The Western scientific worldview is assumed to be
universally applicable, including to research involving peoples with different
worldviews. Even in the social sciences, which should be more aware of and open
to diverse ontologies, epistemologies, and axiologies, Western science is
privileged and reproduced and other ways of
knowing are dismissed, denigrated, or otherwise treated as inferior. In
particular, the use of culturally inappropriate data collection, analysis, and
reporting processes has contributed to an increasingly contentious relationship with Indigenous peoples. Indigenous student and faculty researchers understandably
experience both internal and external conflict when trying to perform
Indigenous research in a way that respects Indigenous cultural expectations
while also satisfying the requirements of Western
gatekeepers. Indigenous research methodologies reflect the Indigenous worldview and provide an important alternative to the dominant positivist/postpositivist paradigm of Western science to
produce research that is by, with, and for Indigenous peoples. Indigenous
methodologies approach community and cultural
protocols, values, and needs as an integral part of research, and they
emphasize common principles of respect, reciprocity, relevance, and responsibility. We believe broader
recognition and acceptance of Indigenous methodologies would benefit all
stakeholders, and, in furtherance of that goal, we identify structural,
ideological, process-related, and results-related challenges and opportunities that should be
considered as Indigenous methodologies are developed and employed.
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