Agential Cuts for Justice: Honoring Complexity in Educational Research through Intersectional Design Dimensions

Abstract

This article explores the complexity and challenges of making decisions regarding which theories and social categories (e.g. race, class) should be emphasized in justice-centered research that includes participants’ identities as key variables in the design. Drawing on theories of intersectionality, agential realism, and complexity, the author proposes four intersectional design dimensions to help justice-centered researchers honor complexity: reflection on self and purpose; making agential cuts; complexifying social categories; and intersectional and collaborative re-view. Each dimension is illustrated with theory and empirical examples, mostly drawing from the field of educational research. By attending to and continually revisiting agential cuts related to social categories in conversation with community members, researchers can better represent layered, complex, and changing phenomena.