Decolonizing Research Paradigms in the Context of Settler Colonialism: An Unsettling, Mutual, and Collaborative Effort

Abstract

All research is guided by a set of philosophical underpinnings. Indigenous methodologies are in line with an Indigenous paradigm, while critical and liberatory methodologies fit with the transformative paradigm. Yet Indigenous and transformative methodologies share an emancipatory and critical stance and thus are increasingly used in tandem by both Western and Indigenous scholars in an attempt to decolonize methodologies, research, and the academy as a whole. However, these multiparadigmatic spaces only superficially support decolonization which, in the Canadian context of settler colonialism, is a radical and unsettling prospect that is about land, resources, and sovereignty. Applying this definition of decolonization to the decolonization of research paradigms, this article suggests that such paradigms must be developed, from scratch, conjointly between Indigenous and Western researchers.

Conceptualizing indicators as boundary objects in integrating Inuit knowledge and western science for marine resource management

“…Scholars within natural and social sciences have long recognized the benefits to be gained by having multiple knowledge generating systems functioning in parallel, such as understanding climate variability and shifts, health of stocks, resource use, and community vulnerability (Moller et al 2004(Moller et al , 2009aLaidler 2006). Building partnerships between science and IK can jointly produce results in support of conservation and prudent management (Giles et al 2016), alleviate resource management conflicts, and rebuild trust and collaborative relationships among communities where colonial practices have previously led to ill-advised management practices, disempowerment, marginalization and (or) unfairness (Keenan et al 2018;Held 2019). This recognition of the need to integrate IK is, however, bereft of any comprehensive and practical guidelines that can provide informative tools for effectively engaging local resource users and empowering their role in the decision-making process.…”

A Dialogical Approach to Understand Perspectives of an Aboriginal Wellbeing Program: An Extension of Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action

“…Our dialogical research approach aims to disrupt the colonial voice by using and extending critical theory through language and Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Critical theory and the Indigenous paradigm have a number of commonalities namely motivated by emancipation (Crotty, 1998;Held, 2019). Critical methodologies aim to promote research which exposes, interrogates and challenges conventional social structures including Western knowledge, by working against the oppression of disempowered minority groups (Crotty, 1998;Scotland, 2012).Through critical methods, research participants are the knowledge holders and, along with researchers, they are able to examine their social, cultural and historical realities toward emancipatory change (Held, 2019;Scotland, 2012).…”

Fish–People–Place:Interweaving Knowledges to Elucidate Pacific Salmon Fate

“…Regardless of terminological preferences, what we sorely need are approaches that: remedy, rather than reinforce, existing power relations; respect differences, instead of suppress them; and uphold, as opposed to diminish, their unique strengths (Muller 2012). These latter elements comprise yet another imperative, a moral one (Paton 1971), to conduct research in a way that promotes social justice and selfdetermination (Ludwig 2016;Held 2019;Artelle et al 2019). In sum, a plural coexistence holds multiple possibilities within it: (i) improving our understanding of complex systems, with insights and information from multiple knowledges contributing to an enriched picture; (ii) conforming to legal norms and practical requirements, without which many research programs simply would not be advanced by today's funding bodies and research ethics boards; and (iii) answering to undeniable moral queries about what is 'right' in terms of human rights and equality.…”

“…Significant strides have been made over the past decade in decolonizing research and methodologies (Wilson 2008;Smith 2012;Kealiikanakaoleohaililani & Giardina 2016;Held 2019) and in defining Indigenous worldviews as research method -as a defensible paradigm to guide scholarly inquiry (Kovach 2010;Latulippe 2015;McGregor et al 2018). Held (2019) brings together many of these and additional works as she defines an Indigenous research paradigm in terms of its own philosophical assumptions (i.e., ontology, epistemology, axiology, methodology) and in relation to other major paradigms that inform primarily social inquiry (i.e., positivist, postpositivist, constructivist, transformative, and pragmatic research paradigms).…”

“…Research paradigms or worldviews are defined and distinguished according to their ontologies (the nature of reality), epistemologies (the theory of knowledge and its validity), axiologies (the nature of values), and methodologies (the purpose and process of research; Wilson 2008;Godfrey-Smith 2009). Collectively, these core philosophical underpinnings reflect researchers' perspectives or views of reality, determine what they count as knowledge and accept as ways of knowing, as well as guide their priorities, choices, and actions in research (Held 2019). It follows that multiple research paradigms exist as there is a plurality of ways in which the world around us is read or interpreted (Guba & Lincoln 1994).…”