Critical relationality and relational accountability in educational anthropology research

Joaquín M.S Noguera and Teresa L McCarty

Chapter 21 in Research Handbook on the Anthropology of Education, 2026, pp 212-222 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter advances critical relationality and accountability to relationships as essential to educational anthropology research and praxis. Particularly in work with Indigenous Peoples and Communities of Color, social science researchers have often reinforced extractive relationships, prioritizing academic careers over community needs. We operate in the lineage of scholars who interrogate historic and contemporary injustices, expose possibilities for transformation, and engage in service- and praxis-oriented research. Through ethnographic vignettes, we illustrate this critical relational approach in an Indigenous-serving school and an urban school serving primarily Black and Latinx youth. The vignettes highlight the ways in which such an approach interrogates power and agency, generating broader, systemic understandings of educational inequities and community/cultural resilience. This critical relational approach holds promise for educational-anthropological research as a tool to denaturalize inequity, elevate community voice, and foster reclamation and self-determination for Indigenous Peoples and Communities of Color.

Keywords: Critical relationality; Relational ethnography of education; Research with Indigenous Peoples; Research with Communities of Color (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035332908
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