Toward an Understanding of Intersectionality Methodology: A 30-Year Literature Synthesis of Black Women’s Experiences in Higher Education

Abstract

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s scholarship on Black women has been the springboard for numerous education studies in which researchers use intersectionality as a theoretical framework; however, few have considered the possibilities of intersectionality as a methodological tool. In this literature synthesis, the authors (a) examined studies about Black women in higher education that had been published in the past 30 years to understand how those scholars applied intersectionality across Crenshaw’s three dimensions (i.e., structural, political, and representational) and (b) advanced a set of four strategies, arguably providing a guide for engaging “intersectionality methodology,” what the authors coin as “IM.” Implications for higher education research and social science research broadly are also presented.

The Politics of Publishing: A National Conversation With Scholars Who Use Their Research About Black Women to Address Intersectionality

“…Since the publication of their article, CRT has wide application in education research. Believing that intersectionality research could have similar widespread appeal, we conducted an analysis of how the researchers in our data corpus applied intersectionality across Crenshaw's three dimensions, publishing a guide for engaging intersectionality methodology (Haynes et al, 2020). Providing education researchers, and social science researchers more broadly, with a guide for employing intersectionality methodology would help address the issues related to elevating intersectionality's visibility that survey respondents highlighted, pertaining to the training and mentoring of future scholars and reviewers/editors, establishing standards for rigor, and delineating intersectionality research from other fields of study.…”

“…Because much of education research informs society, Black women's invisibility goes beyond the research; they are invisible in curriculum, discourses, policies, practice, and praxis (Collins, 1998;Collins, 2000;Evans-Winters & Esposito, 2010;Patton & Ward, 2016). Overall, what we know is that intersectional analyses have the capacity to make Black women visible and expand the epistemological terrain because it disrupts hegemonic research paradigms steeped in traditions of so-called scientific objectivity and intersectionality assumes that all knowledge is political, influenced by human interests, and reflects power and hierarchical social relationships in society (Banks, 1993;Haynes et al, 2020;Patton & Ward, 2016).…”

Scientific Literacy and Social Transformation

“…In contrast with the higher education field, where intersectionality has made an increasing contribution (Esnard & Cobb-Roberts, 2018 ; Harris & Patton, 2019 ; Nichols and Stahl, 2019 ; Haynes et al, 2020 ), in the science education field, intersectionality has just been examined, among others, in its relationship with political science faculties (Cabrera, 2014 ), medical education (Muntinga et al, 2016 ), mathematical education (Bullock, 2018 ), geoscience education research (Matheis et al 2019 ; Núñez et al, 2020 ), science identity (Avraamidou, 2020 ; Castro & Collins, 2021 ), and in environmental and sustainability education (Maina-Okori et al, 2018 ). According to Metcalf et al ( 2018 , p. 583) “…one reason, apart from the lack of awareness, researchers have not yet adopted intersectionality frameworks for studying STEM participation is that it poses methodological challenges…”.…”

I’m Every Woman: Advancing the Intersectional Leadership of Black Women School Leaders as Anti-Racist Praxis

“…These depictions, developed from exemplars of the strength, skill, and brilliance that Black women possess and display, demonstrate how privileging their work can reconstitute research and practice in meaningful ways. While similar aims can be accomplished by focusing on related topics such as feminist approaches to educational policy research (Childers, 2013), race-based comparisons of school leadership practices (Brooks & Jean-Marie, 2007), and the indigeneity of schooling spaces in Black communities (Tillman, 2004), the multiplicative nature of Black women’s leadership is distinctly captured across K-12 (Flores, 2018), higher education (Haynes et al, 2020), and community (Watson, 2020) literature. Particularly, in K-12 spaces, their presence is profound and fundamentally establishes successful pathways for students and communities.…”