Thinking Through our Processes: How the UCSC Community Psychology Research & Action Team Strives to Embody Ethical, Critically Reflexive Anti-racist Feminist Praxis

Co-written by eight people, this paper describes how the UCSC Community Psychology Research and Action Team (CPRAT) organizes itself in weekly group meetings and how this structure is an attempt to embody an ethical, critically reflexive anti-racist feminist praxis. First, we outline the community psychology core competency of an ethical, reflective practice (Dalton & Wolfe, 2012). We offer a friendly amendment to consider an ethical, critically reflexive anti-racist feminist praxis. Second, we discuss how we organize CPRAT meetings to uphold these ideas. We describe our current structure, which includes personal and project check-ins, rotating facilitation, and attention to broader professional development issues. Third, we provide two examples to illustrate our process: (a) why talking about poop matters in addressing imposter syndrome and (b) getting our team on the same page regarding a research site. We end the paper with a description of a “rough edge,” or an area for growth in our praxis. The UCSC Community Psychology Research and Action Team (CPRAT) began in 2006, when Regina (hereafter, Gina) moved to UC Santa Cruz as an assistant professor. In this paper, we describe how CPRAT works to embody the core competency related to ethics. First, we outline the community psychology core competency of an ethical, reflective practice (Dalton & Wolfe, 2012). We offer a friendly amendment to consider an ethical, critically reflexive anti-racist feminist praxis. Second, we discuss CPRAT’s organization as a critically reflexive antiracist feminist space. We summarize how our meetings have changed over the past 10 years as well as our current structure. Third, we provide examples to illustrate our process of: (a) personal check-ins and (b) how our team came together to address challenges at one of our research sites. Finally, we end with a description of a “rough edge,” or an area for our growth. Core Competencies and an Ethical, Reflective Practice Some community psychologists have been interested in developing core competencies (Dalton & Wolfe, 2012; Nelson, Poland, Murray, & Maticka-Tyndale, 2004) while others question the usefulness of such a framework (Dzidic, Breen, & Bishop, 2013). Yet all seem to agree that community psychology educational programs should assist students with engaging in ethical and social justice oriented community-based research. Since at least the 1980s, some have discussed the importance of reflexivity, examination of privilege, and self-discovery as central to ethical practices and accountability (Dalton & Wolfe, 2012; Lykes & Hellstedt, 1987; Nelson et al., 2004; Serrano-García & López-Sánchez, 1991; Watts, 1994). A recent discussion of competencies, written by the Society for Community Research and Action’s (SCRA) Committee on Education Programs and Community Psychology Practice Council Task Group, describe “ethical, reflective practice” as foundational and as a core competency (Dalton & Wolfe, 2012, p. 11). The authors argue that community psychologists must ‘‘articulate how one’s own values, assumptions, and life experiences influence one’s work, and articulate strengths and limitations of one’s own perspective’’ (p. 11). This is needed for Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice Volume 7, Issue 4 December 2016 Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice, http://www.gjcpp.org/ Page 2 accountability and ethical improvement. We agree that this process is foundational to and for community psychologists, yet we offer a friendly amendment to this competency. We urge the field to consider an ethical, critically reflexive anti-racist feminist praxis as a core competency. A critically reflexive anti-racist feminist praxis is situated within an episteme of relatedness (Montero, 2007) and therefore helps to hold us accountable to other researchers, our community collaborators, and ourselves. Indeed, reflexivity alone has not transformed the role of the university-based researcher (Lykes & Crosby, 2014). A critically reflexive anti-racist feminist praxis, however, may provide a more generative framework. It demands that we interrogate entanglements, contradictions, complications, and our web of relations among research team members, community-based collaborators, and in ourselves. The rationale for this interrogation is so that we can hold fast to the idea that we all have intersectional positionalities, desires, and histories, which we must consider if we are to create socially just change (Anzaldúa, 1987/1999; Fine, 1994; Langhout, 2016; Lykes & Crosby, 2014; Torre, 2009; Torre & Ayala, 2009). We therefore suggest the following friendly amendment to competency 5: Ethical, Reflective Practice Critically Reflexive Antiracist Feminist Praxis: In a process of continual ethical improvement, the ability to identify ethical issues in one’s own practice, and act to address them responsibly, in relation with others, and in ways consistent with liberatory practices. To articulate how one’s own values, assumptions, structural privileges and marginalizations, and life experiences influence one’s work, and articulate the strengths and limitations of one’s own perspective. To develop and maintain professional networks for ethical consultation and support. Our argument for this shift to an ethical antiracist feminist praxis builds on the work of feminists of color, who have argued for decades for a critically reflexive praxis, particularly for those engaged in community work with subordinated groups (Anzaldúa, 1987/1999; Anzaldúa & Moraga, 1981; Collins, 2000; Hurtado, 1996b). This is particularly valuable for communities of practice, such as research teams, where privilege can manifest in ways that undermine the overall project (Hurtado, 1996b). As Gloria Anzaldúa (1987/1999) argues, to engage in this praxis means that one must both hear and listen to the “clash of voices” for transformation to take place. That is, an anti-racist feminist reflexive praxis helps root our practice within the hyphens, in-between spaces, and from critically engaged subjectivities, as we strive to collaborate in liberatory ways (Anzaldúa, 1987/1999; Fine, 1994; Langhout, 2016; Torre, 2009; Torre & Ayala, 2009). Striving Toward a Critically Reflexive AntiRacist Feminist Space We endeavor to create a critically reflexive anti-racist feminist space. We want our space to recognize our intersectional positionalities, desires, and histories, and to root our practice from in-between spaces. Therefore, one important practice is to carve a space where we maintain ourselves within the academy. In meetings, this often takes shape as checkingin about our lives, including topics not directly related to research. Thus, we often share what we are feeling in our bodies. This brings our whole selves into the space and reminds us that our bodies are a site of examination for our work. This is vital because ethics is about what is rational, and also what is connected to and felt in the body (Anzaldúa, 1987/1999; Torre & Ayala, 2009).