Exploring the Expansive Properties of Interpretive Description: An Invitation to Anti-oppressive Researchers

Abstract

There is an ever-present need to challenge, create, and expand upon qualitative research approaches in the applied and practice disciplines to avoid repeating mistakes of the past and to realize a research agenda for socially just practice. Toward these goals, anti-oppressive researchers engage with a variety of methodologies to co-produce accounts that reflect a comprehensive understanding of social problems with the people who experience them and to enact solutions for real world change. In this article, we reflect on the manner in which Interpretive Description may be a useful option for anti-oppressive researchers to consider as a methodological approach in meeting these philosophical and practical aspirations. We find that Interpretive Description offers guidance toward building the foundation, bringing your whole self to the research, remaining responsive to people, valuing people’s expert perspective of their own experience, using power and privilege wisely, broadening contributors and consumers of research, embracing complications and variations, and enacting change. To illustrate this, we share examples from a participatory, anti-oppressive Interpretive Description study conducted by a team comprised of an inter-racial coalition of students, alumni, and faculty. Collectively, we investigated Black graduate student experiences of racism, inclusion, and expansion within a historically and primarily White university. This case example illustrates our contention that, as our commitment to anti-oppressive research and practice in the applied disciplines intensifies, Interpretive Description is well situated to help us advance practice knowledge in a manner that is transparent, equitable and credible.

Dismantling systems of racism and oppression during adolescence: An agenda for anti‐racist research

“…Research that aims to play a role in dismantling racism and systems of oppression must be designed and implemented in ways that are anti‐racist. There is not one right way or single formula for doing anti‐racist research; rather, it can take many different forms and use different methodological approaches (Knowles & Hawkman, 2020; Ocean et al, 2022; Suzuki et al, 2021). Building from the Journal of Research on Adolescence special series, we highlight the importance of considering who is included in research and how, what is being studied and how, and who is doing the research.…”

Transforming educational leadership in higher education with innovative administrative strategies

“…By decentralizing decisionmaking to appropriate levels, organizations can streamline processes, enhance productivity, and improve overall effectiveness. Mia et al (2022) assert that decision-making authority in higher education involves individuals who possess both the capacity and accountability to make significant decisions that impact the institution and its stakeholders. This authority is distributed among various tiers of governance, including institutional executives, faculty members, administrative personnel, students, and external stakeholders, as noted by Sheng-Ju et al (2023).…”

The Relationship Between Critical Social Theory and Interpretive Description in Nursing Research

“…The above emphasis on ID as a means to examine the constructed and contextual nature of everyday life reveals its fit with a CST perspective. Ocean et al (2022) note that ID is methodologically suited to investigating real world questions and its fundamental tenets are "compatible with and complementary to both participatory and decolonizing work" (p. 2). ID provides a grounding for concepts and their linkages that become apparent when one attempts to locate the specific in the universal, the state within the process, and the subjectivity of experiences within the usual conventions that current health care contexts represent as the temporal and symbolic location for health and illness (Thorne et al, 2004).…”

“…This emergence and grounding allows for the creation of an interpretive account that is a result of informed questioning and critical examination. ID is anti-oppressive and emancipatory in that it allows for the airing of variations and diversities within data sets and the translation of participant's voices into actionable knowledge (Ocean et al, 2022).…”

“…At the same time, it is important to recognize that theory helps nurses to “understand, examine, illuminate and facilitate empowerment for people who are interacting with the health care system” (Wilson-Thomas, 1995, p. 572). ID is a methodology that is transparent, equitable and creditable (Ocean et al, 2022). ID and CST both point toward generating ways of thinking that become optimally relevant to the practice context of nurses.…”