Insider research: Reflexivity, responsibility, and community-informed approaches

Abstract

Despite advancements in educational psychology research that have amplified the diverse experiences and development of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in educational spaces, BIPOC scholars continue to face challenges in the change-resistant landscape of academia and educational psychology. One prominent issue is the lack of methodological frameworks that consider the lived realities of BIPOC participants and the positionality of BIPOC researchers. As Latina/o researchers, we collaboratewith our communities to reconstruct existing paradigms and deconstruct deficit perspectives. We provide alternatives in educational psychology, addressing the issue of race-neutral solutions that often default to white middle-class students as the norm. We contend that researcher reflexivity and responsibility to one’s community allow participants and researchers to present their whole selves beyond existing protocols, norms of engagement, and temporal research participant expectations. Our ongoing qualitative research study examines how Latina community college transfer students at selective universities in California interact with support networks and develop a sense of community. Our team adopts a reflexive and relational methodology for engaging in insider research. While this focuses on the experiences of Latina college students, our framework aims to motivate BIPOC researchers conceptualize culturally relevant methodologies, recognizing that we do not aim to offer a one-size-fits-all approach. This methodology centers researcher(s) positionality and researcher-participant connections, allowing us to better calibrate participant responses and capture lived experiences beyond the confines of existing theories and frameworks.