About | Caribbean Research Methodologies

Conceptualizing Affirming Methodologies

Affirming Methodologies centres Local and Indigenous voices in the research process and recognizes the value of their ways of sharing knowledge. Affirming Methodologies embodies culturally relevant approaches to research which embrace our ancestors, and value our histories, and acknowledge the paths that have brought us to the present; it emphasizes the importance of local and indigenous knowledge systems, traditions, and lived experiences in the research process.

Affirming Methodologies is not a stagnant approach to life. It is a recognition of the value in what we create from our histories and lived experiences. In all our worlds, we are constantly evolving and creating.

In the context of the Caribbean, Affirming Methodologies aim to remove the traditional hierarchies between the researcher and the researched, promoting a more equitable and culturally relevant approach to knowledge construction and sharing. This involves using practices, language patterns, and rituals that are intrinsic to Caribbean communities.

Branches of Philosophy: Affirming Methodologies is an epistemology, ontology, and philosophy of how we know and be, how we think about the world, and how we locate ourselves and our positioning in that world. These understandings are critical in ensuring that research outcomes are appropriately and meaningfully interpreted where we take pride in what we have created and come to know, and where we recognize that these ways exist out of our relational sense of being, knowing and doing.

Framework: An Affirming Methodologies framework is inclusive of and relevant to qualitative and quantitative research. Engaging in research from a quantitative approach does not alter any of that, as the process, no matter how structured, emanates from how we perceive the question, the problem, and thus the solution.

Challenges faced by Researchers in adopting affirming methodologies: Affirming Methodologies is a concept. If you are referring to affirming methodologies in your research such as liming and ole talk, African storytelling, or shisa nyama, then each of those would have their own unique challenges.

Why was liming methodology used – Please go to featured papers: Liming and Ole Talk: Foundations for and Characteristics of a Culturally Relevant Caribbean Methodology

Santana, A. F., Nakhid, C., Nakhid-Chatoor, M. Y., & Wilson-Scott, S. (2019). Liming and Ole Talk: Foundations for and Characteristics of a Culturally Relevant Caribbean Methodology. Caribbean Studies, 99-123.

Who we are

From New Zealand, Cuba, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, four scholars came together to write about an indigenous research methodology. We were excited that calls were being made for the confirmation and acceptance of culturally relevant research methodologies in the Caribbean, grounded in Caribbean peoples, world views and interactions. After many discussions with both academic and non-academic persons on the cultural practices in our respective islands, we were able to embrace liming as a research methodology, simultaneously affirming that ole talk be viewed as an acceptable method for gathering knowledge in a research context.

In addition, our thrust was to allow academic institutions to re-examine the way that research methodologies are taught to students, to enable them to identify and appreciate cultural ways that would lend themselves to a more accurate and truthful sharing of knowledge. In the initial papers that were published as a collective, we used LOT (Liming and Ole Talk) as an acronym for the research approach that we were developing. However, further exploration and analysis of the research approach and as we shared it with Caribbean peoples, we had cause to move away from that abbreviation to a more meaningful, philosophical and cultural positioning. Thus, ‘Liming Methodology’ resonated more with the cultural practices that underpin it as a research strategy.

We are Professor Dr. Camille Nakhid, social scientist at AUT and a Trini by birth; Dr. Anabel Fernandez Santana, Dr. Shakeisha Wilson-Scott-Jamaican social scientist and Dr. Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor, Assistant professor/Psychologist, at the UTT.

Peruse our articles. Join us in discussions. Attend the CRM conferences. If ever change is to
happen in Caribbean research and the affirmation of indigenous cultural practices, this change must be in the NOW!