From microscope to mirror: doctoral students’ evolving positionalities through engagement with culturally sensitive research

Abstract

This study examines the experiences of doctoral students in a qualitative research course that centers culture throughout the research process. Data sources include one-on-one interviews, written documentation of course assignments, research team meetings, and doctoral students’ conference proposals and publications examining civic learning and action and notions of citizenship of second- and 1.5-generation African immigrants in New York City. Using Tillman’s framework for culturally sensitive research (CSR), we draw attention to the ways doctoral students as emerging scholars come to understand and enact their positionalities in research, especially in relation to data analysis, interpretation, and representation. This study expands notions of CSR to include a focus on research with African immigrants and strengthens possibilities for doctoral preparation in education that focuses on culture, race, and immigrant populations.

Keywords:

• culturally sensitive research
• doctoral preparation
• positionality

Notes

1. Immigrants of the 1.5 generation are those arriving between ages 6 and 12 (Rumbaut & Ima, 1988), and second-generation immigrants refer to individuals who were born in the United States to parents who were born in their native countries.

2. Throughout the paper, we use “participants” to refer to the West African immigrants who were interviewed in the professor’s study, and we use “doctoral students” to refer to the individuals who were interviewed and whose work we analyzed in this paper.