Brown researcher, white schools:: Racialized positionality in ethnographic research on (anti)racism

Maïmouna Matikainen-Soreau; Saara Loukola; Ida Hummelstedt

doi:10.7577/rerm.6006

Authors

Maïmouna Matikainen-Soreau University of Helsinki https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8854-7304
Saara Loukola University of Helsinki https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3885-9094
Ida Hummelstedt University of Helsinki https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8858-5442

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.6006

Keywords:

school ethnography, positionality, racialized researcher, racism

Abstract

This article is a cross-racial reflexive analysis between a biracial brown researcher and two researchers racialized as white in the same research project on (anti)racism in Finnish lower secondary schools. Building on three vignettes, the authors highlight several ways in which a researcher's racialized position as non-white and as white can impact ethnographic fieldwork in a context dominated by Nordic Exceptionalism and normative whiteness. The authors problematize the position of insider gaining access and gatekeepers’ trust, before looking intersectionally at the dynamic of being a racial outsider, the conflicts and affects that come with it, and conclude with the onto-epistemological challenges of doing school ethnographic research and contributing to antiracist knowledge production. This contribution crystalizes under-researched dilemmas that call for the development of new ethnographic designs which center researchers’ racial positions and further reflection on the ethical, methodological and ontological implications of producing data on racism at school.

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Author Biographies

Maïmouna Matikainen-Soreau, University of Helsinki

fil. dr.

Saara Loukola, University of Helsinki

ped. mag.

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