Reflecting Back and Thinking Forward: Indigenous Methodology Hogai Aryoubi, PhD Candidate Cambridge University Peace Education Research Group Conference Funding provided by Wolfson College- Cambridge University
1. Past Research Conducted in Foreign Contexts 2. Present Research Conducted in Foreign Contexts 3. Future of Research Conducted in Foreign Contexts The Importance and Benefits of using Indigenous Methodology in Afghan Studies
Methodology Research is guided by philosophical assumptions regarding how the world is; the ethical and moral aspects of research and its execution; and how knowledge is received, produced, shared, and valued. Methods vs Methodology
Traditional Research Paradigms Positivism- A philosophical system which holds that every rationally justifiable assertion can be scientifically verified or is capable of logical or mathematical proof, and which therefore rejects metaphysics and theism. Interpretivism- A sociological approach that emphasizes the need to understand or interpret the beliefs, motives, and reasons of social actors in order to understand social reality. *Oxford Reference
Past Research: Positivism - Ethnography and its roots in colonialism: ‘Anthropology and Colonialism’ by Diane Lewis 1973 - Subject to Object - Limitation: one reality; does not address researcher bias - Past research: Americans studying European Peasants - Said and Orientalism 1978 - Positivist research in foreign contexts - Merata Mita: ‘We have a history of people putting Maori under a microscope in the same way a scientist looks at an insect. The ones doing the looking are giving themselves the power to define’
Contemporary Research: Interpretivism - Anti-positivist - Qualitative Research - Subject to subject - Epistemology: knowledge is the underlying social and personal meaning that people ascribe to events and activities - Limitations: individual constructed realities; God is a human construction; lack of decolonization
The Need: - Smith (2012) states that, ‘the ‘post-colonial’ discourse has been defined in ways which can still leave out Indigenous peoples, our ways of knowing and our current concerns’ (p.25) - Patricia Grace: ‘Books Are Dangerous’ 1. They do not reinforce our values, actions, customs, culture and identity 2. When they tell us only about others they are are saying that we do not exist 3. They may be writing about us but are writing things which are untrue 4. They are writing about us but saying negative and insensitive things which tell us that we are not good (p.36) Smith, L. 2012 Decolonizing Methodologies
Indigenous Methodology - Margaret Kovach, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Bagele Chilisa, and Shawn Wilson - An Indigenous research paradigm takes a particular stance on epistemology, privileging the system of knowledge that the Indigenous group being researched itself values, using as its measure, its own worldview, culture, history, spirituality, time, and language, and the relationships that are established within that system (Margaret Kovach, 2010). There is no standard Indigenous epistemology, but is rather defined by each Indigenous group’s knowledge system (sources). - Example: Afghanistan oral storytelling- method and content is knowledge - The indigenous research paradigm assumes socially constructed multiple realities that are shaped by a set of multiple connections people have with their environment, the living, the nonliving, and the cosmos.
Margaret kovach: Book Chapter: Moving Forward, Pushing Back: Indigenous Methodologies in the Academy - There must be Indigenous people on the research team in some capacity. - Throughout the process there is respect and acknowledgement of those who have influenced our thinking and supported our being. - The researchers will need to show that they have a sophisticated understanding of Indigenous knowledge systems and can speak to aspects of an Indigenous worldview. - There is evidence of respectful contextual knowledge about the Indigenous peoples that the researcher involves. This includes a sense of Indigenous place, community, culture, language, history, politics, and the plurality of Indigenous being. - There must be a nuanced comprehension of colonial impacts on Indigenous peoples and Indigenous resurgent actions. - It must be noted that the focus on decolonization is critical, but it must move beyond decolonizing perspectives to centering tribal knowledges. - Indigenous methodologies are grounded in one’s own truth, story, and life.. - Indigenous methodologies require an agility with story and an understanding of orality.
- Interpretations are understood as interpretations. Interpretations are grounded within an Indigenous worldview and community relations. Representations of knowledge allow for Indigenous symbology and ontology to emerge. Representations can be allegorical, metaphorical, holistic.a They can include the written and spoken word, art, and the performative. However, such representation requires grounding in Indigenous ontology. It is an anchored representation - Reciprocity is a “gold standard,” and the research gives back to the community in a manner that meets community standards. Such research ought to create community with an understanding of the research’s long-term impact on the community. - The authority of Indigenous research flowing from Indigenous methodologies is gained from a review and “nod” from the Indigenous communities it impacts. - The beauty of this methodology is that it is for individuals who have lived their life in relationship to Indigenous peoples, culture, experiences, struggle, healing, and restitution. - They [Indigenous methodologies] are a choice for some-in particular Indigenous peoples- who have been made to believe that their cultural knowledge is unworthy, unsophisticated, and not rigorously intellectual. - Indigenous knowledges are distinct from Western knowledges. They are distinct because they arise from a different source place, and history. Yet, while Indigenous knowledges are distinct from Western thought, there is not the desire to alienate ourselves from meaningful conversations that impact a shared world. - To dismiss Indigenous methodologies will be to dismiss knowledges, and that is nothing less neo-colonialism.
COLLABORATION Done on or to Indigenous peoples vs Done with and for Indigenous communities 1. Co-design 2. Co-undertake 3. Co-produce 4. Co-Own
Pragmatic Paradigms - Allows researchers to combine paradigms - Whatever works to answer research questions There is increasing debate among scholars over the practicality and justification of undertaking research at the interface of Indigenous and Western knowledge systems, both from non-Indigenous and Indigenous scholars, who experiment with combining Western and Indigenous methodologies in their qualitative methods teaching or their alternative interpretive research (Battiste, 2000; Norman Denzin, Lincoln, & Smith, 2008; Gerlach, 2018; Getty, 2010; Hart, Straka, & Rowe, 2017; Held, 2019; Knudson, 2015; Margaret Kovach, 2010; Mertens, Cram, & Chilisa, 2013).
Further Reading: 1. Decolonizing Methodologies by Linda Tuhiwai Smith 2. Indigenous Research Methodologies by Bagele Chilisa
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