EDS 102 – WEEK 2
April 10, 2025
Agenda
The role of the researcher in qualitative research
Yoon’s article
Wrap up
Irene Yoon, “Hauntings of a Korean American Researcher…”
Her article focuses on:
Documenting her experiences as a Korean American woman of color studying white-dominated professional spaces in diverse K-12 schools.
“I began wondering how my being a Korean American woman – with interests in critically interrogating race, class, and gender – played a part in my ethnographic fieldwork” (p. 450)
Associate Professor, University of Utah
Key foundational concepts
Autoethnography
Autoethnography is related to ethnography, a type of qualitative research aimed at understanding the culture of a society, group, organization, or other setting through deep, sustained engagement.
Paradigm: Critical Research
From last class: Critical Research: Focused on power—who has it, how it is negotiated, and what structures in society reinforce its current distribution. Involves investigation and analysis of the underlying socioeconomic, political, and cultural causes of a problem, with the goal of taking collective action to address it.
From Yoon: “When I consider myself a ‘critical’ researcher, I mean that my research explicitly interrogates structures of power and exclusion in society and that I conduct research to contribute to institutional change (Yoon, 2018; Holman Jones, 2016). In addition, I consider my work critical because I consider the power relations and social histories that not only circulate among and around research participants but also are stirred up and rippled by my presence, actions, and interactions” (p. 448).
Key points made by Yoon to frame her study
Researcher status is inseparable from her identity as a Korean American woman
Haunting - “an affective experience of knowing something that has been suppressed...” (Yoon, p. 448)
Yoon explains
“…In field research I frequently have interactions with study participants after which I ask myself, ‘What just happened there?’ and I chew over whether or how the dynamics of the exchange have anything to do with power and position, such as my being a woman of color, specifically, a second-generation Korean American woman…” (p. 452)
Five vignettes
Yoon unpacks five vignettes based on her experiences gathering data in schools, each of which is framed by something that was said to her or in her presence:
Partner activity
Positionality - being self conscious in the research process
Being self conscious of how our own beliefs, life experiences, and identities shape the research process is is critical.
Yoon explains that how people read researchers’ identities as they are interacting in field settings is also important. She includes this in her field notes.
Example: Raciolinguistic ideologies
“You have a beautiful accent.” - Upon sitting next to a White woman teacher at a professional development on cultural competence (p. 447)
I say reluctantly that my parents immigrated from Korea. She nods knowingly. “Were you born here?” she asks, pleasantly. I sigh internally. I acknowledge that I was born in New Jersey. She smiles, “I figured. You speak beautifully.” (p. 447)
Quickwrite
How might your intersectional identities shape your role as a qualitative researcher?
Describe at least 2 examples.
Submit your response on Canvas.
(Come back to this when you write about your positionality in the research proposal!)
Identifying a topic & finding articles
Discover current issues in education:
Locate articles on the issue to support the problem statement:
Preparing for class on Tuesday