Affirming Methodologies: Research and Education in the Caribbean

Affirming Methodologies: Research and Education in the Caribbean centres local and indigenous ways of knowing in research and education praxis in the Caribbean. The research methodologies and pedagogies are presented in this book within an Affirming Methodologies framework. They bring forward localized epistemologies whereby Caribbean ways of being and knowing are affirmed, and the expected western hierarchies between researcher and researched are removed.

The chapters present approaches to knowledge construction and knowledge sharing based on practices, lived experiences, traditions, language patterns, and rituals of Caribbean communities. The importance of an Affirming Methodologies approach is demonstrated, and the characteristics of culturally affirming research methodologies and pedagogies in diverse environments including Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and the Caribbean diaspora in Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada are explored and presented. Grounded on an understanding of the authors’ Caribbean positionality, ontological distinctions within the Caribbean research context are considered. This book moves forward from a decolonizing methodology approach, and, as such, the chapters are written, not in opposition to, or tested against Eurocentric approaches to research, but deeply rooted in a Caribbean ethos.

This book will engage researchers (both qualitative and quantitative), postgraduate students, academics, practitioners, policymakers, community workers, and lay persons who seek to employ culturally relevant local and indigenous research approaches in their work. Each chapter offers practical suggestions on the ‘how’ of research practice, making them accessible, relevant, and flexible for novice and seasoned researchers alike.

Introduction: Defining Affirming Methodologies and Articulating a Caribbean Space

Camille Nakhid

PART I: Culturally Affirming Methodologies for Caribbean Research

1.Researcher Positioning in the Caribbean Research Space

Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor and Jean Butcher-Lashley

2. Liming Methodology as a Culturally Affirming Approach to Research in Caribbean Contexts

Anabel Fernandez Santana

3. Mash-Up as Method: Building Community-Based Approaches to Caribbean Feminist Research

Ryan Persadie and Suzanne Narain

PART II: Affirming Caribbean Pedagogies in Academia

4. Shifting from Hegemonic Teaching and Practices to Liberating and Affirmative Caribbean Pedagogies

Jennifer Adams and Pauline Bullen

5. Affirming an Endonormative Approach in Language Research Design in the Caribbean

Kristian Ali, Ben Braithwaite, Ryan Durgasingh, Samantha Jackson and Nicha Selvon-Ramkissoon

6. Comparative Collaboration: Possibilities and Positionalities within Culturally Affirming Methodologies

Joyanne De Four-Babb, Talia Esnard, Laurette Bristol, Theresa Coye, Lisa Ibrahim-Joseph, Ines Gill-Grill and Lisa Perez

7. Popular Education as an Emancipatory Approach to Knowledge Construction: Experiences from Cuba

Yaima Elena Rodríguez Alomar and Yaima Palacio Verona

PART III: Affirming Indigenous Practices

8. Groundings and Rastafari: Re-territorialising Caribbean Indigenous Knowledges

Yentyl Williams, Aleema Gray and Chevy Eugene

9. Affirming Methodologies in Peace and Conflict Studies

Kelli Te Maihāroa, Heather Devere and Michael Ligaliga

10. Cultural Affirmation through Meaning Reconstruction of Rituals and Practices within the Caribbean

Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor