barnhardt, R. (1991). First Nations and higher education: The four R's—Respect, relevance, reciprocity, responsibility. Journal of American Indian Education, 1-15.
Marton, F. (2004). Phenomenography: A research approach to investigating different understandings of reality. In Qualitative research in education (pp. 141-161). Routledge.
References
Anzaldua, G. (1987). Borderlands/La frontera: The new mestiza. Aunt Lute Books.
Hughes, R., & Fricker, A. (2024). Decolonising practice in teacher education in Australia: Reflections of shared leadership. The Australian Educational Researcher, 1-19.
Kirkness, V. J., & Barnhardt, R. (1991). First Nations and higher education: The four R's—Respect, relevance, reciprocity, responsibility. Journal of American Indian Education, 1-15.
Marton, F. (2004). Phenomenography: A research approach to investigating different understandings of reality. In Qualitative research in education (pp. 141-161). Routledge.