Research as Cultural Practice Implications for Future Scholars and Scholarship

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Research as Cultural PracticeImplications for
Future Scholars and Scholarship

• Alfredo J. Artiles
• Arizona State University
• Opening Doors Third Space for Participation
• University of Colorado at Denver
• 2006

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Contact

• alfredo.artiles_at_asu.edu

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Research as Cultural Practice

• Research is one of our best tools to generate
  knowledge, inform practice, and help shape a
  societys future.
• Research as cultural practice
• Troubling silence
• Colorblindness and colormuteness
• Dark side of research
• Perpetuate oppression

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The Dark Side of Research

• Blacks want the social scientist to address the
  white community and tell it like it is. White
  America has an appalling lack of knowledge
  concerning the reality of Black life. One
  reason some advances were made in the South
  during the past decade was the discovery by
  northern whites of the brutal facts of southern
  segregated life. It was the Black who educated
  the nation by dramatizing the evils through
  nonviolent protest. The social scientist played
  little or no role in disclosing truth (Dr. M. L.
  King, 1968, p, 180) (my emphasis).

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Purpose

• Argue for a paradigm of research as cultural
  practice
• Outline conceptual and methodological challenges.
• 2. Reflect on the implications of such model for
  future research and researchers

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Overview

• Why research as cultural practice?
• Conceptual and methodological challenges.
• Reflections on implications for the next
  generation of research and researchers.

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Can we afford to ignore culture?

• The demographic imperative educational
  challenges
• 44 of children in urban contexts are students
  of color (Zhou, 2003).
• Achievement gaps (Lee, 2002).
• Disproportionate representation in special
  education and juvenile justice system (Artiles,
  Trent, Palmer, 2004 Townsend, 2001).
• Multiple (often contradictory) reforms (Gutierrez
  et al., 2000 Rueda et al., 2002).

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Can we afford to ignore culture?

• Cultural historical forces
• Historical patterns of segregation (Denton, 2001
  Orfield Eaton, 1996 Orfield Yun, 1999).
• Persistence of prejudice and stereotyping
  connected to segregation.
• Disparities in service outcomes across multiple
  domains.

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Troubling SilencesA Culture-less Knowledge Base

• analysis for this report of the effect of
  race/ethnicity on special education placement or
  outcomes was made more difficult because many
  research studies did not specify the
  racial/ethnic composition of the sample or had
  too few minority children to measure effects by
  race/ethnicity (Donovan Cross, 2002, p. 381).

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Silence in Sped Research

• Artiles, A. J., Trent, S. C., Kuan, L. A.
  (1997). Learning disabilities research on ethnic
  minority students An analysis of 22 years of
  studies published in selected refereed journals.
  Learning Disabilities Research Practice, 12,
  82-91.
• Bos, C.S., Fletcher, T.V. (1997). Sociocultural
  considerations in learning disabilities inclusion
  research Knowledge gaps and future directions.
  Learning Disabilities Research Practice, 12,
  92-99.

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Silence in Psychology Research

• Graham, S. (1992). "Most of the subjects were
  white and middle class" Trends in published
  research on African Americans in selected APA
  journals, 1970-1989. American Psychologist, 47,
  629-639.
• Santos de Barona, M. (1993). The availability of
  ethnic materials in psychology journals A review
  of 20 years of journal publication. Contemporary
  Educational Psychology, 18, 391-400.

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Silence in Counseling Child Development
Research

• McLoyd, V.C. Randolph, S.M. (1985). Secular
  trends in the study of Afro-American children A
  review of Child Development, 1936-1980.
  Monographs of the Society for Research in Child
  Development, 50 (4-5), 78-92.
• Ponderotto, J.G. (1988). Racial-ethnic minority
  research in the Journal of Counseling Psychology
  A content analysis and methodological critique.
  Journal of Counseling Psychology, 35, 410-418.

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Silences in the Process of Historical Production
(Trouillot, 1995, p. 26)

• Enter at four crucial moments
• Fact creation (problem/question formulation).
• Fact assembly (sampling, data collection)
• Fact retrieval (data analysis)
• Moment of retrospective significance (reporting)

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Technical Problem or Ideological Legacy?

• what happens to the scholarship when some voices
  are privileged and some are silenced, or worse,
  ignored? (Walker, 2005, p. 35).
• slavery existed legally in North America for
  almost 250 years. An apartheid-like social
  segregation was legally sanctioned for another
  hundred years. The United States as a nation is
  but 228 years old and existed as a slave nation
  longer than it has existed as a free one. The
  norms, customs, mores, and folkways that surround
  our racial ecology are not easily cast aside
  (Ladson-Billings, 2004, p. 10).

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In summary

• Demographic
• Historical and ideological
• Legacies of professional practices
• Culture-blindness
• Space for commitment and social justice in
  research?

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The Idea of Culture

• peoples performance depends in large part on
  the circumstances that are routine in their
  community and on the cultural practices they are
  used to. What they do depends in important ways
  on the cultural meaning given to the events and
  the social and institutional supports provided in
  their communities for learning and carrying out
  specific roles in the activities (Rogoff, 2003,
  p. 6).

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Reveal the eternal child v. Discover the
historical child (Rogoff, 2003)

• Culture isnt just what other people do.
• Cohesion
• Cultural practices fit together and are
  connected.
• Cultural communities continue to change, as do
  individuals.
• Diverse goals of development
• Linear evolution v. Diversity in goals of
  development

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The Idea of CultureConceptual Methodological
Challenges

• 1. Cultures cohesion Beyond essentialisms
• Pure v. hybrid
• Group patterns (homogeneity) v. intra-group
  diversity
• 2. Perspective in culture--The role of power
• Cultural cohesion is constructed in social
  interactions charged with power

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The Cultural Practice of Research(Artiles
Kozleski, 2003)
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The Cohesion of CulturePure v. Hybrid Cultures

• Not a single tea plantation exists within the
  UK. This is the symbolization of English
  identity. I mean, what does anybody in the world
  know about an English person except that they
  cannot get through the day without a cup of tea?
  Where does it come from? Ceylon--Sri Lanka,
  India. That is the outside story thats inside
  the history of the English. There is no English
  history without that other history (Stuart Hall
  as cited in Roy, 2001, p. 230).

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Crafting Within-Group DiversityBiography ?
Cultural History

• there are regularities in the ways cultural
  groups participate in the everyday practices of
  their respective communities. However, the
  relatively stable characteristics of these
  environments are in constant tension with the
  emergent goals and practices participants
  construct, which stretch and change over
  timeThis conflict and tension contribute to the
  variation and ongoing change in an individuals
  and a communitys practices (Gutierrez Rogoff,
  2003, p. 21).
• Beyond essentialist views of culture Membership
  issues

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Example 1What Counts as Culturally Knowable?

• The Issue The construction of Insider/Outsider
  identities is a local accomplishment
• Positioning and local and personal histories
  mediate the processes of identity crafting
  Multiple positionings
• Amys insider identity with the research team was
  afforded by the teachers
• Amys beliefs about English instruction and ELL
  were aligned with the predominant views in the
  school.

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What Counts as Culturally Knowable?

• Amy has helped with the Spanish speaking children
  at the school for 5-7 years. She knows Mrs. Y
  and her daughter is in Mrs. Xs class. Amy tells
  me that she moved away and her child did poorly
  in school because he was not in English. Upon
  their return to the area the childs grades
  picked up again. Amy had previously told me that
  she had especially requested her daughter not be
  in ESL because they had seen what it had done to
  her son. Amy stated Theyve really got it down
  regarding children learning English at the
  school.

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What Counts as Culturally Knowable?

• Amys insider identity afforded by other Latino/a
  parents
• She was instrumental in hospitals, courts, and
  school for families parents had confianza in
  her at the same time, however, differences
  between Amy and other Latino/a parents existed.

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What Counts as Culturally Knowable?

• Amys hybrid identities Her biography reflected
  a kaleidoscope of experiences shaping hybrid
  identities
• Anglo last name, U.S. step-father, English only
  at home while living in Mexico, instances of
  discrimination.

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What Counts as Culturally Knowable?

• Consequences
• Created spaces within research project to reflect
  and constantly question notion of the identity of
  insider and outsider to inform future data
  collection and analysis.
• We invited Amy to the research team and school
  meetings with teachers.
• Discussed our views on literacy and language
  instruction.

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What Counts as Culturally Knowable?

• Discussion
• Expectations about the appropriateness of a
  person as an insider who can also assume
  neutrality within an a-historical position in a
  community was illusory
• Monolithic identity and pure culture v. locally
  enacted hybrid Insider/Outsider identity

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The Idea of CultureConceptual Methodological
Challenges

• 1. Cultures cohesion Beyond essentialisms
• Pure v. hybrid
• Group patterns (homogeneity) v. intra-group
  diversity
• 2. Perspective in culture--The role of power
• Cultural cohesion is constructed in social
  interactions charged with power

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Perspective Power in Culture (Paredes, 1985
Rosaldo, 1993)

• Cultural cohesion/differentiation is a political
  process (Anzaldúa Erickson)
• Power, political processes, historical residues
• Boundaries and borders--the politics of
  difference
• Representation power Us v. them

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Perspective Power in Research

• The view from nowhere
• as the other becomes more culturally visible,
  the self becomes correspondingly less so the
  more power one has, the less culture one enjoys,
  and the more culture one has, the less power one
  wields (Rosaldo, 1993, p. 202).

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Perspective Power in Research

• Adrienne Richs idea of a politics of location
  is precisely about recognizing the geographic and
  historical coordinates of ones privileges--the
  privilege to be, to speak, to imagine (Roy, 2001,
  p. 242).

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Example 2Of Authenticity Ecological Validity

• The Issue Alignment of participants definition
  of the data collection procedure with the
  research teams definition (Cole, 1996).
• Framing the data collection procedure
• la idea es que ustedes puedan elegir algunos
  momentos que consideran importantes para la
  educación de sus hijos donde esté involucrada la
  lecto-escritura filmar lo que a ustedes le
  parezca importante.

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Of Authenticity Ecological Validity

• Enacting the data collection procedure
• Families staged literacy events at home that
  mirrored traditional school literacy practices,
  thus preventing us from gathering authentic
  evidence about their routine literacy practices.

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Of Authenticity Ecological Validity

• Consequences
• Transformed data collection (changed
  instructions)
• Tienen que hacer un video en donde nos muestren
  como es un día normal en su familia. En donde
  (el nombre del niño/a) sería como el director, es
  decir, que ellos deciden que es lo que se van a
  filmar. El objetivo del video es que nosotros al
  verlo podamos darnos cuenta como es un día en la
  semana de ustedes.

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Of Authenticity Ecological Validity

• Discussion
• When we speak we afford subject positions to one
  another (Holland et al., 1998, p. 26). Behavior
  is better viewed as a sign of self in practice,
  not as a sign of self in essence (p. 31)
  (emphases added).
• Tension between cultural logic (i.e., follow
  predetermined precepts) or subject position
  (i.e., negotiate, navigate, improvise).

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Of Authenticity Ecological Validity

• Oppressed people are especially subject to
  situations replete with contradictions in which
  they are pushed into contradictory subject
  positions (Holland et al., 1998)
• Home literacy event was a sign of positioning by
  the powerful discourse of the research team that
  summoned traditional school literacy practices.

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Example 3Defining Researcher Roles

• The Issue Access to multiple perspectives and
  contexts make visible contradictions and
  discontinuities that could have significant
  repercussions for participants well-being.

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Defining Researcher RolesBetween Advocacy
Professional Scripts

• Multiple perspectives on Sylvias literacy
  performance and competence
• Sylvia as active competent learner Classroom
  discourse data--literacy event, teachers
  opinion.
• Sylvia as distractible Parents observations.
• Sylvia as needing skills Observation of sister
  tutoring Sylvia.

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Defining Researcher RolesBetween Advocacy
Professional Scripts

• Consequences
• Teacher was informed about mothers lack of
  information on Sylvias progress.
• Developed interview probes about parent-school
  communications.
• Discussion
• Multiple identities of Sylvia as a literate
  participant
• Sensitivity to insider perspectives
• - New directions for representing perspectives
  that are comprehensible to outsiders

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The Cultural Practice of Research(Artiles
Kozleski, 2003)
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Implications

• Culture as a Minimized Influence in
• Researchers Education
• Re-present culture defined as a verb,
  processual, how people live culturally in local
  but changing circumstances, make culture
  invisible--knowledge, resources, funds, networks
  (Ingold, 1994 Moll, 1997).
• Re-imagine community most communities are
  imagined, not based on personal experience or
  direct contact, re-imagine school and minority
  communities (Moll, 1997).

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Implications

• What guidelines can we use to determine the
  culture specificity of our research questions?
• That is, how do we know whether the problems
  we pursue in our projects are construed the same
  way by the study participants? Do these problems
  or questions have the same meaning and importance
  in the communities where we recruit study
  informants? (Boesch, 1996).

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Implications

• How can researchers use their understanding of
  the world of experiences lived by their research
  subjects in the design of interventions? What
  do we lose in the data collected and research
  findings when we reduce complex lives to the
  category of subject? (Boesch, 1996).

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Reflections on Researchers Roles

• Commitment as a minimized influence in the
  education of researchers (Walker, 1999)
• a deep understanding of the complex processes of
  oppression and domination is not enough to
  guarantee personal or collective praxis. What
  must serve as the genesis of such an
  understanding is an unwavering commitment to the
  struggle against injustice (Fischman McLaren,.
  2005, p. 441)

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Reflections on Researchers Roles (Artiles,
2003 Paredes, 1985 Walker, 2005)

• Influence of researchers cultural self.
• Cultural location, affective responses.
• Results of face-to-face interactions between
  researcher /informant
• Informant representations of a group v.
  individual
• Informants select researcher--personality
  confirms stereotypes.

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Reflections on Researchers Roles

• What is the nature of your link to this group and
  their perception of what you do or what you
  expect?
• In-groups perception of what out-group thinks of
  it
• History of interracial/interclass contact and
  institutional trust.

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Researchers Roles Identities

• The mode of being of the new intellectual can no
  longer consist in eloquence, which is an exterior
  and momentary mover of feelings and passions, but
  in active participation in practical life, as
  constructor, organizer, permanent persuader,
  and not just a simple orator (Gramsci, 1971, p.
  10).

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Implications for the Preparation of Researchers

• 1. Representation
• Faculty recruitment, mentoring, and PT
• Student recruitment, admission, and successful
  completion
• 2. Campus climate
• 3. Education and scholarship
• Curriculum Core courses, cognates, inquiry and
  analysis courses, internships, comps,
  research/dissertation
• Pedagogy
• Epistemological diversity and the nature of
  scholarly inquiry

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Research as Cultural PracticeImplications for
Future Scholars and Scholarship

• Alfredo J. Artiles
• Arizona State University
• Opening Doors Third Space for Participation
• University of Colorado at Denver
• 2006