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From theory to method and back again: The synergistic praxis of theory and method
... The connotation of 'power of' rather than 'power over' firmly situates the individual inside a homogenous grouping which is the community. In correlation to feminist theories, feminists advocate more participatory, reflexive approaches to constructing knowledge (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). The general definition of post-modern feminist theory stems from the fact that postmodernism replaces the holistic world view of any group and emphasizes constructive learning through shifting language and an emphasis on identities (Maher & Tetreault, 1996). ...
... The post-modern approach shifts away from the individual as the only source of our knowledge, exploring individual's relationships with others in particular settings (Maher & Tetreault, 1996). Post-modern feminist theory encourages participants to tell and interpret their own lives and stories and use this as the center of narrative inquiry for the process of constructing knowledge (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). ...
... Consequently, an important imperative of post-modern feminist theory is to promote social change by focusing on the lives and experiences of those who are often disregarded in public discourse such as veterans (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). A feminist perspective can bring out new ways of knowing that can challenge and shape social policy and individuals' lives (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). ...
... What feminist scholar Patti Lather refers to as "unabashedly ideological research" (1986, p. 67), is a cornerstone of a feminist methodology. In contrast to positivist approaches to inquiry, feminist teachers and researchers focus on de-centering the white male as the primary or exclusive research subject and knower, with the inclusion of multiple voices and diverse realities (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). Reflexivity on the part of the researcher and a commitment to address the imbalances of power and centralize women's marginalized knowledge are espoused within feminist theory and methodology (Reid & Frisby, 2008;Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). ...
... In contrast to positivist approaches to inquiry, feminist teachers and researchers focus on de-centering the white male as the primary or exclusive research subject and knower, with the inclusion of multiple voices and diverse realities (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). Reflexivity on the part of the researcher and a commitment to address the imbalances of power and centralize women's marginalized knowledge are espoused within feminist theory and methodology (Reid & Frisby, 2008;Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). Similarly, feminist educators have elaborated on the ways in which reflexivity could be used to transform the curriculum, specifically by centering on the lived experiences of those who have been excluded (Allen & Farnsworth, 1993). ...
... FR, PAR, and FPAR fit within the definitions and assumptions of critical research presented above. These methodologies are blatantly subjective, rooted within communities of people, critical of neutrality claims, and focused on anti-oppression, social change and benefits to those who are oppressed (Eichler, 1997;Fals Borda & Anisur Rahman, 1991;Hesse-Biber, & Piatelli, 2007;Reid & Frisby, 2008). ...
Participatory Action Research (PAR) is increasingly recognized within academic research and pedagogy. What are the benefits of including feminism within participatory action research and teaching? In responding to this question, we discuss the similarities and salient differences between PAR and feminist informed PAR (FPAR). There are eight themes or categories to provide a structure for this discussion: (a) theories and methodologies developed from popular movements and dissent; (b) marginalization within academia; (c) theories and methodologies critiqued for exclusivity; (d) focus on researcher reflexivity and subjectivity; (e) education for personal transformation; (f) critical research methodologies; (g) flexible and diverse theoretical and methodological interpretations; and (h) social justice and emancipation. Implications for education and research are highlighted.
... We also prioritized women's views and experiences. Feminists observe that, when science is misused to support predominant androcentric and ethnocentric views and interests, those who are not part of dominant groups are marginalized, and their issues deemed irrelevant or treated inaccurately when research occurs (Andrist & MacPherson, 2001;Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007;Ford-Gilboe & Campbell, 1996). Therefore, feminist researchers consider research participants' own views, perspectives, opinions, and experiences as much as or more than researchers' (Andrist & MacPherson, 2001;Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007;Hall & Stevens, 1991). ...
... Feminists observe that, when science is misused to support predominant androcentric and ethnocentric views and interests, those who are not part of dominant groups are marginalized, and their issues deemed irrelevant or treated inaccurately when research occurs (Andrist & MacPherson, 2001;Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007;Ford-Gilboe & Campbell, 1996). Therefore, feminist researchers consider research participants' own views, perspectives, opinions, and experiences as much as or more than researchers' (Andrist & MacPherson, 2001;Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007;Hall & Stevens, 1991). In this study, we used the Midlife Women's Symptom Index (MSI) that allows for reporting of a wide range of symptoms rather than instruments measuring fewer menopausal symptoms (which have been developed among Western women and list symptoms that are prevalent among Western women). ...
... Finally, all feminist theory posits gender as a significant characteristic that interacts with factors such as race, ethnicity, and class to structure relationships among individuals (Ford-Gilboe & Campbell, 1996;Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). In this study, we viewed ethnicity as one of the significant characteristics that circumscribe women's menopausal symptom experience, and we tried to see how other contextual factors including socioeconomic status influenced the women's menopausal symptoms. ...
The purpose of the study was to explore ethnic differences in symptoms experienced during the menopausal transition among four major ethnic groups in the United States. This study was done via a cross-sectional Internet survey among 512 midlife women recruited using a convenience sampling. The instruments included questions on background characteristics, ethnicity-related factors, health, and menopausal status and the Midlife Women's Symptom Index. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Significant ethnic differences were found in the total number and severity of the symptoms. The most frequently reported symptoms and predictors of the total number and severity of the symptoms differed by ethnic identity. More in-depth cultural studies are needed to understand the reasons for the ethnic differences in menopausal symptom experience.
... Therefore, the power relations between myself as a researcher and study participants were crucial to be taken into account. I acknowledge the power and privilege I have as a researcher, and therefore, I intended to practice reflexivity throughout the research process to deconstruct power (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). Participants of this research are not seen as passive objects of the study but rather as active knowers (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). ...
... I acknowledge the power and privilege I have as a researcher, and therefore, I intended to practice reflexivity throughout the research process to deconstruct power (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). Participants of this research are not seen as passive objects of the study but rather as active knowers (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). ...
Although efforts have been made by the Afghan government and its international partners to promote the tents of gender equality in Afghan society, biases against women and other marginalized groups persist in the society and media sector, particularly. The current study is a timely research because feminist media studies are an under-researched field in the context of Afghanistan. My research aims to be a contribution to this field and open a path for Afghan feminist media studies. The current study explores the representations of gender relations in transnational television soap operas broadcast on Afghan television stations, audiences’ decoding of the representations, and the role of the media in promoting social change. The selected soap operas for the study are Paiman and Qesay Maa, Turkish television soap operas dubbed in the Dari language. The current study is based on feminist theory and feminist methodology, providing a balance of content and reception analysis. Drawing on feminist media studies and focusing on media representations, the content analysis of transnational soap operas echoed previous studies on representations of gender relations and indicated that gender relations are often portrayed in stereotypical and traditional manners. The content analysis further demonstrated that women are objectified in different ways and are often represented as domestic, passive, selfless beings in men’s service. Moreover, relationships between women are often based on rivalry, hatred, and shaming and often without any particular reason. The study also found that contrary to women, men are often represented at outdoor and professional settings. Additionally, grounded on encoding/decoding model through a feminist lens, the thematic analysis of focus group discussions demonstrated that audiences constantly interact with media text and actively make meaning. Interestingly, FGD findings further indicated that as active viewers, both female and male participants, derive multiple and often diverse meanings from the media text. Although both female and male participants problematize the content of transnational soap operas, their interpretations of representations of gender relations and gender equality are dissimilar. The study concludes that transnational soap operas, and the media in general, can play an important role in promoting social change in Afghanistan, particularly gender parity through the Entertainment-Education strategy. However, an intersectional framework is essential in designing EE programmes for promoting gender equality in a diverse society like Afghanistan.
... Our perspective on power is informed by critical and post structural/postmodern feminisms (c.f. Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007;Jaggar, 2015;Naples, 2003;Tilley, 2016;Weedon, 1997) wherein power can act as an oppressive force as well as a force of resistance to oppression. We also see power in research as shaping (perhaps determining) what is known and what is knowable (Harding, 1991;Letherby, 2003;Smith, 1974Smith, , 1987. ...
... Institutions like the academy, healthcare and medicine, science, and others are granted authority to shape what we know. These authoritative structures, and the resulting research, generally reflect a commitment to objectivity, where there is a truth that can be found through empirical study that treats the observer/empiricist as unimportant in the process (Harding, 1991;Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). Feminist research pushes back on this, through a process of reflexivity, whereby the processes of power are made visible in research, and the researcher is not seen as separate from the process of research (objectivity), but instead it is made clear that someone (the researcher) is doing research and this person has a social position that influences the way in which evidence is collected, analyzed, and disseminated (Haraway, 1988;Harding, 1991). ...
Reporting on the development of an ongoing qualitative research project with clients of midwifery care in New Brunswick, Canada, this article details the ways that methodology is complexly interwoven with political praxis. Working through the development of this project, this article models one way to enact politically engaged feminist research at each stage of the research process, from developing the research question, through research design, data collection, analysis, and theory generation. In the process, three core principles of feminist research methodologies are extended: co-construction of knowledge, researcher reflexivity, and reciprocal relationships in research. This research is caught up in and responds to a fraught political context where supports for reproductive healthcare are limited, and midwifery, abortion, and gender-affirming care are all framed as “fringe” services that exceed the austerity budget of the province. Participants engaged in this study with a clear understanding of this political terrain and approached interviews as an opportunity to share their experiences, and to advocate for the continuation and expansion of midwifery and related services in the province. Through the research process, it has become evident that midwifery must be understood as part of the struggle toward reproductive justice in this province. These reflections will direct further stages of the project, including ongoing research and dissemination.
... Devoting sufficient time and energy to advance social change is already difficult to do within the academy, and Kloos (2005) argued that the adoption of a formalized science seems unlikely to help advance something that is not part of its realm in the first place. To achieve the dual goals of understanding and ending, a science of violence against women would have to define praxis as central to the science itself, as has been advanced, for example, in feminist epistemologies (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). It is certainly possible to bring a vision of what ought to be within science, but such approaches are hardly conventional. ...
... (p. 262) Perhaps, it is not a coincidence that methods that bridge social research and social change, such as narrative, interpretive, participatory, feminist, and liberation approaches (among others), are not easily welcomed into the scientific community (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005;Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007;Minkler & Wallerstein, 2003). Violence against women is a complex problem to understand and eradicate, and therefore Jordan's proposal calls for a transdisciplinary science whereby the tools and traditions of multiple disciplines can be brought to bear. ...
... This process can be complex and uncomfortable, due to uncovering personal biases, and requires constant attention by individual researchers (Cosgrove & McHugh, 2002). Further complications and difficulties may arise in attempts at reflexivity, given that there is a lack of established procedures (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). Challenges may also arise due to the subjective positions within a diverse research team. ...
Acknowledging researcher positionality and engaging in ongoing reflexivity are important components of qualitative research. In this manuscript, we share our experiences of examining our positionality and engaging in reflexive practice related to a research project with newcomer women in Canada. As a team of researchers from diverse backgrounds, we engaged in a picture-prompted poly-ethnographic conversation to better understand our attitudes, assumptions, and biases in relation to the topic of our research and gain a better understanding of what were asking of participants. Using thematic analysis, we uncovered four themes: 1) researchers bring multiple identities, 2) researchers bring privilege/power, 3) understanding what we call home, and 4) walking in participants’ shoes. We discuss these themes in detail, highlighting their implications for reflexive research with newcomer communities.
... Suggestions for strategies for engaging in reflection are offered in general texts on qualitative research (Gergen & Gergen, 1991;Lichtmann, 2010;Punch, 2009) and include common approaches such as journaling, personal interviews, researcher memos, and debriefing with other researchers or academic supervisors. Hesse-Biber and Piatelli (2007) argued that navigating the realities of reflexivity can sometimes lead to more questions than answersfor example, how much reflection is possible, what kind of reflection is attainable, and what are the processes by which to realize such reflection. To complicate matters further, little is written about managing the subjective stance of an entire research team and how to build reflexivity in research collaboration. ...
Researchers often focus on the content of their research interests but, depending on the research approach, may pay less attention to the process of locating themselves in relation to the research topic. This paper outlines the dialogue between an interdisciplinary team of researchers who were at the initial stages of forming a research agenda related to weight bias and social justice. Using a polyethnographic approach to guide our discussion, we sought to explore the diverse and common life experiences that influenced our professional interests for pursuing research on weight bias. As a dialogic method, polyethnography is ideally suited for the reflexive work required of researchers seeking to address issues of equity and social justice. Beyond more traditional approaches such as journaling, personal interviews, or researcher notes, the intersubjectivity highlighted by this method affords a richer space for exploration, challenging ideas, taking risks, and collectively interrogating both self and society. Following a discussion of positionality, the dialogue between researchers is presented, followed by their critique of the discussion, informed by professional literature. © 2017: Nancy Arthur, Darren E. Lund, Shelly Russell-Mayhew, Sarah Nutter, Emily Williams, Monica Sesma Vazquez, Anusha Kassan, and Nova Southeastern University.
... It is our belief that in order to truly interrogate power and establish the potential for a transformative conversation, those who employ TWC must engage in critical self-reflection. This includes a commitment to address the imbalances of power and centralize marginalized knowledge within a critical transformative learning approach (Mezirow, 2000) and as articulated by PAR approaches (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007;Reid & Frisby, 2008). There is no specific mechanism, however, embedded in TWC, to systematically foster reflection and examination of preconceived notions, personal bias, and positions of power of participants and hosts alike, which will impact consciousness development and the quality of open dialogue within the conversation process. ...
The World Café (TWC), used as an effective conversational tool around the world, shares several tenets with other participatory approaches to learning and development. It has not been critiqued, however, for its insufficient attention to reflexivity, power differentials, and structural inequalities within its process, specifically in relation to TWC facilitators. As a group of women from diverse social locations and backgrounds committed to the pursuit of social justice, we sought this opportunity to explore and investigate the transformative learning capacities of TWC, with the broader goal of enhancing its usability in education and community settings. We reviewed and critiqued TWC conversation approach, suggesting stronger links to liberatory education and transformative learning theories. Using a participatory action research process leading to cocreated knowledge, we developed an Emancipatory Learning Charter, a new tool that can enhance the transformative learning potential of TWC.
... FR takes diverse forms, but a shared set of epistemological features exists, which (a) value a women's lived experience as a legitimate source of knowledge; (b) appreciate the influence of context in the production of knowledge; (c) respect the role of reflexivity in the research process; (d) reject division of subjective and objective perspectives; (e) pay attention to gender, power, and transformative social action (Campbell & Bunting, 1991;Campbell & Wasco, 2000;Cook & Fonow, 1986;Harding, 1987;Lather, 1991;Ramazanoglu & Holland, 2002;Routledge, 2007;Webb, 1993); (f) carry messages of empowerment that challenge knowledge claims of those in positions of privilege; (g) ask new questions that place women's lives, and those of other marginalized groups, at the center of social inquiry; (h) share common points of view that connect the feminist struggle to oppression; and (i) question and critique androcentric bias (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). These perspectives share a common ground that interacts where gender has been viewed as a significant characteristic with other factors (e.g., race and class) to structure relationships between individuals (Campbell & Wasco, 2000). ...
The description and interpretation of Latinas’ experience with chemotherapyinduced premature menopause from breast cancer treatment were explored in this study, which utilized an interpretive descriptive method from a feminist lens, and Knobf’s (1998, 2002) “Carrying on” theory. The specific aims of the study and the interview questions were guided by the state of the science literature. Overall, the impact of physiological effects, psychosocial effects, barriers, influencing factors that made their experience easier or harder, and how participants adjusted to a cancer diagnosis, treatment course, and menopause transition were described as bigger than the menopause experience alone. Participants also described a period of uncertainty or “ever-changing landscape” that began at the time of diagnosis and continued through survivorship. The impact of information, access to healthcare, acculturation levels, support, and a sense of control were elucidated as important factors in “working through” the experience. A range of collateral data sources were employed. Study limitations and future implications for practice, research, and health policy were demarcated.
... At the heart of feminist inquiry is ''attention to power and how knowledge is built'' (Hesse-Biber & Piatelli, 2007). Attention to power in feminist research surfaces in numerous ways including attention to the power and authority of researchers (Lykes & Coquillon, 2007;Roof, 2007) and participants of studies (Wahab, 2003). ...
Social work as an academic discipline has long included women and gender as central categories of analysis; the social work profession, started and maintained largely by women, has been home to several generations of feminists. Yet, social work is curiously and strikingly absent from broader multidisciplinary discussions of feminist research. This article explores contemporary feminist social work research by examining 50 randomly selected research-based articles that claimed feminism within their work. The analysis focused on the authors’ treatment of the gender binary, their grounding in theory, their treatment of methodology, and their feminist claims. Feminist social work researchers are invited to reconceptualize feminisms to include third-wave feminist thought and more explicitly engage theory and reflexivity in their work.
Activism in the academy: Constructing/negotiating feminist leadership Our chapter is a reflective conversation among four feminist family studies/family sociology professors who have held a variety of administrative positions, from chair to director to assistant provost, in their universities. We began the conversation several years ago as we prepared a presentation on feminist academic leadership at the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) conference in 2002. It has continued on and off over the ensuing years, as we struggled with our roles as positional and nonpositional leaders as well as with trying to write about our deeply felt ambivalence as to whether “being a feminist administrator” is really possible and, if so, what difference it can make. This chapter contains our reflections about the fundamental ambiguities that arise as we live our daily lives as feminists and academic administrators. Throughout, we situate our conversation within the ongoing debates in academia, particularly ...
Feminists have contributed many new perspectives about the gendered nature of family and have shown that research and theory about families need to center not on women per se but on how gender relations structure family dynamics and interactions with other social institutions. Families are private and public spheres; thus, feminists have challenged mainstream ideas about the institutional context of families and the individuals who comprise them. Feminists view families as an arena of contested relationships between intimate and intergenerational partners, where variability, not unity or predictability of perspective, is characteristic. Over the last 40 years, feminists have infused the study of families with critical analyses of how gendered relationships operate according to how lives are stratified by systems of oppression and privilege. In this chapter, we address the contributions and potential of feminism as theory, method, and practice in family studies and assess its centrality for critique and transformation of this interdisciplinary field of study. We discuss how recent feminist conceptualizations have led to expectations for research measures and analyses that are reflective of the personal, yet capable of intersectional analysis.
This study examines the work experiences of tenure/tenure-track women of color faculty at predominantly White public research extensive universities. Using a woman of color feminist epistemology and a theoretical framework of attributional ambiguity from social psychology and emotional labor from organizational communication, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with eighteen participants. The interview data was coded and then analyzed using Fairclough’s work on organizational discourses and earlier work on intertextuality and social change. The analysis found that women of color faculty negotiate through paradoxical discourses of whiteness and diversification. Women of color faculty experience attributional ambiguity in the tenure review process, a process shaped by paradoxical discourses of clear un-biased formal written criteria and informal criteria generated through racialized mundane everyday communication interactions with White colleagues. The analysis also revealed that women of color faculty produce emotional labor in their everyday negotiations through these paradoxes where they are expected to contribute to diversity while being evaluated
using White standards for research, teaching, service and collegiality. Women of color faculty described paradoxical situations of rhetorical coercion that required them to produce social change on diversity while emotionally caretaking Whites in a culture of racial deference. Women of color faculty developed a communicative strategy of discursive vigilance where they monitor discourses of emotions and social political
hierarchies throughout their everyday interactions. This study makes theoretical contributions to attributional ambiguity in social psychology by using a discursive approach. This study also makes theoretical contributions to emotional labor studies by extending the concept beyond formally required management of feelings and displays of emotions in service workers to the discursively formed requirements to maintain deference to social hierarchies within organizations. These findings are then used to make concrete recommendations for best practices to improve the retention of faculty of color in higher education including creating critical mass through communication and formal recognition of emotional labor in diversity work by faculty of color. Lastly this study
makes contributions by developing a feminist woman of color strategic listening and disclosure methodology based on an analysis of interracial communication between participants and researcher during the interviews.
Constructivist grounded theory (CGT) methods render an interpretive portrayal, a construction of reality, strengthened when the process of construction is acknowledged. An Irish team study uses CGT to explore intergenerational solidarity at individual, familial and societal levels, and their interface. The study data comprise interviews with 100 people from diverse socio-economic and age groups. The article contributes insights on applying CGT in team-based interview research on a topic with such breadth of scope. This contrasts with the more usual focused inquiry with a defined population. Adapting the method’s guidelines to the specific inquiry involved challenges in: framing the topic conceptually; situating research participants in contrasting social contexts to provide interpretive depth; and generating interview data with which to construct theory. We argue that interrogating the very premise of the inquiry allowed for emergent reconstruction, a goal at the heart of the method.
Institutionalised sport offers a context of 'profitable margins' for gender and diversity scholars in management and organisation studies to understand the intersections of different identity categories. Sport is about gendered bodies which are sorted into overt, pre-determined categories, such as sex, chronological age, ethnicity and disability. The storyline is illustrative of this as it traces a methodological journey and identifies three challenges that evolved in research aimed at exploring the intersections of gender and age in sport. It will discuss how further contributions can be made by placing self as the subject and object of the research through the use of the method known as memory-work. Memory-work is a method theoretically constructed as non-hierarchical, inclusive research. In this article this method is applied from an individual stance which created tensions and unexpected challenges. Despite its limitations memory-work opens up possibilities to those researchers wanting to adopt a multiple lens within gender and diversity research.
Synopsis
This essay provides reflections and insights on the sometimes complicated methodological and ethical issues involved in conducting feminist interviews with abused women and other trauma survivors. I begin by summarizing the development of conventional, positivist-informed standards of research methods and ethics as represented by federal regulations and university Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). Next I describe the post-positivist feminist critique of these standards and highlight several guiding principles of feminist research methodology. I then consider whether survivors of violent victimization are appropriately considered vulnerable research populations, and provide examples from my own research with abused women that allow for researcher reflexivity about the ethical considerations of researching traumatic topics like intimate partner abuse (IPA). Finally, I conclude by offering suggestions for feminist interview strategies designed to help empower rather than simply protect participants.
With increasing interests in oppressed groups, the number of feminist studies in nursing has steadily increased. Despite the increasing number of feminist studies, very few articles have been written to provide practical guidelines for feminist research in nursing. In this article, guidelines for feminist research in nursing are proposed on the basis of 3 previous feminist studies. First, characteristics of feminist research are concisely described. Then, the 3 studies that are the basis for the guidelines are described. Finally, practical guidelines for feminist nursing research are proposed on the basis of 10 idea categories related to issues/concerns from the 3 studies.
Despite an increasing number of feminist studies in nursing, few reviews on current trends in feminist nursing research have been published. This article aims to explore the current trends in feminist nursing research and provide recommendations for future feminist studies in nursing. In multiple database searches, 207 articles were retrieved. These were reviewed based on 5 criteria: (1) epistemological background, (2) research questions, (3) research participants, (4) research methods, and (5) implications for changes. The review indicated that feminist nurse researchers with diverse epistemological backgrounds adopted new research methods to ask new questions; expanded their focus to include differences in ethnicity, class, sexual preference, and disability; and incorporated these diversities among women in a global context in their research. Based on these findings, recommendations for future feminist research in nursing are outlined.
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