She-Search: The Fertile Ground of Black Indigenous Methods (BIM) in Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

Educational research methodologies are often situated in the onto-epistemologies of patriarchal whiteness. Lacking critical emotionality, these designs repress human instinct for the fallacy of scientific objectivity. The life-giving methods and methodologies employed by many Black women educational researchers oppose these positivist designs. In this context guided by our collective “she-searches,” we conceptualize Black indigenous methods (BIMs). Engaging in the Black feminist tradition of storytelling, we recount our application of Black indigenous interview method by “she-telling” our lived raced and gendered experiences with our communities. Thus, we unearth the fertile ground of BIM and offer insight into our methodological sense-making for researchers.