Thread by @drkakali

A THREAD ON EPISTEMICIDE IN CRITICAL QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
1. I'm creating this thread to discuss how epistemicide is common in critical qual research, and why we must be vigilant of it.
#critqual #educolor #acaemictwitter #phdchat #phdadvice #qualitativeresearch #highered #phd

2. First - what is epistemicide? It is the erasure, dismissal of culturally-situated ways of learning and knowing that would otherwise be critical to creating knowledge (in qualitative research). This occurs to center dominant discourses. #academictwitter #highered #phdadvice

3. At a conference, I met an emerging scholar of color, who is working on race and identity from his sociolcultural position, but he was working with theories that had nothing to do with his work (Read: Dead, white French guys). #AcademicTwitter #phdforum #educolor #highered #phd

4. I asked him why he was doing this and if he checked on the cultural wealth and capital of his own community. He said, "Well yes, but I don't know if I would get published. These theories and those who promote them have currency." #HigherEducation #educolor #qualitativeresearch

5. We talked for a while & he confessed that he has taken years to master frameworks that NEVER EVER felt congruent to his being/work/community, but he was unsure how to even be in congruence in a way that feels he has integrity in his work. This is epistemicide. #critqual #phd

6. We've to support each other to frame arguments that legitimize our culturally-situated ways of knowing & privilege that discourse in our work & cite each other. This isn't always encouraged in our training, & often dismissed as unscholarly in many programs. #wokemethodologies

7. We have to build language around epistemicide and lean on those who have already spoken about it, and continuously keep that at the center of our critical qual work, so that when we are challenged, we can bring up those arguments effortlessly and with conviction. #phdadvice

8. We have to also concentrate on culturally-situated methods of inquiry. We cannot repeat this model of interviews, observations, focus groups, and documents as our methods of inquiry if that doesn't fit the way we would normally engage in inquiry with our communities. #critqual

9. I asked a PhD student who identifies as Latinx what might be a culturally-situated way to inquire within his community if he didn't have academic guns pointed at him. He struggled to think outside of traditional qual methods. This is epistemicide. #highered #phdchat #educolor

10. We brainstormed and finally came up with some ideas, but it revealed to us how much of our freedom of thinking has been stifled when it comes to culturally-situated inquiry. And I see this over and over again in many places. #AcademicTwitter #phd #wokemethodologies #educolor

11. If it doesn't make sense for the participants with whom you are working, interrogate your theoretical and methodological framing of your study & be prepared to be really honest with yourself. Many things you considered as a solid foundation might crumble, but that's OK. #PhD

12. Things to remember - Not every natural way of engaging your community needs to publicized. Honor the sacred rituals and only share what you think is necessary/critical. If you can't figure out what these ways might be, ask your community elders. #academictwitter #critqual

13. If you find a theoretical framing is gaining a lot of currency, and its completely incongruent to your way of thinking/being/knowing, don't jump on it. Honor that discomfort, interrogate it, sit with it, and trust your body's wisdom when you get a bad gut feeling. #educolor

14. If a framing (theoretical/methodological/analytical) is not written with your people in mind, you & your work will continue to be marginalized in that space, no matter how much mastery you show. Or worse, you would be co-opted, tokenized, and/or exploited. #critqual #phdchat

15.Thus, it is important to see how epistemicide gets naturalized in our disciplines & continuously situate ourselves outside of it, because the work we leave behind is for the next generation of scholars, who would benefit from seeing themselves & their people in scholarly work.