(1) The document summarizes a session at the ASHE 2017 conference that presented novel methodologies for elucidating power dynamics in higher education, including geographic information systems analysis, indigenous methodologies, participatory action research, and critical quantitative research. (2) The session aimed to introduce approaches established in other disciplines but underutilized in higher education research, provide concrete examples of how these methods have been used, and discuss barriers to publishing this type of work. (3) Presenters from various universities described how they have applied methods like GIS mapping in Ferguson, MO, indigenous epistemology from Native Hawaiian traditions, critical action research in a California community college system, and disaggregated quantitative analysis to reveal power structures

1. Research methodologies and methods for
elucidating power dynamics in higher education
Discussant: Adrianna Kezar, Ph.D., University of Southern California
Presenters: Amalia Dache-Gerbino, Ph.D., University of Missouri
Amy Metcalfe, Ph.D., University of British Columbia
Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu Lipe, Ph.D. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Lindsey Malcom-Piqueux, Ph.D., University of Southern California
Adriana Ruiz Alvarado, Ph.D., University of Redlands
Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, Ph.D., University of California Los Angeles

2. Session presenters and format
• Land acknowledgment
• Quick overview of session goals, defining key constructs
• Presentation and discussion of a map of Texas to help provide a
concrete example of our goals and methods for elucidation of power
• 4 presentations of:
• Geographic and spatial analysis;
• Indigenous epistemology;
• Participatory action research,
• Critical quant and network analysis.
• Discussion and questions
• Resources on Slideshare

3. ASHE 2017 Indigenous land acknowledgment
We would like to recognize the Indigenous land and people that have
inhabited this region since time immemorial. ASHE respects the various
Indigenous peoples’ connected to this territory, including the Alabama-
Coushatta Tribe of Texas, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, and the
Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo. We also recognize that there are likely more Indigenous
peoples whose names we do not know and to recognize that our not-knowing
is likely due to issues of power that we wish to illuminate at this conference.
In congruence with wanting to honor and respect the Indigenous land and
people of this territory, let us remember to tread carefully and care for this
place the best way we know how while we are here.

4. Goals
• Introduce novel approaches to examining power that are well establish in other
disciplines for use in higher education.
• Review some methodologies that are underutilized and untapped for examining
power but show strong potential.
• Provide concrete examples of the ways these methods have been used to
elucidate power relationships.
• Obtain perspective from researchers that have utilized these methodologies and
allow participants the opportunities to ask questions and build relationships with
these researchers. Consider issues of how to publish using innovative techniques
and any barriers.
• Overall goal: provide methodological and method strategies that help us re-
imagine a higher education system that instead of recycling market ideology and
abstract liberalism, engages in historical-materialist inquiry that center knowledge
systems and forms of education that typically rest outside the ivory tower

5. Why we think this is essential
• Power has created educational systems that mirror economic
life in the U.S., which many have argued is insidiously
undemocratic
• How we study higher education in order to reform it is
essential if we are to make visible domination and
oppression.
• The nature of how power is hidden from us, contributes to
its masked replication across modern social and educational
institutions.

6. Understanding power
• Multiple dimensions will be offered here and we see it as a
multi-dimensional construct
• Differ by theory and paradigm – critical theory vs post-
structuralism
• Differ by discipline
• Differ by context, culture, language and history
• How do you define or think about power?

7. Methods that address power
• Many methods historically have ignored power
• One of the challenges in studying power is that it is largely an invisible
process, tacit even, making it difficult to directly and empirically
study.
• In higher education use of critical ethnography or case study most
common but drawn from methods developed without a “critical” eye
originally
• We highlight the importance of the paradigm, theory, and methods to
the understanding the power. We examine methodologies that have
been built out of the critical paradigm (indigenous methodologies,
participatory action research)

8. Methods that address power
• Other disciplines outside education often have more tools for
addressing power and we draw on these fields which can also be
meaningful sites for collaboration
• Methodological techniques can point to different kinds of power
dynamics and expand our knowledge about the types of power and
how power operates in higher education.
• Methods you use to address power?

9. Identity and Intellectual leadership
• Often this work is done by faculty of color and women
• Often grounded in feminist, critical race theory, decolonizing and
indigenous approaches
• We hope to show this work as important scholarly leadership

10. Indigenous land and
Texas colleges and
universities
(1)
(2)
(3)

11. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods to elucidate power in
Ferguson St. Louis County, Missouri: And how can results inform higher
education research?
Amalia Dache-Gerbino, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Missouri

13. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – Quantitative
Descriptive Analysis (U.S. Census American Community
Survey Data)

16. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – Qualitative
Analysis (19 Activist Interviews)

17. Qty. Pseudonym Age Range College Student Racial/Ethnic Identity Activist Role
1 Ashley 18-24 Yes. African American Organizer
2 Jessica 18-24 Yes. African American Organizer
3 Constance 18-24 Yes. Ethiopian-American Organizer
4 Stephen 35-44 No. African American Organizer/Clergy
5 Shane 18-24 Yes. African American Organizer
6 Marcus 35-44 No. African American Non-profit/Comm.
7 Donald 25-34 No African American Community Organizer
8 Audrey 45+ Yes. Latina/Chicana Co-op/Artist/Org.
9 Jason 25-34 Yes. White/British Non-profit/Clergy
10 Jayden 18-24 Yes. Taiwanese-American Organizer
11 Maya 45+ Yes. African American Community Organizer
12 Martin 45+ No African American Artist/Activist
13 Marshon 35-44 No African American Non-profit/Clergy
14 Jean 18-24 Yes. African American Community Organizer
15 Lucas 45+ No. African American Professor/Organizer
16 Michelle 45+ No. African American Community Organizer
17 Malcolm 25-34 No. African American Non-profit/Organizer
18 Deven 25-34 No. African-American Artist/Activist
19 Carl 30-40 No. White/Mexican Media Artist

20. Geographic and Spatial Analysis
in Canada
Amy Metcalfe, Ph.D., University of British Columbia

28. Indigenous Methodologies
Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu Lipe, PhD
ASHE 2017 Annual Conference
Houston, Texas

29. Why We Don’t Know More
• Indigenous peoples…
• Exist?
• Have knowledge systems?
• Do research?
• Have research methodologies?
• Do scholarly work?

30. YES WE EXIST!
https://intercontin
entalcry.org/indige
nous-peoples/

31. My story

32. Defining Methodology
• “The application of principles, practices, and
procedures…” (Collins III & O’Brien, 2003, p. 220)
• “…in its simplest definition generally refers to the
theory of method, or the approach or technique being
taken, or the reasoning for selecting a set of methods”
(Tuhiwai Smith, 2012, p. ix.)

33. Indigenous Methodologies
“…tend to approach cultural protocols, values and behaviours
as an integral part of methodology. They are ʻfactors’ to be
built into research explicitly, to be thought about reflexively, to
be declared openly as part of the research design, to be
discussed as part of the final results of a study and to be
disseminated back to the people in culturally appropriate ways
and in a language that can be understood”
(Tuhiwai Smith, 2012, pp. 15-

34. Hula: My Indigenous
Methodology
• Kono: Invitation
• Ho‘okupu: Offering
• Nānā ka maka: Observations
• Ho‘opili: Mimicry
• Ma ka hana ka ‘ike: Demonstration
• Ho‘okuleana: Responsibility
(Pukui, 1983)

35. References
Collins III, J. W., & O’Brien, N. P. (2003). The greenwood dictionary of education.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Lipe, K. (2018). “Towards Equity & Equality: Transforming Universities Into Indigenous Places of
Learning.” In R. Minthorn & H. Shotton (Eds.). Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher
Education. New Brunskwick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Lipe, K. (2016). “Mo‘olelo for Transformative Leadership: Lessons from Engaged Practice.” In K. Oliveira
& E. K. Wright (Eds.). Hawai‘inuiākea Book Series: Kanaka ‘Ōiwi Methodologies, 4. Honolulu, HI:
University of Hawai‘i Press.
Lipe, K. (2014). Aloha as fearlessness: Lessons from the mo‘olelo of eight Native Hawaiian female
educational leaders on transforming the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa into a Hawaiian place of
learning. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2014).
Lipe, K. and Lipe, D. (2016). “Living the Consciousness: Navigating the Academic Pathway for our
Children and Communities.” In M. Guajardo, F. Guajardo, & L. Locke (Eds.) The International
Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Ecologies of Engaged Scholarship: Stories of Activist
Academics.
Mihesuah, A. & Wilson, A. C. (2004). Indigenizing the academy : transforming scholarship and
empowering communities. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Pukui, M.K. (1983). ‘Olelo no‘eau.
Honolulu, HI: Bishop Museum Press.
Schertow, J. A. (2010).Indigenous peoples. Retrieved from
https://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-peoples/
Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Zed Books.
Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Black Point, N.S: Fernwood Pub.
United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. (2008). Retrieved from
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf.

36. Empowered to Derail?
How Critical Action
Research Revealed the
Contested Nature of
‘Equity’
Lindsey Malcom-Piqueux
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017

37. Background
CUE engages practitioners in action
research to study how “taken-for-
granted” practices contribute to
racialized inequities in higher
education.
Engaging in action research
empowers practitioners to make
change and voice the need for more
socially just educational practices and
policies.

38. CRITICAL...
• Asymmetries in power
• Institutionalized inequalities that perpetuate
discriminatory practices
• Systematic reproduction of privilege, power, wealth,
and status
• Enactment of seemingly democratic values that
(re)produce inequities
• Aspects of dominant order that undermine
emancipatory goals
(Dowd, Bishop, & Bensimon, 2015; Kincheloe, 1995)

39. CUE’S ACTION RESEARCH MODEL
EQUITY SCORECARD
Practitioner
Inquiry
“Re-mediated”
Practices
Evaluation of
Results
Espoused Values
≠
Actual Practices
CUE
• Tools
• Language
• Inquiry Protocols EVIDENCE TEAM
• Knowledge of Local Setting
• Critical Self-Reflection
• Collective Agency

40. Equity
IssueWho Defines the ?
Colorblindness
Positive
Race-Consciousness
Racial
Equity
“All”
Students

41. Equity
IssueWho Defines the ?
Institutional Culture
Institutional Leadership
Organizational Structure
Positivist Approach to Data
Social Norms
Student Equity Coordinator
Small Group of Faculty
CC System Leadership
Colorblindness
Positive
Race-Consciousness

42. Equity
IssueWho Defines the ?
Institutional Culture
VP of Instruction
Organizational Structure
Positivist Approach to Data
Social Norms Student Equity Coordinator
Small Group of Faculty
CC System Leadership
CUE
Data Disaggregated by Race
Equity-Minded Data Analysis
New Language
New Knowledge
President
Evidence Team and their Collective Agency
Colorblindness
Positive
Race-Consciousness

43. Who Defines the ?
Institutional Culture
VP of Instruction
Organizational Structure
Positivist Approach to Data
Social Norms
Pushback on New Language
Questioning Validity of New Knowledge
Chancellor’s Expanded Definition of Equity
Student Equity Coordinator
Growing Group of Faculty
CC System Leadership
CUE
Data Disaggregated by Race
Equity-Minded Data Analysis
New Language
New Knowledge
President
Evidence Team and their Collective Agency
Positive Race-Consciousness
Race Talk & Consideration of
Racism
Colorblindness
Avoidance of &
Deflection from Race
?

44. Conclusion
1. Critical action research is a useful tool for building
collective agency and understanding how that new-found
agency affects existing arrangements of power.
2. Participatory process involves disagreement and
negotiation—both of which are influenced by power.
3. Critical action research rooted in exposure and
dismantling of dominant systems and norms—those
invested in those systems may (and often do) oppose the
work.
4. CAR empowers all involved—but the involved can use
that power to change or derail change efforts.

45. Contact Us:
| cue.usc.edu
| rsoecue@usc.edu
| (213) 740-5202
| @center4urbaned

46. Critical Quantitative Research
Adriana Ruiz Alvarado
University of Redlands
November 9, 2017

47. Aims of critical quantitative research
• Use data to represent educational processes and outcomes on a large scale to reveal inequities
and to identify social or institutional perpetuation of systematic inequalities in such processes and
outcomes
• Question the models, measures, and analytic practices of quantitative research in order to offer
competing models, measures, and analytic practices that better describe the experiences of those
who have not been adequately represented
• Conduct culturally relevant research by studying institutions and people in context (Wells & Stage,
2015)

48. Examples elucidating power relationships
• Examined institutional contexts (MSIs, PMIs) where underrepresented students study
• Challenged concepts and models (e.g. how civic engagement should be measured)
• Disaggregated pathways through college for Latina/o students to show persistence is
much higher than the completion/success narrative indicates
• Disaggregated pan-ethnic classifications (e.g. Asian Americans)
• Focused on understudied populations (e.g. immigrant students, students with disabilities,
American Indian and Alaskan Natives, low-income students, Latino households)
• Problematized explanations of race-related research findings that excluded mention of
racism

49. Barriers
• Paradigm debates
• Conflation of methods (quantitative) and methodology (positivist epistemology)
• Limited disaggregation in survey response options
• Keeping up with emerging technologies and interdisciplinary frameworks
• Research methods textbooks/courses

50. Intentionality and approach
• Undergo methodological self-reflection to understand why we do the type of
research we do – each decision should be very intentional
• Demonstrate high level of expertise in statistical analyses and critical theories
• Work must be relevant for policy and practice
• Methods
• Descriptive statistics
• Cluster analysis
• Regression
• Multi-level modeling
• Social network analysis

52. Questions for presenters
• What if any barriers are there in utilizing these methodologies?
• What areas of future research seem to emerge from these methodologies?
• How might we better educate graduate students and scholars about these
methodologies?
• Critical theory provides a lens four thinking about power but often does
not suggest specific methodologies for that examination. What are the
opportunities in utilizing methodologies aimed at uncovering power
structures?
• What are some journal and publication outlets that embrace these types of
methodological approaches? What have been your experiences publishing
in such journals?