Key Note Equality in Diversity Indigenous Research Methodologies

Key Note: Equality in Diversity: Indigenous Research Methodologies American Indigenous Research Association Conference Montana 23 rd-25 th October 2015 Bagele Chilisa University of Botswana Email chilisab@mopipi. ub. bw

• • Why Indigenous Research Methodologies: Our stories The Big Four Paradigms Indigenous Research Paradigm: 5 th Paradigm Decolonization and indigenization Approach Planning indigenous Research Challenges in IRM Conclusion

My story 2005: Academic discourse versus indigenous Research Methodologies There are difficulties in getting Africans involved in theorizing and building of knowledge on ways of conducting research. You have to address questions such as how do you test the validity of your findings…by African or Western standards? What language do you use to build a research community and how do you research, store, and transmit the accumulated knowledge? Arguably , the whole idea of research belong to the north/western paradigm, so probably some Africanness will have to be sacrificed in the process.

My Story: 2015 Can Africa originate evaluation practices and theories rooted in African world-views and Paradigms? ‘Africa is too diverse to constitute a monolithic worldview in my opinion. There is no American approach to evaluation, or Canadian, or European approach, or Australian approach. Diversity is manifest in all aspects of evaluation I see no value in trying to treat African as a monolithic perspective. Each local context in Africa should be honoured and valued, that is the key point, but not some mythical generic or archetypal African perspective. It doesn’t exist. Don’t force it. It‘s not useful’

My Reaction: Defiance

• • • Lessons From the Stories Researcher as knower and research participant as ignorant. Euro Western Knowledge as superior and the Other as inferior Fixation of researchers on the cultures of the studied in most cases Indigenous Peoples, First Nations, and the formerly colonised from Africa, from third and fourth world countries, developing and underdeveloped. The deficit theorising, labelling and negative stereotyping of these cultures. Academic imperialism where conceptualisation frameworks, theoretical frameworks, research questions, research designs and research techniques stem from the developed world literature and the use of dominant languages that impose Euro Western Thought System.

Captive to Four Research Paradigms • Positvist/Postpostivist Paradigm • Interpretive/Constructivist • Transformative • Pragmatic

The Captive Mind • The Malaysian sociologist Syed Hussein Alatas (2004) developed the concept “the captive mind” to refer to an uncritical imitation of Western research paradigms within scientific intellectual activity. Others (Fanon, 1967; Ngugi 1986) discuss a process they call colonization of the mind.

The Captive Mind • Murkherji (2004) challenges all researchers to debate whether the Social Science methodologies that originated in the West and are indigenous to the West are necessarily universal for the rest of the world. What is your reaction to the challenge?

IRM Interrogate the Following Questions • How can we conduct research that impact positively on the quality of life of our communities • How can we conduct research without using Only Western academic constructs and terminologies? • How can we minimize the intrusion of terms in our research reports that may culturally and contextually lack contingency with our experiences? Can academic languages accurately communicate our experiences ? • What is the contribution of our languages to the building of indigenous conceptual and theoretical frameworks and the design of interventions to improve the quality of life of our people? • Who is reading our research and in what and whose language?

Indigenous Research Methodologies Family of Research Methodologies that draw from Indigenous Knowledge, histories, languages, metaphors, world views, philosophies and experiences of former colonized historically marginalized communities to critique mainstream methodologies, decolonize and indigenize mainstream methodologies , envision other ways of doing research and claiming space for a 5 th Paradigm

Characteristics of Indigenous Research • It is participatory and targets local phenomenon instead of using extant theory from the West to identify and define a research issue • It is context sensitive and creates locally constructs, methods and theories derived from local experiences and Indigenous Knowledge • It can be integrative Combining Western and Indigenous theories • In its most Advanced form, its assumptions about what counts as reality, knowledge and values in research is informed by a Postcolonial/Indigenous

Decolonizing & indigenizing Research Methodologies Postcolonial/I ndigenous Research Paradigm Indigenous Knowledge Systems; Philosophies Histories, Cultures

African World View Relational Ontology Relational epistemology Relational axiology Cosmology: Connectedness and interdependence of all things in the Universe • Teleological Assumption: Things don’t just happen. There is an intended goal for research and intellectual projects we carry out • African Thought: African Renewal African Renaissance • •

Relational Ontology: Beings with Many Connections

Ontological Assumptions Socially Constructed Realities shaped by the set of multiple connections that human beings have with the environment, the cosmos, the living and the non- living There is an emphasis on an I/We relationship as opposed to the Western I/You relationship with its emphasis on the individual. Among the Bantu people of Southern Africa, this principle is captured under the philosophy of ubuntu. Communality, collectivity, social justice, human unity and pluralism are implicit in this principle. Reality implies a set of relationships

Western I/You relationships Vs I/We relationships Relationships seen in • Relations multiple and hierarchy interconnected Guided by individualism • I/We relationships guided by self respect, Stresses self directed and self respect for others, contained (Khoza 1994) community, and nature Person is the measure of in general things there is an • Ubuntu is religious elimination of the expansive supernatural to explain the why, what and how

Relational Epistemology • Knowledge is relational • Know oneself before you know others • A web of connections inform what is known and how it can be known. • Coming to know means capturing the lived realities of the postcolonial/Indigenous communities with all their social, cultural, spiritual, moral and ecological goals and aspirations.

Axiology • Requires researcher reflexivity informed by an “I” “we” relationship. • Ethical protocols that draw from cultural practices informed by connectedness and a web of relationships that include connections with the living and the nonliving

Researcher Responsibilities Whose side am I on? • Do I challenge, critique and resist dominant discourses that marginalize those who suffer oppression? • Who am I writing about? Self, or ‘Other/s’ or both? • What needs to be rewritten?

• • Critique Begins with Change of Mindset Why are we doing the research Who will benefit from It ? Whose research is it? Who will formulate the research questions, decide on the methodology, the way the data is analyzed and the report should be carried out?

The Role of A Researcher Reflect and raise the following questions: 1. What assumptions, prejudices, stereotypes informed the review of literature? 2. How does the literature and theories reviewed portray the researched? 3. Is there any deficit thinking or theorising in the literature reviewed? 4. What is the body of indigenous knowledge that researchers can utilize to counter the deficit theories and body of literure that may cause humiliation and embarrassment to the researched

Ubuntu Ethics • Appreciation of the individual: Individual Consent • Research part of a complex whole: Community Consent • Research to maintain harmony and balance of any group: group consent, family consent • Respect for heritage: Collective Consent

Rigor In Research Starts with a call for recognition of conceptual theoretical frameworks, methods, ethics protocols that are derived from the researched frames of reference. Emphasis on • Fairness • Voice • Self reflexivity • Standpoint judgments • Community and participants as arbiters of quality

Validity Built on Indigenous Concepts • Ukweli (Truth) • Kujetolea (Commitment) • Utulivu (Peacefulness and Harmony) • Uhaki (justice and fairness) • Ujamaa (community) (Reiverre 2004)

African Worldview and Methodology: Caroll 2012 • How does this Research reflect the interdependence and interconnected nature of the African Reality? • How does the research accommodate the spiritual and material nature of reality? • How does the research reflect the communal nature of the African people? • How does the research access the non-material; reality of the people? • How does the research advance the interests of the African community? • How does the research contribute to the African renaissance?

IRM Methodologies • Participatory, transformative research approaches that draw from Indigenous knowledge systems, philosophies , epistemologies, world views, Ideologies and languages • Researchers and participants are partners • Mixed methods approach • Techniques include Methods based on ethno philosophy Story telling methods Cultural artifacts; Talking circles, theatre/drama, dance, song, language, metaphors, proverbs, chants

Planning Research Using IRM • Why carry out research ? • Will the research bring about change and transformation? • Will the research have a clear stance against the political, academic and methodological imperialism of its time? • Will the research take a stance against Western archival- knowledge and its colonizing and “othering” ideologies?

Planning Using IRM • Will the research take a stance against methodological imperialism? • What is the main research approach? Is it a decolonization of Western-based methodologies e. g. indigenizing a qualitative research, quantitative survey, ethnographic study, a participatory action research study, or is it an indigenous knowledge centered research approach? • What is the purpose of the study and what are the research questions emanating from the purpose of the study? • What world views and theories frame the purpose of the study, research questions and methods of data collection? • What type of data will be required to address the research questions? • What techniques or methods of gathering data will the study use? • Who will carry out the study?

Challenges in Doing Indigenous Research • Marginalization and rejection of non-conventional methods by the academy • Stigmatization and marginalization of IRM by the African University • Isolation and limited access to literature on IRM • Ethics Review board that are not congruent with indigenous Research Methodologies • Undeveloped partnerships between Universities and Communities • Advancing and gaining acceptance of a 5 th Paradigm: Indigenous Research Paradigm

Working Together • Advancing scholarship on acceptance of a 5 th Paradigm: Indigenous Research Paradigm: Examples Shawn Wilson 2008: Research is Ceremony Chilisa 2012: Indigenous Research Methodologies Caroll 2010: African world View

Writing Books on Indigenous Research Methodologies

Conclusion • Indigenous knowledge communicate values, life experiences and histories of the African people, Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized groups, stored in stories, songs, language, metaphors, proverbs , chants, rituals, dance artifacts. Will you use IK to inform the research agenda and the research methodologies or will you leave IK at the gates when you enter the academy?

What is your Role as a Researcher? We cannot in all seriousness study ourselves through the eyes of other people’s assumptions. I am not saying we must not know what others know or think of us. I am saying we must think for ourselves like others do for themselves (Kwesi Prah 1999)