Caught in the Middle: Chat(ting) about Black School Leaders

Authors

Demetricia L. Hodges, Georgia State UniversityFollow

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to “chat” about my experience using Eurocentric theories in racial and culturally centered qualitative inquiry. The challenge I face is that I believe researchers can use Eurocentric theories to conceptualize ‘appropriate’ frameworks to conduct rigorous culturally responsible and sensitive research that contributes to existing scholarly dialogue and empirical literature on culturally sensitive designs in the field of qualitative research. In this paper I use my research experience to address the question, “How can researcher(s) conduct culturally responsible and sensitive research?” I use autoethnography and writing as a method of inquiry to (re)present the multi-layers of within and in-between chats while being caught in the middle. Chat metaphorically represents introspective musings, scholarly dialoguing, analyzing, interpreting, (re)presenting and defending. I use Tillman’s (2002) culturally sensitive research frame as an analytic tool to critically analyze my research design. I argue that qualitative researchers of ethnic, racial and cultural communities can conceptualize appropriate frameworks from mainstream theories to conduct culturally responsible and sensitive research that can help transform the traditional knowledge of fields in education, educational leadership, urban education, and policy.

Keywords

Autoethnography, Black School Leaders, Culturally Sensitive Research, Education Leadership, Reflection, Reflexivity, Urban Education, Writing asMethod of Injury

Publication Date

12-8-2014

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2014.1292

Recommended APA Citation

Hodges, D. L. (2014). Caught in the Middle: Chat(ting) about Black School Leaders. The Qualitative Report, 19(49), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2014.1292