“I Just Want to Exist as Me”: Reflexivity and Our Duoethnographic Journey to Understanding the Self as Asian American and Asian Critical Scholars

Abstract

Critical research, such as that involving the deconstruction of monoracialism, aims to empower and elevate the voices of marginalized populations. When we engage in critical research, whether it be quantitative or qualitative, scholars must recognize how our own lived experiences might shape each stage of the research process. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we present scholars with a structured method using a conceptual mapping of social identities combined with written reflection and regularly scheduled debriefings to begin their own explorations of identity. Second, we present our experiences negotiating with monoracialism as we worked to understand our identities as Asian scholars. Through this process we discovered new perspectives on how we, along with our participants, have grappled with socially imposed notions of who we are as Asians.