Main Takeaways
Explicitly incorporating training on ethics and community-based research is a crucial part of teaching field research methods
Centering decolonial and Indigenous approaches can disrupt harmful and extractive research practices
Modeling collaborative research begins with your relationship with the course language teacher
Quick Wins
Changes you can easily implement to make a difference in your teaching and in the learning and experiences of your students
- Center Indigenous perspectives: Wherever possible incorporate the work of Indigenous scholars and community members on field research and language documentation
- Contextualize the language of study and its users: Avoid presenting the language as simply decontextualized data and provide information about the language community and its social context, ideally from members of the community itself, such as the course language teacher
- Consider the scope of the methods training: Recognize that teaching about ethical and collaborative research models is just as central to instruction in field methods as training on data collection and analysis
- Acknowledge the potentially extractive nature of field research: Openly discuss the extractive colonialist history of much of linguistic field research and highlight practices that do not perpetuate this harm
Bigger Impact
What more can be done to have a long-term, positive impact in your teaching and on your students’ learning and experiences in linguistics?
Suggestion #1: Discuss decolonial approaches to field research
Incorporate explicit training on ethics and decolonial approaches to language documentation throughout the course rather than as a topic for just one or two classes (see the Field Methods Case Study page for an example of this)
Why?
- Linguistic fieldwork is rooted in a history of extractive colonialism and field research that only centers the linguist’s needs can perpetuate this
- Learning how to ethically engage with community collaborators is an important aspect of field research and should be part of the training linguists receive
- Decolonial and Indigenous methodologies disrupt Western academic research norms that can be harmful
How?
- Assign readings about different models of field research and ethical considerations in field research and devote class discussion to these early on to set the tone for the class
- Center the perspectives of Indigenous scholars through readings and class discussions or reflections about Indigenous research methodologies
- Make space at the outset for the language teacher for the course to offer their definition of ‘language’ and to share what studying their language means to them
Suggestion #2: Provide practice in making community-oriented research products
Design assignments that encourage students to think about making the knowledge they have acquired in the course accessible to language users and/or learners (see the Field Methods Case Study page for an example of this)
Why?
- A key component of collaborative language research is producing research outputs that meet community needs and goals
- Effectively engage in “sharing knowledge” (Smith 2021) requires practice and is something field methods training should help our students to learn
- Producing materials that are accessible to non-linguists makes the output of the course accessible to the course language teacher if they do not have linguistics training
How?
- Consult with the language teacher for the course about whether there are any projects or products that would be of use or interest to them or other community members
- Supplement (or replace) traditional research papers for the course with formats that can be used and understood by language users or language learners, such as pedagogical materials or reports written for a lay audience
- Consider how the data you collect will be stored during and after the course and, in consultation with the course language teacher (and other community members, where relevant), determine whether a more widely accessible format (such as a web database) would be appropriate
Resources
Reimagining the current praxis of field linguistics training: Decolonial considerations. Tsikewa, Adrienne. 2021. Language 97(4): 293-319.
Reflections on (de)colonialism in language documentation. Leonard, Wesley Y. 2018. In McDonnell, Bradley, Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker, and Gary Holton. (eds.) Reflections on Language Documentation 20 Years after Himmelmann 1998. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication no. 15: 55-65. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Centering Indigenous ways of knowing in collaborative language work. Leonard, Wesley Y. 2021. In Crowshoe, Lisa, Inge Genee, Mahaliah Peddle, Joslin Smith, and Conor Snoek (eds.) Sustaining Indigenous languages: Connecting communities, teachers, and scholars. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University College of Education.
Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (3rd ed.). Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. 2021. London: Zed Books.