As academics in postcolonial Caribbean countries, we have been
trained to believe that research should be objective: a measurable
benefit to the public good and quantifiable in nature so as to
generalize findings to develop knowledge societies for economic
growth. What happens, however when the very word "research"
connotes a derogatory term or semblance of distrust? Smith (1999)
speaks towards the distrustful nature of the term as a legacy of
European imperialism and colonialism. Against this backdrop, how do
Caribbean researchers leverage recognized and valued (indigenous)
methods of knowing and understanding for and by the Caribbean
populace? How do we learn from indigenous research methods such as
Kaupapa Maori (Smith, 1999) and develop an understanding of
research that is emancipatory in nature? Decolonizing qualitative
methods are rooted in critical theory and grounded in social
justice, resistance, change and emancipatory research for and by
the Other (Said, 1978). Rodney's (1969) legacy of "groundings"
provides a Caribbean oriented ethnographic approach to collecting
data about people and culture. It is an anti-imperialist method of
data collection focused on the socioeconomic and political
environment within the (post) colonial context. Similar to Rodney,
other critical Caribbean scholars have moved the research discourse
to center on the notions of resistance, struggle (Chevannes, 1995;
Feraria, 2009) and decolonoizing methodologies. This proposed
edited volume will provide a collective body of scholarship for
innovative uses of decolonizing qualitative research. In order to
theorize and conduct decolonizing research, one can argue that the
researcher as self and as the Other needs to be interrogated.
Borrowing from an autoethnographic ontology, the researcher or
investigator recognizes the self as the unit of measure, and there
is a concerted effort to continuously see the self, seeing the self
through and as the other (Alexander, 2005; Ellis, 2004). This level
of interrogation may require frameworks such as Reasonable Humanism
in which there is a clear understanding of the role of the
researcher and researched from a physiological and psychosocial
standpoint. Thereafter, the researcher is better prepared to enter
into a discourse about decolonizing methodologies. The origins of
qualitative inquiry in the Caribbean can be traced to political and
economic discourses - Marxism, postcolonialism, neocolonialism,
capitalism, liberalism, postmodernism- which have challenged ways
of knowing and the construction of knowledge. Evans (2009) traced
the origins of qualitative inquiry to slave narratives,
proprietor's journals, missionaries' reports and travelogues.
Common to the Caribbean is an understanding of how colonial
legacies of research have ridiculed oral traditions, language, and
ways of knowing, often rendering them valueless and
inconsequential. This proposed edited volume acknowledges the
significance of decolonizing approaches to qualitative research in
the Caribbean and the wider Caribbean diaspora. It includes an
audience of scholars, teacher/ researchers and students primarily
in and across the humanities, social sciences and educational
studies. This proposed volume would provide much needed knowledge
and best practice strategies to the community of researchers
engaged in decolonizing methodologies. Additionally, this volume
will allow readers to think of new imaginings of research design
that deconstruct power and privilege to benefit knowledge,
communities and participants. It will spark key objectives,
directions and frameworks for deeper discussions and interrogations
of normative, westernized and hegemonic approaches to qualitative
research. Lastly, the volume will welcome empirical studies of
application of decolonizing methodologies and theoretical studies
that frame critical discourse.
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