Black Women as
Qualitative Researchers:
Performing Acts of
Understanding
and Survival
An Introduction
Rhonda Baynes Jeffries
University of South Carolina
Gretchen Givens Generett
George Mason University
I have come to understand that my African-ness does not diminish my Americanness and vice versa. My identity is not an either/or proposition. Rather, it is
both/and. In the same way my scholarship and my personal/cultural life are not
either/or propositions. I do scholarly work that both challenges and enhances my
personal/cultural life. I live a personal/cultural life that challenges and enhances
my scholarly work. I am a "colored girl" who has attempted to make life in the
academy satisfying and meaningful "enuf."
—Ladson-Billings (1997)
As members of marginalized groups assume more privileged positions in the
educational socioeconomic structures a/hierarchy, people who were once merely
the exotic objects of inquiry are now the inquirers—the ones formulating and
asking questions. As some enter the ranks of teachers, administrators, and
scholars, we are becoming the enforcers and legitimators as well as the creators
of official knowledge. Hence, as qualitative
2 Jeffries & Generett
researchers in the field of education, we need to explore and understand the
dilemmas created for Chicanas/os, African Americans, Native Americans, and
scholars from other disenfranchised groups vis-a-vis the majority culture. We
scholars/activists of color need to understand the •ways in which we manipulate
our multiple, fluid, clashing, and colonized identities and how our identities are
manipulated and marginalized in the midst of oppressive discourses.
—Villenas (1996)
Ladson-Billings (1997) and Villenas (1996) described the experiences they have
encountered as women of color within the academy. In these essays they eloquently
describe how they negotiate their multiple identities as women of color, scholars,
researchers, and community members. Similarly, James and Farmer (1993)
constructed texts describing the experiences of African-American women struggling
to understand their roles and identities in White academe. Granger (1993) reviewed
the work of African-American women in higher education since the 1980s. Her
research cited hostile work environments, adverse policies affecting rank and salary,
and underrepresentation among the many factors that inhibit full participation and
satisfaction for women of color in the academy. Despite the negative and unreceptive
responses women of color have received in institutions of higher learning, a large
range of activities exists in which Black women in America have participated and
excelled for centuries. Black women's efforts to deliver education include
establishing schools, often within their own homes, developing curricula, organizing
literacy campaigns, advancing the Lyceum movement, promoting exemplary child
care, and establishing and encouraging graduate education programs (Gyant, 1996).
Black Women in the Field: Experiencing Ourselves and Others Through Qualitative
Research returns our attention to the knowledge base created by women of color and
bolsters the dimensions of Black women educators' efforts. Furthermore, this text
expands that knowledge base through written experiences that look closely at the
work of the included researchers and considers how our identities impact our
professional lives and the lives of those with whom we conduct qualitative research.
Researchers' multiple identities impacts their scholarship and this research
was conducted with, among, and in spite of others. Research is not an objective
endeavor, void of the interrelationships formed and maintained by the researcher and
participants. This text, in the vein of qualitative research, urges plurality of
perceptions to heighten the level of understanding among researchers and
participants. The plurality of experiences represented in this text negates what
Mahajan (1992) called unmitigated relativism. He described unmitigated relativism
as a disregard for truth and judgments of right and wrong. Although we do not posit
in this work judgments of right or wrong, we do acknowledge the multitude of
various judgments made by the researchers
Black Women as Qualitative Researchers 3
and the researched and the contradictions inherent within those judgment calls.
Others within the academy may not agree with the perceptions held by the
researchers included in this text. Nevertheless, they are the lived experiences of the
researchers and those with whom they have interacted.
This volume highlights eight Black women's experiences and encounters as
qualitative researchers working to understand and improve Black communities and
society in general while surviving in White institutions of higher education. It is
divided into two conceptual categories: experiences understanding the other and
experiences understanding the self. We hope this examination of the contradictions
experienced by Black women academics will vividly illustrate the plurality of
perceptions and the range of experiences we bring to our various disciplines within
the academy. Furthermore, we hope this text enables those outside the realm of
"Black female academic" to understand and embrace "the other" as we struggle to
understand and embrace ourselves.
EXPERIENCES UNDERSTANDING THE OTHER
How does one understand the "other" when she is the "other" and few have been able
to articulate a definition of "other" that is acceptable to her and from which she can
begin the understanding process?
The negation of our humanity is reflected in the positioning of African
American women as Other, in relationship to white males and females, and
often as the Other of Others in relationship to African American males. . . .
Creating ourselves in our own image is a difficult task in a world which renders
us both invisible and on display. It requires a re-learning. (James & Farmer,
1993, p. 219)
Black women as researchers in pursuit of knowledge about other people are
often, more so than any other researchers, learning and experiencing for the first time
how to view the world from the center. Attempting to understand the communities in
which we work. Black women researchers must consider the places we were reared, our
gender, race, class, and ability, along with other interrelated factors that play a crucial
role in developing and shaping our experiences and the experiences of our participants.
For women of color, as Villenas (1996) wrote, we are both colonized and colonizer,
marginalized by the academy yet using the resources and tools of the academy to write
about our own communities and, even more intimately, our own lived experiences.
The research projects within this volume explore the multiple dimensions and
complexities of life for the authors as qualitative researchers contemplating who is the
"other." Historically, Black women, as well as many other academics, have utilized
positivist methodological approaches that distance us
4 Jeffries & Generett
from our communities and the academy. Collins (1995) identified four methodical
approaches that exacerbate this isolation:
First, research methods require a distancing of the researcher from her/his
"object" of study by defining the researcher as a "subject" with full human
subjectivity and objectifying the "object" of study. A second requirement is
the absence of emotions from the research process. Third, ethics and values
are deemed inappropriate in the research process, either as the reason for
scientific inquiry or as part of the research itself. Finally, adversarial debates,
whether written or oral, become preferred method of ascertaining truth
arguments that can withstand the greatest assault and survive intact become
the strongest truths, (p. 343)
Such framing forces Black women to "objectify themselves, devalue their
emotional life, displace their motivations for furthering knowledge about Black
women, and confront in an adversarial relationship, those who have more social,
economic, and professional power than they" (Collins, 1995, p. 343). Efforts not to
reinscribe the ideals and thoughts perpetuated by positivist methodical approaches
lead Black women to choose alternative epistemiologies to describe knowledge and
experience. Qualitative research, unlike more positivist methodologies provides a
means for researchers to critique and improve this process. Lincoln (1990) noted that:
Qualitative research is increasingly seen not simply as a set of findings that
reflect non-numerical quantitative data but, rather, as a set of social
processes characterized by fragile and temporary bonds between persons
who are attempting to share their lives and create from that sharing a larger
and wider understanding of the world, (p. 287)
Collins (1991) furthered this stance by outlining four dimensions of an
Afrocentric feminist epistemology; a theory she created to help bridge the gap
between the personal and professional lives of Black women and enable their
increased understanding of their participants. These dimensions help deconstruct the
complex intersections of race, class, gender, and other cultural subtleties by rejecting
the generalized belief that Black women are more oppressed than other people and
therefore, possess an appropriate vantage point from which an understanding of
oppression may occur. Furthermore, an Afrocentric feminist epistemology validates
the experience, dialogical knowledge, caring, and accountability that may exist within
a Black female academic philosophy. The experience dimension acknowledges
concrete, lived experience as a marker of knowledge and wisdom as a result of
concrete, lived experience. "Knowledge without wisdom is adequate for the powerful,
but wisdom is essential to the survival of the subordinate" (Collins, 1991, p. 208).
Knowledge developed through the use of dialogue between agents rather than from
subject to object is the sec
Black Women as Qualitative Researchers 5
ond dimension of an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. Additionally, this knowledge
must be presented, developed, and shared using an ethic of care, the third dimension,
which employs personal expressiveness, emotions, and empathy. Central to the
knowledge validation process is the final dimension of accountability. In an
Afrocentric feminist epistemology, accountability rests on the notion that "all views
expressed and actions taken are thought to derive from a central set of core beliefs
that cannot be other than personal" (Collins, 1991, p. 218). These dimensions
concretely support the work undertaken in this volume, and the contributors to this
text function and write from within this Afrocentric feminist framework as we
attempt to better understand our world.
For many Black women, this larger and wider understanding of the world
includes maintaining a connection and sense of participation in one's community (hooks,
1991). In his discussion on dilemmas experienced by Black intellectuals, West (1991)
noted, "The choice of becoming a black intellectual is an act of self marginality; it
assures a peripheral status in and to the black community" (p. 132). Attempts to remain
connected to community, while simultaneously working within academia, have created
barriers and challenges for many Black women. Nonetheless, although qualitative
research is a methodology where Black women do not have to distance themselves from
their research or lived experiences, there is an underlying fear that our work will not be
taken seriously, hooks (1991), in Black Women Intellectuals, acknowledges such
emotions. She states, "Writing essays that include confessional reflections, I initially felt
uncertain about whether they would speak to an audience beyond myself and my friends"
(p. 157). The fear of isolation from community and the academy force many Black
female researchers to question where and how our work fits within our respective
discourses. Williams (1991) described these feelings of isolation as unresolved wounds
ensured to plague Black women because of their existence as raced, gendered, and often
economically deprived people.
A common theme in the chapters of this volume is the necessity for reflecting on
one's multiple identities and positionalities. As we have stated, it is our multiple identities
that create the unique positions from which we attempt to understand the other. Harry
(1996) wrote that the locations from which researchers conduct their work is important
and valuable within research. She argued:
The concern with subjectivity as a potential source of bias is at the center of
established formulations of threats to validity. In qualitative research, however,
an informed subjectivity has long been seen as a source of increased validity in
research ... the personas we develop are influenced by the macroculture, the
microcultures with which we identify, and by personal experiences that
transcend group membership. The combination of these mutually interactive
aspects of one's identity contribute to the individual's adoption of particular roles
in particular settings, (p. 295)
The interactive aspects of identity make Black women vulnerable within the
academy. This collection is the first to illustrate how Black women acade-
6 Jeffries & Generett
mics, although vulnerable in our relations to the academy, use the interactive aspects
of our identities to make sense of our existence within the institution. We teach
myriad courses to increase understanding for and among the other from this position
of vulnerability. We move into known and unknown circles collecting and analyzing
data to increase understanding for and among the other from this position of
vulnerability. We interpret and inscribe our research to increase understanding for
and among the other from this position of vulnerability. We struggle to have our
inscriptions published to increase understanding for and among the other, as well as
to preserve our jobs, from this position of vulnerability. We fight to negotiate student
admissions, faculty appointments, curriculum reform, budget constraints, as well as
tenure and promotion, to increase understanding for and among the other from this
position of vulnerability.
In part, this volume rests on the question: How do we survive within the
academy and remain true to that which we identify? How do we increase
understanding for and among the other when we have yet to fully do that for
ourselves? Conducting qualitative research dictates that Black females in the
academy will serve a number of competing, conflicting and contrary masters, forcing
us to constantly consider who we are in order to better understand the world around
us.
EXPERIENCES UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Neumann and Peterson (1997) asserted that research is a "personal endeavor—
experiences within and expressions of a researcher's life" (p. 1). The contributors in
this volume suggest that examining that which is relevant and personal is a step
toward resolving the wounds inflicted by the structures and traditions of the academy.
It is a way of making life in the academy a meaningful experience (Ladson-Billings,
1997). Foss and Foss (1994) suggested using personal experience as research data
and as a mechanism by which a heightened level of consciousness is created through
a researcher's personal experience in the event. They wrote:
The data of personal experience in feminist scholarship usually assume the
form of women's personal narratives about the events of their lives, their
feelings about those events, and their interpretations of them. They reveal
insights into the impact of constructions of gender on women's lives, their
experiences of oppression and of coping with and resisting that oppression,
and their perspectives on what is meaningful in their lives, (p. 39)
This struggle is blatant and recurring for Black female scholars. We struggle
to develop our identities with regard to the influence of racism, family bonds,
community expectations, and career demands (Pollard, 1997). We strug-
Black Women as Qualitative Researchers 7
gle to integrate our use of spirituality in a space that equates emotion and spirit with
inferiority and weakness (Smith, Foreword, this volume; Southern, 1996). We
struggle to find our ability to use the range of our voices to express the totality of our
selves (Collins, 1991). Much of Black feminist thinking reflects an effort to find a
self-defined voice that expresses a fully articulated Black female viewpoint. The
treatment of Black women in general renders the group invisible as full human
agents, however, as academics, this position gives Black women a unique stance as
outsider within that can bring with it tremendous power (Collins, 1991). It can also
create tremendous strain. Constantly negotiating with oneself which performance is
required at any given time in order to remain invisible is a necessary evil because
invisibility is the essence of power for Black female academics.
Concurrently, Black female scholars function in a world of contradictions that
often discombobulate our invisible power. Farmer (1993) articulated this confusion for
Black female faculty:
We simultaneously have power, and lack it, in paradoxical relationships in
which power is sexualized and racialized. Our intellectual abilities are
questioned. We are made into fetishes. While shut out of decisions and policymaking processes, we are held responsible for outcomes, (p. 219)
Instances in the lives of Black female academics, where we are relegated to the
status of the other by our colleagues, constantly erode our sense of self and our ability to
trust and exercise the invisible power we have. When our research on Black people is
dismissed as irrelevant to the knowledge base, we lose our trust in ourselves. When our
research and teaching methodologies are seen as lacking in rigor and not generalizable,
we lose trust in ourselves. When our writing is deemed unacceptable, despite our prior
admission to the rights and privileges granted other doctors of philosophy, we lose trust
in ourselves.
Fortunately, alternative epistemiologies provide validation for the way we
work and relief from the fear and reality of rejection. McKay (1989) acknowledged
community identity as an essential aspect of understanding Black self-identity.
Community identity provides Black people a space for rejecting negative self-images
created and imposed by mainstream culture and also allows Black people space to
construct positive and powerful identities. Each of the authors in this volume
discusses how alternative ways of knowing and expressing and how the process of
conducting qualitative research has provided space for contesting and creating her
concept of self. Conducting qualitative inquiry shapes who she is and, in turn, the
research endeavor transforms her personal and professional life and her ability to be a
force in those complementary and conflicting areas.
Qualitative inquiry is an appropriate outlet for understanding a self that is
characterized by the fierce intersection of race, class and gender, whereas oral
narrative is ideally suited to reveal the multilayered texture of the lives of Black
8 Jeffries & Generett
female academics (Etter-Lewis, 1991). As Black female scholars, we are often the
most stabilizing forces within our communities, whereas at the same time serving as
agents of social change. And although we strive to meet the community's belief in our
ability to create change, we encounter antithetical resistance from the same
institutions that trained us to investigate, examine, analyze, and reform.
Still, within this appropriate outlet of qualitative research exists limitations.
Grumet (1991) suggested these limitations prohibit women academics from
developing into whole beings, hiding their feelings and their personal observations in
a diary, while publishing only the "scholarly accounts" of their work (p. 111).
Traditional structures that narrowly define the ways in which research is conducted,
reported, and interpreted leave little space for the Afrocentric feminist narratives
presented in this text. The essential nature of qualitative, narrative research is
constantly under attack because the methodology attempts to validate individual,
often marginalized voices in an academic world that expects measurable outcomes
and generalizable interpretations. Elbaz-Luwisch (1997) speaks to the contradictory
nature of narrative research that often uses small samples and does not claim to
produce generalization or immediate applicability. This methodology does, however:
make strong claims for the authenticity and power of narrative research.
[Narrative researchers] aspire to true collaboration and to the giving of voice to
participants, yet still work from within traditional academic structures which
value individuality, originality and ownership of intellectual products. These
paradoxical circumstances give rise to confrontation within traditional modes of
research, (p. 76)
Creating qualitative collaborations is an alternative way of gathering and
processing information, as well as an alternative way of understanding human
interactions. Investigating cultural phenomena require human interactions that are "more
dynamic and open than many theories allow" and force the acknowledgment that
"academics don't know more than ordinary people do about their own stories" (ElbazLuwisch, 1997, p. 78). Most academics are uncomfortable with this notion, and even as
Elbaz-Luwisch critiqued the academy's elitism toward the acquisition and creation of
knowledge, the critique suggests that academics are not ordinary people and reveals the
identity struggle that all academics and researchers endure.
As Black women qualitative researchers struggling with our identities, we ask
ourselves many questions between the lines of this text. How do we get out of
ourselves in order to see into them? And once we get out, how do we go back? This
volume is a glimpse of eight Black female academics attempting to mediate the back
and forth—acknowledging the impossibility of understanding the other without
understanding the self. We ask ourselves if our intentions in these chapters will
transcend the language we have used to express our ideas about other people. We
ponder our ability to speak on the Black experience, as
Black Women as Qualitative Researchers 9
well as the Black female academic experience, without generalizing and stereotyping
it. We crave for that experience to be heard and embraced by our participants and our
colleagues. We are riding a high fence that has yet to be destroyed by prior
institutionalized mechanisms, and our work seeks to chip away at that barrier; not to
increase it.
Simultaneously, we know that our most effective efforts will be realized only
after we have come to a fuller understanding of ourselves and the intimate role we
play as agents of social change within our personal and professional communities.
We must be forthright and acknowledge our home communities' shortcomings and
participation in creating the complexities we constantly confront. The negative,
empty space in which Black women academics often exist is produced by multiple
human forces, all with which we have close and intimate ties. We are the bridge
between misunderstood worlds, and it is our place to gather the realities, analyze the
perceptions and merge the constructions of these conflicting worlds. We hope that
this text has buttressed the foundation for continued work of this nature, and that it
can be appropriated to the various conflicting worlds in which we all live.
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