1st Edition

Affirming Methodologies Research and Education in the Caribbean

    228 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    228 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Affirming Methodologies: Research and Education in the Caribbean centres local and indigenous ways of knowing in research and education praxis in the Caribbean. The research methodologies and pedagogies are presented in this book within an Affirming Methodologies framework. They bring forward localized epistemologies whereby Caribbean ways of being and knowing are affirmed, and the expected western hierarchies between researcher and researched are removed.

    The chapters present approaches to knowledge construction and knowledge sharing based on practices, lived experiences, traditions, language patterns, and rituals of Caribbean communities. The importance of an Affirming Methodologies approach is demonstrated, and the characteristics of culturally affirming research methodologies and pedagogies in diverse environments including Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and the Caribbean diaspora in Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada are explored and presented. Grounded on an understanding of the authors’ Caribbean positionality, ontological distinctions within the Caribbean research context are considered. This book moves forward from a decolonizing methodology approach, and, as such, the chapters are written, not in opposition to, or tested against Eurocentric approaches to research, but deeply rooted in a Caribbean ethos.

    This book will engage researchers (both qualitative and quantitative), postgraduate students, academics, practitioners, policymakers, community workers, and lay persons who seek to employ culturally relevant local and indigenous research approaches in their work. Each chapter offers practical suggestions on the 'how' of research practice, making them accessible, relevant, and flexible for novice and seasoned researchers alike.

    Introduction: Defining Affirming Methodologies and Articulating a Caribbean Space

    Camille Nakhid

    PART I: Culturally Affirming Methodologies for Caribbean Research

    1.Researcher Positioning in the Caribbean Research Space

    Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor and Jean Butcher-Lashley

    2. Liming Methodology as a Culturally Affirming Approach to Research in Caribbean Contexts

    Anabel Fernandez Santana

    3. Mash-Up as Method: Building Community-Based Approaches to Caribbean Feminist Research

    Ryan Persadie and Suzanne Narain

    PART II: Affirming Caribbean Pedagogies in Academia

    4. Shifting from Hegemonic Teaching and Practices to Liberating and Affirmative Caribbean Pedagogies

    Jennifer Adams and Pauline Bullen

    5. Affirming an Endonormative Approach in Language Research Design in the Caribbean

    Kristian Ali, Ben Braithwaite, Ryan Durgasingh, Samantha Jackson and Nicha Selvon-Ramkissoon

    6. Comparative Collaboration: Possibilities and Positionalities within Culturally Affirming Methodologies

    Joyanne De Four-Babb, Talia Esnard, Laurette Bristol, Theresa Coye, Lisa Ibrahim-Joseph, Ines Gill-Grill and Lisa Perez

    7. Popular Education as an Emancipatory Approach to Knowledge Construction: Experiences from Cuba

    Yaima Elena Rodríguez Alomar and Yaima Palacio Verona

    PART III: Affirming Indigenous Practices

    8. Groundings and Rastafari: Re-territorialising Caribbean Indigenous Knowledges

    Yentyl Williams, Aleema Gray and Chevy Eugene

    9. Affirming Methodologies in Peace and Conflict Studies

    Kelli Te Maihāroa, Heather Devere and Michael Ligaliga

    10. Cultural Affirmation through Meaning Reconstruction of Rituals and Practices within the Caribbean

    Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor

    Conclusion

    Shakeisha Wilson-Scott

    Biography

    Camille Nakhid is from Trinidad and Tobago and is a Professor in the School of Social Sciences and Public Policy at Auckland University of Technology. Her research interests include culturally relevant research methodologies, and social issues impacting ethnic and migrant communities.

    Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor is a Psychologist and an Assistant Professor at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) in the Department of Social Sciences. Her research areas include at-risk youth, the parental bereavement of children and adolescents and interventions structured around grief and loss in families.

    Anabel Fernández Santana is a Cuban sociologist based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her academic work has revolved around culturally affirming methodologies, culture and identity. After obtaining her PhD from Auckland University of Technology, Anabel’s practice has interwoven culturally affirming research with innovation for social change alongside communities.

    Shakeisha Wilson-Scott is a trained social scientist with over 15 years of experience teaching at the tertiary level. Her research interest has largely focused on marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities. She expects that the current work on Affirming Methodologies will be of great value in her own teaching experiences and work at the grassroots levels.

    Affirming Methodologies is an innovative contribution to the theoretical landscape of the academy. As an approach, Affirming Methodologies centres often unheard Caribbean voices to epistemologically and ontologically position what it means to be Caribbean. There is, in this methodology, a subtle shift to claims of uniqueness, at once situated with decolonisation whilst simultaneously seeking the theoretical elevation of Caribbean social histories, lived lives, and practices that work to acknowledge the complexities inherent in such contexts. The text will benefit existing and emerging Caribbean scholars and non-Caribbean who need to be exposed to such knowledges.

    Professor Tracey Bunda, Ngugi/Wakka Wakka, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland, Australia

    This book, Affirming Methodologies: Research and Education in the Caribbean, is long overdue and sorely needed for so many reasons and on so many levels. First and foremost, however, is that the importance of capturing cultural perspectives in narratives, research, and best practices cannot be overstated. When research is absent of cultural perspectives, it is like an empty vessel. Cultural context is therefore essential to research and, when this is missing, the purpose, clarity of meaning, or sense of direction seem to be unclear or lost, like a missing piece of a puzzle. In research, it is the storyteller who shapes the imagination and belief of those who read and listen. Kudos to these editors for making the case for research and education from, and inclusive of, a Caribbean cultural perspective.

    Kassie Freeman, President and CEO, African Diaspora Consortium (ADC)

    This collection provides an in-depth overview and discussion on Affirming Methodological practices of, in and from the Caribbean space. The various chapters illustrate the strength, power and uniqueness of local and indigenous knowledges, within a context where historically louder global North discourses and practices have often dominated and disregarded local voices and ways of knowing. The book takes on these ontological distinctions from within the Caribbean research context and asks important questions about how and what can we know by building from Caribbean positionality. What does it mean to be a Caribbean researcher or the researched? What are the unique traditions, values, and respectabilities of the Caribbean missing from academia and research? How is an affirming methodology distinct to a decolonial one? And much more. This book will be of great value to researchers everywhere.

    Dr Dylan Kerrigan, School of Criminology, University of Leicester, UK