From ‘what is’ toward ‘what if’ through intersectionality: problematizing ableist erasures and coloniality in racially just research

ABSTRACT Drawing from critical theory and intersectionality, we speak with and through racially just methodologies and epistemologies to problematize who is being centred, for what purpose, and encourage the visibilizing of identities not explicitly engaged within this work. We argue that for racially just research to challenge how whiteness and ableism are embodied by traditional research design approaches it needs to problematize the coloniality wedded in such commitments and bear witness to the importance that disability identities, culture, justice, and freedom have in this endeavour. We first unpack what racially just methodologies and epistemologies have enquired from the late 1990s-2020, as well as where disability and coloniality have been represented (erased) in this work. Then, we engage with Mignolo’s seminal theorization of epistemic disobedience and its importance in the generation of our thesis. Finally, we make visible the need to conceptualize the margins within racially just enquiries that seek to disrupt whiteness in educational research by problematizing the ontological erasure of disability among these justice-oriented projects. We end by shifting from ‘what is’ toward ‘what if’ to envision radical possibilities for the future that disrupt mono-categorical enquiries seeking to challenge racism but invariably leave Othered identity nexuses undertheorized by design.