784
Authors’ Note: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Yvonna S.
Lincoln, Education Administration and Human Resource Development, College Station, TX
77843-4226; e-mail: ysl@tamu.edu.
The Search for Emerging
Decolonizing Methodologies
in Qualitative Research
Further Strategies for
Liberatory and Democratic Inquiry
Yvonna S. Lincoln
Elsa M. González y González
Texas A&M University, College Station
Many non-Western and non-English-speaking scholars express the need for
supporting a methodological approach that foregrounds the voices of nation-
als and locals (or indigenous peoples). Supporting this stance, Western schol-
ars will reach out in democratic and liberatory ways that effect research
collaboration, helping to foster social justice and locally desired change. This
article supports this search via presenting some methodological strategies
culled from six different cases of cross-cultural and cross-language research
in which both Western and non-Western scholars were involved and/or col-
laborated. A comparative study of the inquiries themselves, with follow-up
interviews with their U.S.-based authors, is the strategy that has been chosen
to respond to this search for additional, emerging methodological and narra-
tive approaches to cross-cultural/cross-national research that is useful to both
local and Western scholars equally.
Keywords: decolonizing methodologies; cross-cultural research; cross-
language research; qualitative research
Many non-Western and non-English-speaking scholars express the need
for supporting a methodological approach that foregrounds the voices of
nationals and locals (or indigenous peoples). Supporting this stance,
Western scholars will reach out in democratic and liberatory ways that
effect research collaboration, helping to foster social justice and locally
Qualitative Inquiry
Volume 14 Number 5
July 2008 784-805
© 2008 Sage Publications
10.1177/1077800408318304
http://qix.sagepub.com
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http://online.sagepub.com