Enacting Epistemic Freedom: Visual Methodologies and Methods for Caribbean Research
Call for 750-word Abstracts for Chapters
Enacting Epistemic Freedom: Visual Methodologies and Methods for Caribbean Research
Editors: Joyanne De Four-Babb & Sheron Fraser-Burgess
Rationale for the Text
Qualitative researchers often undertake sustained observations in the field and study the logic, arrangements, and explicit and implicit rules of the context (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 6). Qualitative data collection methods can foreclose what can be observed and therefore documented in the research, as a consequence. Thomas (2019) indicated that while Caribbean education research has proliferated, components of research design, inclusive of “modes of questioning” have been “modeled after Western ways of thinking and interpretation” (p. 66). She called for transgressive research methodologies that “decolonise Caribbean educational practice” and bring about the “indigenization of qualitative inquiry” (Thomas, 2019, p. 66).
Within the last decade, there has been a growing awareness of the significance and use of visual data in qualitative research to this end (Bedi & Webb, 2020; Swaminathan & Mulvihill, 2018; Twine, 2016). Visual research methods (VRM) comprise methods of data collection and analysis that incorporate visual elements such as maps, drawings, word-clouds, concept maps, photographs, videos, as well as three-dimensional objects into the research process (Bedi & Webb, 2020). Visual methods of data collection enable researchers to access a wider range of participants for qualitative studies in different ways. Visual methods provide participants with additional ways to communicate their ideas and experiences. Additionally, the growth of visual media in our daily lives (we all have cameras in our hands) means that we are collecting and sharing images more than ever before. As Swaminathan and Mulvihill (2018) argued, “photography and other visual- and arts-based methods have come increasingly into use with the intent to decolonize methodology and correct the imbalance of power between researcher and the participants” (p. 134).
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