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Students of Color as Collaborators in Higher Education Knowledge Construction

Brianna R. Ramirez, PhD Student
University of California, San Diego


Through this blog post, I begin to engage the following question that as an emergent Chicana higher education scholar I constantly reflect on and will continue doing so throughout my research journey- In what ways can higher education scholarship center the knowledge of Students of Color[i]? So much scholarship has been conducted on or about, less with and alongside of the students and communities that many of us hope our scholarship will serve. In addressing this question, I draw from Chicana feminist theories, that as a Chicana scholar has become my epistemological and methodological home as I sought a research grounding that not only validated the ways of knowing and lived experiences of my students and their families, but also my own cultural intuition and contribution to scholarship and academia as the oldest daughter of Mexican immigrants.

Chicana feminist and critical race scholar, Delgado Bernal (2002) reminds us that Students of Color are holders and creators of knowledge as they possess cultural ways of knowing that are taught and passed down through generations in their homes and communities. In addition to culturally rich ways of knowing, Students of Color also carry knowledge from formal schooling and educational experiences and bridge their cultural ways of knowing for successful navigation of their higher education context and the various contexts that shape their lives. In doing so, Students of Color create and manifest new knowledge about schooling and institutions of higher education as students who have been historically marginalized by U.S. institutions and perpetual outsides of a higher education system that was never intended to serve them or their families. As higher education researchers we should be constantly asking and reflecting on the following questions- how can we intentionally disrupt traditional epistemologies in research to center the knowledge that Students of Color carry and how can we contribute towards approaching students that engage in our research as collaborators of knowledge construction?
 
I present examples from two Chicana scholars and ways in which my own research contributes in moving us towards inclusion of Students of Color as collaborators in research for the unapologetic political intent to challenge and disrupt eurocentric epistemologies and traditional ways of engaging in higher education scholarship. Critical race scholar, Pérez Huber (2010) explored how racist nativism underlies the higher education experiences of undocumented Chicana college students. This Chicana scholar drew from a Chicana feminist epistemology approach to data analysis and theorization by including the undocumented Chicana college students in focus group conversations throughout data analysis, as meaning, themes and patterns emerged from student testimonios. The Critical Race Nepantlera Methodology (CRNM) (Acevedo-Gil, 2019) is grounded in central tenants that also contribute towards implementing methodology in which Students of Color can serve as research collaborators. Rooted in Chicana feminist theories and epistemologies, Acevedo-Gil argues that Scholars of Color and Students of Color that engage in research are “threshold people” that navigate between, within, and across various systems of marginality, contexts, and worlds, including the epistemological and methodological. CRNM calls for researchers to acknowledge their participants as creators of knowledge and engage in reflexivity of how this perspective shapes research.
 
As an emerging Chicana researcher, I am beginning a journey that is committed to honoring and conducting research alongside of Students of Color, our families and our communities. My current research centers the voices, lived realities, and ways of knowing of undergraduate Chicana/Latina students. Through this work, I hope to collectively contribute to centering Chicana/Latina undergraduates as possessors of knowledge, an intent that is rooted in their lived experiences as they navigate institutions of higher education while embodying various categories of difference such as race, gender, class, and immigration backgrounds. Chicana/Latina students possess ways of knowing, strategies, and tools for navigating and negotiating across various categories of difference, cultures, and contexts. These students possess knowledge, resiliency, power, and plentiful capacity and potential to contribute to research in unlimited ways such as through data analysis, theorization, and research dissemination. Chicanas/Latinas undergraduates are pensadoras[ii], an epistemological and methodological approach that we collectively construct as a Chicana scholar doing research with Chicana/Latina undergraduates for us and for our families, ancestors, and communities.
 
By collaborating with Chicana/Latina undergraduates in research, we collectively cultivate a community of theorizers that disrupts traditional eurocentric research epistemologies, challenges deficit and racist narratives about Chicanx/Latinx students, validates and affirms our cultural and gendered ways of knowing, and repurposes research for the benefit and empowerment of our community. Together we cultivate possibilities for ourselves, our families, and our community by using research as an additional tool for strategically working with our communities and to support a pathway to graduate school and research related fields for current and future generations of Chicana/Latina undergraduates. We must continue to question, imagine, and implement new possibilities for collaborating with Students of Color in research to carve away at historical hegemonic research epistemologies and paradigms and be unapologetic about contributing to racial and educational equity in higher education
 

 

References

 

Acevedo-Gil, N. (2019). Toward a Critical Race Nepantlera Methodology: Embracing Liminality in Anti-Colonial Research. Cultural Studies↔ Critical Methodologies, 19(3), 231-239.

 

Delgado Bernal, D.(2002). Critical race theory, Latino critical theory, and critical raced-gendered epistemologies: Recognizing students of color as holders and creators of knowledge. Qualitative inquiry, 8(1), 105-126.

 

Gonzalez, F. E. (2001). Haciendo que hacer-cultivating a Mestiza worldview and academic achievement: Braiding cultural knowledge into educational research, policy, practice. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 14(5), 641-656.

 

Pérez Huber, L. (2010). Using Latina/o Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) and Racist Nativism to Explore Intersectionality in the Educational Experiences of Undocumented Chicana College Students. Educational Foundations, 24, 77-96.


[i] Following the writing of some critical race theorists (CRT) and Chicana feminist scholars, I capitalize the terms Students of Color, Scholars of Color, and Communities of Color to engage in a project that moves towards empowerment and racial justice. I do not capitalize the term “white” in my writing to acknowledge and reject the standard grammatical norms and power represented in the capitalization of the term “white.” 

 

[ii] Constructors of knowledge, theorizers, researchers


About the Author:



Brianna R. Ramirez (she/her/ella) is a current Doctoral Student in Education Studies (EDS) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) with family roots in Guanajuato and Jalisco, México. She completed her master’s degree in the Social, Cultural, Analysis in Education program (SCAE) at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Brianna’s research weaves together Critical Race Theory, Latinx Critical Race Theory, and Chicana feminist epistemologies and methodologies to explore Latinx/Chicanx higher education experiences and understand the systems and structures of marginality that shape access and transition to college for Students of Color. To share comments or questions, please contact Brianna (brr030@ucsd.edu).

Comments

  1. unknownSeptember 9, 2020 at 3:31 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. unknownSeptember 9, 2020 at 4:18 PM

    Your research and knowledge has influenced me to pursue to further my studies within this academic disparity. Idolizing for future researchers. ^^^

    ReplyDelete

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