Counterstorytelling as an Analytical Framework for Pastoral Research and Anti-racist Pastoral Care and Theology

ABSTRACTThis article addresses how critical race theory and methodology can inform narrative approaches to qualitative research in pastoral care and theology. While narrative theories in hermeneutics, psychology, and psychotherapy have been widely used in the field of pastoral theology, critical race theory has been rarely engaged, specifically in narrative approaches to pastoral care. Counterstorytelling is one of the primary theoretical and analytical frameworks that has been widely used in critical race methodology in law, education, and healthcare research. It challenges majoritarian stories that have systemically silenced the voices of people of color by creating new life-giving counterstories that honor the authentic lived experience of people of color. By reflecting on my own experience of conducting qualitative research with undocumented young adults, I examine how counterstorytelling can be used as a theoretical and methodological tool to construct justice-oriented, prophetic, and liberative functions of narrative approaches to pastoral care and theology.KEYWORDS: Qualitative researchnarrativecritical race theorycounterstorytellingundocumentedAsian American Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Moschella, “Practice Matters,” 20–21. Moschella provides a brief overview of the history and development of narrative approaches to pastoral theology and care. It’s important to note that narrative psychotherapy has been extensively used by pastoral theologians such as Andrew Lester, Christie Neuger, Edward Wimberley, Carrie Doehring, and Duane Bidwell.2 Their names will be mentioned alongside their works later in the article.3 Moschella, “Practice Matters,” 21.4 Intersectionality is one of the key concepts in critical race theory. See Gillborn, “Intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, and the Primacy of Racism,” 277–87. See also, Ramsay, “Intersectionality,” 149–74.5 Matsuda, “Voices of America,” 1331.6 George, “A Lesson on Critical Race Theory.”7 Solórzano and Yosso, “Critical Race Methodology,” 24.8 Russell, “Entering Great America,” 762–63.9 Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex,” 139–67.10 Solórzano and Yosso, “Critical Race Methodology: Counter-Storytelling as an Analytical Framework for Education Research,” 26.11 Ibid. See also, Bernal, “Using A Chicana Feminist Epistemology in Educational Research,” 555–82.12 Solórzano and Yosso, “Critical Race Methodology,” 26. See also, Matsuda, “Voices of America,” 1329–407.13 Solórzano and Yosso, “Critical Race Methodology,” 26.14 Ibid. See also Solórzano and Solórzano, “The Chicano Educational Experience,” 293–314.15 Ladson-Billings, “Foreword,” vii.16 Cook, “Blurring the Boundaries,” 182.17 Martinez, Counterstory, 20.18 Alemán, “A Critical Race Counterstory,” 75.19 Solórzano and Yosso, “Critical Race Methodology,” 27.20 Montecinos, “Culture as an Ongoing Dialogue,” 293–94.21 Alridge, “The Limits of Master Narratives in History Textbooks,” 662–86.22 Ibid., 662.23 Delgado and Stefancic, “Critical Race Theory,” 462.24 Alemán, “A Critical Race Counterstory,” 75–76.25 Solórzano and Yosso, “Critical Race Methodology,” 28.26 Ibid.27 Ibid.28 Ikemoto, “Furthering the Inquiry,” 136–43.29 For the tradition of storytelling in Chicana/Chicano communities, see Delgado, “Storytelling for Oppositionists and Others,” 2411–41. For the tradition in African American communities, see Bell, Gospel Choirs.30 Solórzano and Yosso, “Critical Race Methodology,” 32.31 Ibid., 32–33.32 To see specific examples of critical race theory used in qualitative research, see Solórzano and Yosso “Critical Race and LatCrit Theory and Method,” 471–95.33 Moschella, Ethnography as a Pastoral Practice, 3–7. For the second edition of this book, see Moschella, Ethnography as a Pastoral Practice, 2nd ed.34 Moschella, “Practice Matters,” 9. See also Moschella, Ethnography as a Pastoral Practice.35 Moschella, “Practice Matters,” 14–16.36 The term is coined by Moschella as it “foregrounds the development of personal and social narratives as sites of transformation.” See Moschella, “Practice Matters,” 14.37 Moschella, “Practice Matters,” 14–15.38 Other notable works also include Jan Holton’s work with refugees and unhoused people in Longing for Home (2016), Eileen Campbell-Reed’s work with a group of Baptist clergywomen in Anatomy of a Schism (2016), and Jill Snodgrass’s work with formerly incarcerated women in Women Leaving Prison (2020).39 Sheppard, Tilling Sacred Grounds.40 Ibid., 133.41 Moschella, “Practice Matters,” 20–21.42 Ibid. The first two pastoral tasks are informed by Moschella’s careful exploration of various dimensions and characteristics of narrative qualitative research. The third pastoral task is formed based on observing the exemplary pastoral theological work mentioned above and reflecting on my own narrative qualitative research work with undocumented young adults.43 Bracey, “The Spirit of Critical Race Theory,” 503.44 Ibid., 509. See also Bell, Gospel Choirs.45 Rose, “Despite Supreme Court’s Ruling On DACA, Trump Administration Rejects New Applicants.”46 Jae is a pseudonym.47 Jae, interview by author, 20 September 2019.48 Jae, interview.49 Jae, interview.50 Laura is a pseudonym.51 Laura, interview by author, 12 October 2019.52 Laura, interview.53 Lee, Unraveling the "Model Minority" Stereotype, 7.54 Ibid., 11.55 Cho, “From the Yellow Peril to the Model Minority and Back Again,” 181.56 Ibid., 186.57 Ibid.58 Le et al., “Anti-Asian Xenophobia and Asian American COVID-19 Disparities,” 1372.59 Ibid.60 Cho, “From the Yellow Peril,” 184.61 Ibid., 185.62 Jae, interview.63 Lee, Unraveling the "Model Minority" Stereotype, 7.64 Cho, “From the Yellow Peril to the Model Minority and Back Again,” 181.65 Jae, interview.66 For more information about the myths around US immigration, see Abramitzky and Boustan, “Five Myths about US. Immigration and the American Dream.”67 Scott, “Dreamers Aren’t Just Coming from Latin America.”68 USCIS, “DACA Population Receipts Since Injunction.”69 Hayoun, “Undocumented Asian Americans Struggle in Silence.”70 Solórzano and Yosso, “Critical Race Methodology,” 36.71 Moschella, “Practice Matters,” 20–21.72 Sheppard, “Reclaiming Incarnation in Black Life,” 207–8.73 Sheppard, Tilling Sacred Grounds, 133.74 Sheppard, “Reclaiming Incarnation in Black Life,” 208.75 The term “radical listening practice” is another similar term from Laurian R. Bowles, an anthropologist who conceptualizes Black feminist ethnographic interviewing. See Bowles, “Black Feminist Ethnography and the Racial Politics of Porter Labor in Ghana,” 65–77.76 Sheppard, Tilling Sacred Grounds, 133.77 Ibid. Emphasis is mine.78 Ibid.Additional informationNotes on contributorsEunil David ChoDr. Eunil David Cho is Assistant Professor of Spiritual Care and Counseling and the Co-Director of the Center for Practical Theology at Boston University School of Theology.