Making Sense of Social Research Methodology: A Student and Practitioner Centered Approach

About Barbara K. DennisKaren RossPeiwei LiPengfei Zhao

Pengfei Zhao is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida in the Research and Evaluation Methodology Program. She has an interdisciplinary background in inquiry methodology sociology and cultural studies. In her research and teaching Pengfei draws from a wide spectrum of theoriesfrom critical theories to contemporary pragmatism and feminismto formulate a praxis- and social justice-oriented research methodology. Primarily using ethnographic narrative and participatory methodologies she is interested in the challenges of and innovative approaches to conducting research in culturally diverse and politically troubled contexts. Such efforts are manifested in her writing on doing research in authoritarian states the institutionalization of research regulation in East Asian contexts and translation in qualitative research. Currently Pengfei is completing a book manuscript based on her critical ethnographic study of rural youths coming of age experience during Chinas drastic transition from socialism to late-socialism. Karen Ross is an Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution in the Department of Conflict Resolution Human Security and Global Governance at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.  Previously she was an adjunct instructor at the Global & International Education Program at Drexel University and the Inquiry Methodology Program at Indiana University. Karens teaching and research focus on issues at the intersection of dialogue peace-building social activism and education. She conducts basic and applied research to help understand the impact of grassroots peace-building interventions and the way these interventions fit into societal level peace-building efforts. Karens research also focuses on methodological issues related to how we conduct research about peace-building and social justice work how we can do so in more inclusive ways and how to broaden conceptions of expertise and legitimate knowledge in social inquiry. Peiwei Li is an Assistant Professor of Counseling & Psychology and the Research Coordinator for the PhD program of Counseling & Psychology in Transformative Leadership Education & Applied Research at Lesley University. Peiweis cross-cultural experiences as an immigrant and a Chinese woman growing up in the late socialist/emerging capitalist era in China have fueled her interest in understanding the intersection of culture class race and gender and complex power relations that fuel and reproduce social and systemic pathologies and psychological sufferings. Her scholarship locates in the borderland of critical psychology and critical qualitative methodologies pertaining to identity development emancipatory interest consciousness raising recognition solidarity and potentials for liberatory actions. Substantively she has engaged in research on diversity and social justice education immigration and detention violence against women and spiritual development.  Barbara Dennis is a daughter sister mother grandmother and partner who is located professionally as a Professor at Indiana University in the Inquiry Methodology Program. She most consistently engages in critical participatory ethnographies to study core theoretical and practical methodological concepts such as participation validity and ethics. As an activist and a scholar Barbara has been engaged with communities who fight against social injustice and work toward the futures of liberation now. For example she has been involved with a LGBTQ+ youth community committed to providing educational programming for educators around the country. Their goal is to explore how schools can become sites through which marginalized queer kids can thrive. Barbara values the contributions research makes toward those efforts and welcomes the critique of research that sustain inequity.