Through reflection, students can understand better where they come from, what they know or may assume about a community, and identify what they still need to learn. They can also ask better questions in their research if they carefully reflect on what they are asking and why.
KNOWING YOUR OWN HISTORY
Students should make efforts to know and understand their own histories. This means acknowledging whose Indigenous land they live on, their ancestors’ involvement in colonialism, and their current awareness of Indigenous communities’ struggles. One Māori scholar shared that Māori communities reflect on what their ancestors have done and acknowledge it, even if the ancestor acted in a way that they may disagree with.
As primarily American students, it is also vital to understand what it means to be an American on an international scale, including how Māori and Pākehā research participants may view American researchers.
“It’s important that you know whose land you’re on, which tribe or nation, and what’s happened to them where they live, what their aspirations now are for the future because it’s all about bringing it back home. For most indigenous groups, we’ll be thinking, well, whose land do you live on, what’s your relationship with the indigenous peoples where you are? And it doesn’t mean you’ve got to necessarily know those native American people personally, but just an awareness of their history and your own history and your own positionality. Ask yourself: What are the possible privileges or disadvantages that your family has inherited over the years, where have you come from, where do you sit in these different political and economic dynamics? If you’re a family of engineers, were any of your ancestors involved in building roads that busted through communities or took the land for the purposes of those engineering projects, or whatever, and just be open about that. We’ve all got histories that are complicated, and it’s not to be ashamed of your history. It’s “that’s my legacy, that’s where I come from.” It is what you do with the knowledge of that history that counts.”
Dr. Maria Bargh, Te Kawa a Māui, Victoria University of Wellington; New Zealand IQP Sponsor
Example Questions
- Whose land do I live on now?
- Where do those communities live now?
- What struggles do they face?
- Did my family play a part in colonization? How?
- What does it mean to be American on an international scale?
- How might the people I am going to be interviewing percieve Americans?
BEFORE TRAVELING
Before embarking on their projects, students should reflect on what they know about the community they are working with, including any assumptions they may have. After reflecting on this, they are able to identify areas they need to research more, perhaps in relation to culture, history, or language. Many scholars and WPI advisors stressed that it is important that the students always hold an attitude of having to continuously learn. Just because a student doesn’t know something or assumed something incorrectly doesn’t reflect badly on a student, rather it opens an opportunity to learn more about another culture and community.
Example Questions
- What do I know about this community?
- What struggles do I think this community faces?
- What do I know about this communities culture? Are there aread I need to research to better understand?
- What is the history of this community?
- How does the history and culture of this community relate to my project?
- What are my assumptions about this community? Am I cognizant of my biases?
PREPARING FOR INTERVIEWS
Students should reflect and revise the questions they use for interviews. Students should create a question set that is relevant to the participant, and respectful of their culture. This includes researching the participant prior to communication to ensure that questions are relevant to them and that students aren’t asking questions they could easily find the answers to online or in text.
Students who have completed IQPs have found doing background research and being careful language to be helpful and well-received by interviewees. Students should also reflect on the questions they’ve asked, and shift those questions if necessary – it is ok for your question set to change!
Students should also be mindful of interviewees’ time. Often time Māori leaders are very busy doing tasks relevant to their iwi and don’t have time to sit down with students doing a project. Be mindful of this when requesting an interview with Māori leaders.
Another way that students can reflect on their research process is to compare their research strategies to those commonly used in Māori research practices, Kaupapa Māori.
Example Questions
- What do I know about this participant?
- Can I find this information online or from text?
- What am I hoping to learn from this participant?
- Do my questions incorporate Māori culture, such as giving the opportunity for storytelling?
- What questions seemed irrelevant or unsuccessful in previous interviews? Do I still need to incorporate them?
- Is this question respectful? Does it use any language that may be percieved as disrespectful?
NOTE TO ADVISORS
Like students, many advisors do not have relationships with the communities they are traveling to, and may not have much experience with social science. Because of this, we encourage advisors to participate in reflection alongside their students so they are better able to advise.