Un(learning) research methods through a participatory storytelling padagogy: A Hong Kong case.

Abstract

Teaching qualitative research methods can be a gruelling endeavour particularly in neoliberal education institutions where the post-positivist research paradigm is valorised alone. In addition, from a postcolonial perspective, Western hegemony has not ceased to permeate social work education in selection of textbooks, use of teaching examples, and judgement on rigour and impact of social work research. Such political economy of education can only be contested through participatory and critical pedagogies. Using a research methods course taught at a major university in Hong Kong as an example, we demonstrate how participatory storytelling has served as a viable pedagogy to destabilize students’ ingrained knowledge orientations and subsequently foster their theoretical sensitivity and methodological competencies. Several pedagogical strategies prove instrumental. First, the course has benefitted from active and equal participation of teaching team members who are at different academic stages. Such form of co-teaching has enriched preparation of teaching materials, design of in-class activities, and ongoing evaluation of teaching effectiveness. Second, the teaching team has strived to employ local cases as stimuli to manifest and confront epistemological, methodological, and colonial dominance in the social work knowledge system. While we particularly aimed to revitalize some marginalized knowledge, including Hong Kong cultural studies, indigenous knowledge in Taiwan, and activism against oppressive forces, students have also learnt innovative qualitative methods developed by local Hong Kong scholars, thereby de-colonizing their research skillsets. Third, we have guided the students to view the entire research process as a storytelling project with an ultimate goal to identify and further unravel a theoretical puzzle. Last, several students decided to participate in a qualitative transformative network organized by the instructor, therefore learning beyond the classroom. Over the course of unlearning and learning qualitative research methods, many students found themselves capable of reframing their original research questions from alternative theoretical and methodological angles.