| Title: Masthead |
| File: Masthead_V1_I2_2025 |
| Title: Editorial: Editorial: Research for social change: Nomadic methodology |
| Volume: 1 |
| Issue: 2 |
| Abstract: N/A |
| Pages: 1-9 |
| Keywords: Critical Research Methodologies, Nomadic Methodology, Open Access. |
| Authors: Dionisio Nyaga & Rose Ann Torres |
| File: Nyaga & Torres |
| Title: Photovoice as Knowledge Mobilization |
| Volume: 1 |
| Issue: 2 |
| Abstract: This article was motivated by an awareness of the knowledge mobilization aspect of photovoice facilitating meaningful social change. Photovoice aims to platform excluded voices and alternative forms of knowledge through photographs. In this project, immigrants with a professional background articulated their experiences in finding work in their field in Canada, this leading to photo exhibitions and round table discussions with relevant stakeholders. To highlight knowledge activation and exchange and explore how knowledge mobilization might be bolstered, we use an example of a photovoice project involving skilled immigrants to Canada. Because photovoice is situated within Freirean and feminist approaches, we employ these lenses to understand opportunities in photovoice for knowledge mobilization. We establish that key mechanisms for deliberately extending photovoice into the realm of knowledge mobilization are deepening reflexion (conscious raising and conscientization); facilitating affirmation, legitimation, and validation through strengthening the processes of mutual exchange (relationality); building a common narrative that exposes structural forces impacting lived realities through critical dialogue (collective identification and collective action); and engaging those who hold power in further critical dialogue. |
| Pages: 10-27 |
| Keywords: Photovoice, Knowledge Mobilization, Conscientization, Consciousness Raising, Freire, Feminism. |
| Authors: Marina Morgenshtern, Jeanette Schmid, & Gabriela Novotna |
| File: Morgenshtern et al. |
| Title: Catharsis: Culturally Responsive Programming Enhancing Mental Health and Healing for Black Youth in Toronto, Canada |
| Volume: 1 |
| Issue: 2 |
| Abstract: Black youth face unique challenges stemming from constant exposure to systemic and cultural racism, discrimination, and lack of access to culturally reflective services meeting their needs which significantly impacts their emotional well-being, career trajectories, and civic engagement. The research project explores the benefits of a culturally reflective program called Catharsis offered by the non-profit organisation, Generation Chosen, which focuses on supporting Black youth with their mental health, emotional intelligence, and civic engagement. Data was collected between December 2022 to April 2023. Surveys and focus groups were administered to Black youth aged 15 to 20 in Toronto, Canada who attended programming in the Jane and Finch community known as a racialized under-resourced neighbourhood. 29 surveys and 2 focus groups were administered totalling 55 respondents. Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a theoretical framework was applied to centre the lived experiences of the youth and listen to their concerns and ideas. Thematic analysis and triangulation of the data indicated that culturally reflective, trauma-informed programming can enhance emotional intelligence and lead to better coping mechanisms to manage stress. Participants reported improved life skills and mental health by accessing culturally reflective mental health service providers and engaging with staff who had similar lived experiences who modelled vulnerability as a form of strength and maturity. Overall, the research contributes to filling in the research gap in the Canadian context around the importance of culturally reflective, trauma-informed programming for Black youth and how it can foster healthy identity development. |
| Pages: 28-47 |
| Keywords: Trauma-informed, Mental Health, Black Youth, Culturally Reflective, Emotional Intelligence. |
| Author: Nawesa Bollers & Ardavan Eizadirad |
| File: Bollers & Eizadirad |
| Title: “Tete Wo Bi Ka, Tete Wo Bi kyere” – The Past Has Something to Say, The Past Has Something to Show: Ghanaian Indigenous Farmers’ Practices as a Research Methodology |
| Volume: 1 |
| Issue: 2 |
| Abstract: The importance of research in advancing human progress cannot be overstated. Research has resulted in many discoveries for curing diseases, developing innovations, identifying and implementing social and environmental policies, and developing tools and equipment to make life easier, among other achievements. Ironically, research has also served as a tool for colonizing and dehumanizing Indigenous and racialized people across the globe. Consequently, Smith (2012) described the term research as the dirtiest word in the Indigenous vocabulary. Realizing the importance of research in human development, how can we do research differently in Indigenous communities? How can we make research beneficial to Indigenous communities and to researchers alike? How do we approach Indigenous communities to engage in research? This article sought to address these and other questions in the context of the research approach I adopted and the outcomes of a study conducted in different farming communities in the Northern Region of Ghana. |
| Pages: 48-63 |
| Keywords: Indigenous, Environment, Development, Colonization, Methodology. |
| Authors: Suleyman M. Demi |
| File: Demi |
| Title: Reclaiming African perspectives in knowledge production: a look at ethnographic perspective to research |
| Volume: 1 |
| Issue: 2 |
| Abstract: This paper looks at the concept of Africanization of research processes to provide a renewed way of looking at Africa and African as producers of knowledge. The paper contends that colonialism has caused immense epistemological violence among Africa communities both in the continent and in diaspora. To help reimagine research methodology under the current neoliberal registration system of knowledge, this paper calls for reimagination of how we think and act research. This means calling out the current numerical simplification of how we look at Africa and African and start employing storytelling as a form deconstructing the gendered numerical essence of knowledge making. The paper sits within a decolonial perspective to start looking at the ways in which numbers can start mourning the loss of African knowledge making process under the current neoliberal supervision of what gets to be called truth. |
| Pages: 64-85 |
| Keywords: Colonialism, Numerical, Africa, Africans, Stories, Gendered Numbers. |
| Authors: Dionisio Nyaga |
| File: Nyaga |
| Title: Quantification of Black Bodies: Anti-Black Racism in Research |
| Volume: 1 |
| Issue: 2 |
| Abstract: It is time to start interrogating the legacy of colonialism that privileges a Eurocentric system of knowing within the Canadian education system and examine the research experiences of Black researchers. Many Black researchers continue to struggle with limited funding to conduct their research projects and many are faced with the issue of access to research mentorship. While Black scholars are restricted by these challenges, the Black populations are often researched by researchers who have little or no knowledge about their experiences. Moreover, the colonial constructs that pervade academia have relegated Black scholars and racialized groups as illegitimate knowledge producers. Our stories of lived experiences cannot be adequately represented by numbers nor by an outsider. This article argues that it is time to center the research experiences of Black researchers through the lenses of Critical race theory (CRT) and an anti-Black racism (ABR) framework. Our way of knowing creates a space for us to share and document voices alongside participants. hooks (1994) offered a way to think about personal experience as, “a way of knowing that is often expressed through the body, what it knows, what has been deeply inscribed on it through experience” (p. 36). This complexity of experience can rarely be named from a distance, neither can it be quantified into statistical data. Therefore, this article is inspired by the research agenda of Black female academics from a Canadian university. We view ourselves as legitimate knowledge producers with a keen interest in decolonizing research. |
| Pages: 86-113 |
| Keywords: Critical Race Theory, Anti-Black Racism, Decolonizing Research, Black Bodies, Legitimate Knower. |
| Authors: Olabisi Oyelana, Fiona Edwards, Hellen Gateri, Mary Asirifi, Doriane Intungane, Janet Kimei, & Emily Khalema |
| File: Oyelana et al. |
| Title: Transformative Praxis among the Filipina Community in Canada |
| Volume: 1 |
| Issue: 2 |
| Abstract: Existing literature on the Filipino community in Canada usually (re)produce the ongoing colonial and neoliberal harm(s) where their lived experiences are objectified and exploited for the personal, academic, and profitable gains of the social worker practitioner/researcher. Critical ethnography is touted as an advocacy tool for marginalized groups, however, stories of marginalization are often exploited in the name of “helping” and “advocating for the Other”, where vulnerability is highlighted rather than the agency, healing, love and strength of communities that are currently dismantling forms of oppression. This article attempts to challenge these harms as it illuminates the humanity of the Filipino community, transforming critical ethnography as anti-oppressive research into meaningful space(s) that centre their dignity and history over the achievements of the ‘expert’ social worker. I propose that as Filipino communities keep moving toward meaning-making that centres their lives and agency in relation to systemic racism, marginalization, and oppression, it also decentres white supremacy, neoliberalism, and the knowledge of the ‘expert’ in the field of social work. The particular harms that these experts (re)produce need to be unpacked, highlighted, and made visible in order to transform their work into political praxis beyond performative acts. This transformative praxis would foreground the voices of the Filipino community as the experts of their own lives and relations, where their particular knowledge(s) and emotions become central to their political and community well-being. Engaging in emotions would require immersing oneself in the Filipino community and foregrounding their community knowledge(s), lived experiences, and agency. Their forms of advocacy would hold privilege over the agenda of the researcher. |
| Pages: 114-129 |
| Keywords: Filipino, Neoliberal, Labour, Colonial, Anti-oppressive Research. |
| Author: Jessica Ticar |
| File: Ticar |
| Title: Unconditional Resistance as a Critical Research Methodology: The Power to Narrate |
| Volume: 1 |
| Issue: 2 |
| Abstract: Unconditional resistance as a critical research methodology resists all forms of colonial projects. It explores the in-between, outside, and beyond of knowing research participants’ pain and suffering. This article explores how we do research with racialized academic leaders (RALs). It focuses specifically on RALs because of their unique experiences in the academy, and because the current climate of equity, diversity, and inclusion in universities, RALs are highly sought for leadership roles. While universities are employing RALs, the fundamental question is how they are being protected as racialized leaders and how RALs protect themselves from lingering structures, systems, and conditions of colonialism. As researchers, we want to understand their experiences not just for the sake of gaining knowledge but also to foreground RALs’ work and knowledge as forms of unconditional resistance. While the paper’s main objective is to acknowledge that participants are empowered to narrate their stories when we do research, the power to narrate can only be achieved when researchers focus on the necessary platform of doing research. Therefore, I highlight that unconditional resistance is about the power to narrate the domination and annihilation of Indigenous and racialized peoples. Within this, I discuss the different ways of doing research with RALs, including unconditional resistance as a critical research methodology and the different questions that we can ask when we use this approach. |
| Pages: 130-146 |
| Keywords: unconditional resistance, power to narrate, Racialized academic leaders, critical research methodology |
| Author: Rose Ann Torres |
| File: Torres |
| Title: Black Feminist Thought: Transforming Social Work Research Methodologies |
| Volume: 1 |
| Issue: 2 |
| Abstract: Social work research, education, and practices are rooted in white colonial supremacist ideologies and structures that continue to dehumanize Black children, families, and communities. In talking about Black children, families and communities, it is imperative to address how anti-Black racism plays a role in examining systems, such as child welfare in which social workers are located, that act upon them. Research in social work needs to center the humanity of Black knowledge production and lived experiences instead of re-enacting anti-Black racism that reduces Black people, families, and communities to damage-centered narratives (Tuck, 2009). In this article, we will argue that the utilization of Black feminist theorization and practices can disrupt intersectional anti-Black racism in social work and centers the knowledge production of Black women, femmes, trans and queer peoples. Black feminist theorization recognizes Black communities as sites for change are embodiments and effects that can bring material change to social work research and practices. |
| Pages: 147-165 |
| Keywords: Black feminist, intersectional anti-Black racism, and harmful research. |
| Author: Valeria Ndunga & Sewsen Igbu |
| File: Ndunga & Igbu |