Call for papers:

Nordic Exceptionalism and Blind Spots in Researchers’ Racialised Positionality

 

Nordic exceptionalism has been explicated as a doxic, colourblind ideological imaginary, represented by a set of beliefs and values used to construct a double image of the Nordic countries as, on the one hand, being exceptionally progressive, egalitarian and tolerant societies, whilst, on the other, constituting exceptions to the legacy of colonialism (Gullestad, 2002; Harlap & Riese, 2021; Mulinari et al., 2016; Svendsen, 2014). This phenomenon calls for critical exploration in Nordic educational research as to how this variety of exceptionalism might engender blind spots in researcher positionality related to race and Whiteness.

Attempting to make racial blind spots concerning educational researchers’ positionality more visible is an essential step in questioning and eventually changing the underlying understanding of Nordic exceptionalism, which shapes, either consciously or unconsciously, the way educational research is conducted (Moya & Markus, 2010). Nonetheless, much of the discussion of researcher positionality in Nordic educational research continues to overlook blind spots related to Nordic exceptionalism, Whiteness, and racialisation, thus leaving colonial orders of White supremacy and racism unchallenged. Therefore, there is an urgent need to gather critical reflections that examine what blind spots exist, what methods might better make these visible, and elucidate and disrupt the ways that Nordic exceptionalism affects racialised spaces, (hi-)stories, and practices in educational research.

Researcher positionality has been widely discussed in critical feminist, anti-racist, and decolonial educational research traditions (e.g., Hill Collins, 2000; Khan, 2020). Therein, researchers have generally questioned and deconstructed not only the ways in which researchers deal with and recall methodological challenges created within power relationships (Smyth & McInerney, 2011), but also the ways in which they organise their data, present their findings, arguments and conclusions, and create their research stories (Merriam, 2009). More recently researchers have also started to critically and creatively address the very ontological and epistemological premises on which their research is based (Andersen, et al. 2017; Stenliden, et al., 2018; Zarabadi, et al., 2020). Recent attempts from the Nordic context to make racial blind spots researcher positionality more visible emphasize the importance of applying a double research process through a reflexivity of reflexivity (Eriksen, 2020; Pillow, 2015; Țîștea, 2020). We seek to further advance such reflexivity by thoroughly engaging with blind spots engendered in the nexus of researchers’ racialised positionalities and the colourblind ideology of Nordic exceptionalism.

This special issue on Nordic exceptionalism and blind spots in researchers’ racialised positionality aims to re-centre and reflect upon contemporary scholarship and new directions for understanding the entanglements of researchers’ racialised positionalities and Nordic exceptionalism, as well as the ethical and methodological implications for educational research. As guest editors, we invite papers that critically examine contemporary scholarship and new directions in addressing researchers’ racialised positionalities in educational research, paying particular attention to how blind spots may be made visible when Nordic exceptionalism is diffracted through the critical prism of race and White supremacy. We welcome contributions in English and the Nordic languages (Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic), with an abstract in both English and one Nordic language of the authors’ choice. Authors interested in publishing in a different language can contact the editors.

Examples of contributions could include, but are not limited to:

• Studies centralising Indigenous, minoritised, and racialised knowledges and perspectives that critically interrogate educational researchers’ racialised positionality blind spots in relation to Nordic exceptionalism
• Papers drawing on critical decolonising inquiries in education that discuss blind spots in researchers racialised positionality or racialised locus of enunciation in relation to Nordic exceptionalism
• Raciolinguistic inquiries in education, focusing on the co-construction of language and race with researchers’ racialised positionality blind spots and ideas of Nordic exceptionalism
• Studies investigating how blind spots in researchers’ racialised positionality intersect with the pedagogical legacy of White supremacist ontologies and epistemologies in relation to Nordic exceptionalism
• Critical pedagogical inquiries centralising researchers’ racialised positionality blind spots as a matter of educating for critical consciousness and focusing on how to counteract ideas of Nordic exceptionalism through pedagogical choices
• Creative educational inquiries drawing on perspectives from fields such as science fiction, art, mythology, and philosophy that aim to counteract researchers’ racialised positionality blind spots related to ideas of Nordic exceptionalism
• Studies focusing on how researchers’ racialised positionality blind spots concern the materiality of the human body in education in relation to ideas of Nordic exceptionalism
• Adultism and adult-centred researchers’ racialised positionality blind spots related to Nordic exceptionalism in children’s education and upbringing practices

 

SI submission instructions

Manuscripts must follow RERM’s author guidelines. Please send abstracts (approx. 300 words) by October 31, 2023 to: Sandra.Fylkesnes@hiof.no. The editors aim to respond by December 20, 2023.

All submissions should be sent to ingrid.rodrickbeiler@oslomet.no and zahra.bayati@gu.se, except the final version that should be submitted through the RERM submission pages. Authors must prepare their Orcid-numbers.

Publication of the special issue is planned for 1^st of March 2025.

Language policy:

Generally, RERM’s publication language is English, with encouraged inclusions of bilingual terms, quotes and references.

However, this particular special issue welcome contributions in English and the Nordic languages (Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic), with an abstract in both English and one Nordic language of the authors’ choice. Authors interested in publishing in a different language can contact the editors.

Peer Review Process

Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology (RERM) is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes high-quality, original articles in English. All manuscripts are published following rigorous double-blind peer review. The review process of manuscripts will be done by two or more referees whose field of expertise is pertinent to the subject area.

Referees must respect their privileged position with respect to the manuscripts. They must consider the manuscripts to be privileged information, and should not, therefore, disclose the content to others before publication. 

RERM follow the Committee on Publication Ethics Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

All material published in RERM will be online in the public domain, but licensed in order to protect the original content.

Tentative timeline

Activity	Deadline (by date)
Call for papers:	August 9, 2023
Deadline for abstracts:	October 31
Response on abstracts:	December 20
Deadline for full paper submission:	April 30, 2024
1st round of peer-review:	June 15
2nd submission:	August 31
2nd round of peer review:	October 15
Final submission:	December 15
Tentative publication date:	March 1 2025

 

 

Guest editors’ information

Sandra Fylkesnes

Associate Professor of Pedagogy 

Østfold University College

https://www.hiof.no/lusp/pil/english/people/aca/sandrafy/index.html

 

Zahra Bayati

Senior Lecturer of Pedagogy 

Gothenburg University 

https://www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/zahrabayati

 

Ingrid Rodrick Beiler

Associate Professor of English

Oslo Metropolitan University

https://www.oslomet.no/en/about/employee/ingbei/

 

Eric Bergman

Postdoc researcher

Narrare: Centre for Interdisciplinary Narrative Studies at Tampere University, Finland

https://fi.linkedin.com/in/eric-bergman-818a7178

 

 

 

References

Andersen, C.A., Guttorm, H.E, Koro-Ljungberg, M., Löytönen, T., Osgood, J., Otterstad, A.M., Rantala, T., Rautio, P., & Välimäki, A. (2017). Special issue: “Darkness matters”. RERM, 8(2).

Eriksen, K.G. (2020). Decolonial methodology and the reflexive wrestles of whiteness. RERM, 13(2), 99-116. https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.4666

Gullestad, M. (2002). Det Norske Sett Med Nye Øyne: Kritisk Analyse av Norsk Innvandringsdebatt [The Norwegian seen with new eyes: A critical analysis of the Norwegian immigration debate]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Harlap, Y.l & Hanne R. (2021): Race talk and white normativity: classroom discourse and narratives in Norwegian higher education, Teaching in Higher Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1940925 

Hill Collins, P. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.

Khan, K. (2020). Preparing the milk and honey: Between ethnography and academia as a racially minoritised academic. Applied Linguistics Review, 11(2), 207–231. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2017-0120

Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. Jossey- Bass.

Moya, Paula M. L. and Hazel Markus. 2010. “Doing Race: An Introduction.” In Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century, edited by Paula M. L. Moya and Hazel Markus, 1–102. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

Mulinari, D., Keskinen, S., Irni, S., & Tuori, S. (2016). Introduction: Postcolonialism and the Nordic models of welfare and gender. In S. Keskinen, S. Tuori, S. Irni, & D. Mulinari (Eds.), Complying with colonialism: Gender, race, and ethnicity in the Nordic region (pp. 1–16). New York, NY: Routledge.

Pillow, W. S. (2015). Reflexivity as interpretation and genealogy in research. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 15(6), 419–434. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708615615605

Smyth, J. & McInerney, P. (2011). Whose side are you on? Advocacy ethnography: some methodological aspects of narrative portraits of disadvantaged young people, in socially critical research, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(1), 1-20.

Stenliden, L., Martín-Bylund, A., & Reimers, E. (2020). Posthuman data production in classroom studies – A research machine put to work. RERM, 9(2), 22-37.

Țîștea, I. (2020). “Reflexivity of reflexivity” with Roma-related Nordic educational research. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education, 4(1), 26–42. https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.3579

Welcome, H. A. (2004). “‘White is right’: The utilization of an improper ontological perspective in analyses of black experiences.” Journal of African American Studies 8 (1/2), 59–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-004-1004-2

Zarabadi, S., Taylor, C. A. , Faichild, N., & Moxnes, A.R. (2020). Feeling Medusa: Tentacular troubling of academic oositionality, recognition and respectability. RERM, 10(2-3). 87-111. https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.3671