JusticexDesign for research: A critical methodology

by Lynneth Solis & Sarah Sheya | 18 May 2021

Since 2019, the JusticexDesign (JxD) project has been investigating pedagogies and practices for supporting young people to look closely at—and explore the complexity of—the ways injustices and oppression can be designed. JxD tools and practices support students to see themselves as participants in design so that they might reimagine oppressive systems and content they interact with in their everyday lives. Read more about the principles and practices of the JxD pedagogical framework—or JxD/P. Using JxD/P as a jumping off point, we collaborated to further explore how the lessons coming from educators could inform the work we do as researchers.

Like all of us, we come to our work mosaics of complex intersecting identities—Lynneth, a Mexican-American cisgender woman and Sheya, a queer American-Arab cisgender woman. In our roles as Project Zero researchers, we were interested in exploring how the anti-oppressive and anti-racist practices that JxD encourages might also implicate the way we conduct research: the way we ask questions, who we cite in our theoretical frameworks, how we engage with participants and their communities, and importantly, how we understand ourselves in shaping the research we do. With this in mind, starting in September 2020, we began a weekly practice of meeting to discuss how the JxD/P framework could inform research methodology and how this could be shared with other researchers. We leveraged our different research backgrounds and experiences to challenge each other in making sense of a research methodology that could help us reframe every step of the research process.

The winding road we took in our exploration of this problem space was itself inspired by the notion that research is a system that can perpetuate oppression and that, as participants in this process, we can explore its complexities to reimagine how it is designed and enacted. This took us in many directions, from exploring embodied research processes that utilize making as a way to plan and present research to searching for academic publications, such as Cultural Studies↔Critical Methodologies, that honor alternative ways of sharing research through poetry, autoethnography, creative nonfiction, among other forms of critical approaches. In the end, we came full circle to realizing that the principles, practices, and questions we were engaging with were in fact drawn—implicitly and explicitly—from the work that JxD had been doing with educators. Thus, we decided to translate the JxD/P framework into a framework for research—JxD/R—to share with others.

The JxD/R framework is meant to contribute to liberatory and anti-oppressive research practices. It offers some strategies for taking apart the system of academic research and re/designing it to reflect our commitment to making this world a more just and equitable place—starting with ourselves and the work we do. Our hope is that we and other researchers engage critically with the JxD/R principles and practices using the guiding questions to reflect, discuss, and wonder about ourselves, each other, and our research.

JxD/Research Principles

1 - Design is not neutral

Research is designed—and conducted—in the context of a set of beliefs and ideas about the world that inform the assumptions that influence how researchers ask questions, how they collect data, how they make choices about the topics and communities they engage with, the ways they relate to those who participate in the research, and the way they interpret their findings. Research design choices can influence representation and reveal messages about power in research.

2 - Power is multidimensional

Power dynamics in research are complex and take many forms that are not linear or binary. Everyone has some form of power. Different types of power influence how people and systems interact in the research process.

3 - Participation is constructed

Participation in research, as both investigator and research participant, can be designed and redesigned. Participation is both doing and not doing. Forces of power, oppression, and identity influence participation in different facets of research.

JxD/R practices & guiding questions

Look closely at yourself— JxD/R

Develop awareness and practice reflexivity of the ways your identity and background shape your points of view, perceptions, biases, and actions when you engage with people, objects, systems, and content in your research.

Researcher questions: What and who influences my point of view? What shapes my bias? What parts of my identity influence my ideas and judgments? How might my identity or background influence how I engage with/relate to research & research participants? How might my identity or background influence how I conduct research?

Start with context— JxD/R

Investigate the context surrounding a research topic, study, methodology, and/or organization

Researcher questions: Where was this research conducted? When was it conducted? Who conducted it? What else was occurring at that place and time?

Make legacy visible— JxD/R

Illuminate systems of legacy that shape, provoke, and pervade research practices, topics, studies, methodologies, and/or organizations.

Researcher questions: How does the past shape modern research practices? How does legacy make approaches to research enduring and difficult to change? What voices/perspectives/stories have historically not been represented by institutions, disciplines, and researchers? How might this historical dis-representation be made visible?

Probe representation— JxD/R

Consider voices, perspectives, and stories that are present in research, those that are missing, and why/how the presence and absence of voice might be intentional

Researcher questions: What/whose voices, perspectives, or stories are currently represented in the research? What/whose are missing? Why? Who are the research participants? Are their perspectives on the research present? Who are the researchers and how might their lived experiences and/or disciplinary lenses shape research findings? How does the presence or absence of certain voices, perspectives, or stories reveal messages about power?

Take apart & reimagine power— JxD/R

Explore the complexity of power between and among the systems and people in the process of research in order to find opportunities to intervene and/or make shifts in power, envision new methodologies, or write new narratives

Researcher questions: What are the different types of power present in this research study, research topic, or research organization? Who/what/where is the power coming from? Who/what/where is it moving toward? Who/what has the most power? Who/what has the least? How might power shift or change? What are some points of intervention that could lead to these shifts or changes?

Listen & speak bravely— JxD/R

Courageously share and receive perspectives, even—and especially—when they are contested
Resiliently listen through and accept discomfort in pursuit of complex and in-depth learning

Researcher questions: What are some perspectives I have learned or heard about that are difficult to understand or relate to? What could I do in order to better receive these perspectives? What are some perspectives I have shared that may be difficult for others to understand or relate to? What could I do to help others receive these perspectives?

Re/design participation— JxD/R

Find opportunities to exercise agency to participate more or differently
Envision new or different narratives that challenge oppressive forces and systems

Researcher questions: How am I currently participating? How might I participate more or differently? How might I challenge oppressive forces and systems by participating more or differently? How might I address gaps in representation or marginalization in research? Who else is participating, and how? Who might be participating without realizing it?

by Lynneth Solis

she/her/hers
Research DirectorProject Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Sarah Sheya

she/her/hers
Director of JusticexDesign &Researcher atProject Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education@SheyaPZ

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