This is an exciting and powerful approach! Centering research on equity within a transformative mixed methods framework for social justice requires a fundamental shift in perspective and methodology. It moves beyond merely documenting disparities to actively working towards systemic change and empowerment.

Here's how to center your research on equity, broken down into key principles and actionable steps:

1) Centering Research on Equity

Centering research on equity means ensuring that the entire research process—from conceptualization to dissemination and action—is designed to identify, understand, challenge, and ultimately reduce systemic disadvantages and promote fairness for historically marginalized and oppressed groups. It's about ensuring all individuals have access to the opportunities and resources needed to thrive, regardless of their background or identity.

Core Principles for Equity-Centered Research:

• Critical Reflexivity & Positionality:


• What it means: Acknowledge and critically examine your own social location, biases, assumptions, and power in relation to the communities and issues you're studying. No researcher is neutral.


• How to apply:


• Self-assessment: Before starting, deeply reflect on your privileges, lived experiences, theoretical lenses, and how these might influence your research questions, methods, and interpretation.


• Transparency: Be open about your positionality in your research write-ups.


• Continuous questioning: Regularly ask: "Whose interests am I serving? Who benefits from this research? Am I unintentionally reinforcing existing power structures?"


• Participatory & Community-Engaged Approaches (Nothing About Us Without Us):


• What it means: Research is not "on" a community, but "with" and "by" a community. Those most affected by inequities should be meaningfully involved in shaping the research.


• How to apply:


• Community Advisory Boards (CABs): Establish and empower CABs composed of community members, advocates, and practitioners to guide every stage of the research.


• Co-Creation of Research Questions: Work with the community to identify the most pressing equity issues and formulate research questions that are relevant and impactful to them.


• Participatory Data Collection: Involve community members in designing survey questions, interview protocols, focus group guides, and even conducting data collection (e.g., peer researchers, participatory action research).


• Shared Ownership: Establish agreements around data ownership, intellectual property, and authorship, ensuring that the community's contributions are recognized and valued.


• Asset-Based & Strengths-Based Framing:


• What it means: Instead of solely focusing on deficits, problems, and pathologies within marginalized communities, identify and leverage their existing strengths, resources, resilience, and wisdom.


• How to apply:


• Reframing research questions: Shift from "What's wrong with this community?" to "What are the strengths and resources within this community that can be amplified to address X inequity?"


• Highlighting agency: Emphasize the strategies communities use to cope, resist, and thrive despite systemic barriers.


• Data interpretation: Look for positive deviance, successful coping mechanisms, and community-led solutions, alongside identifying challenges.


• Intersectionality as an Analytical Lens:


• What it means: Recognize that individuals hold multiple social identities (e.g., race, gender, class, sexual orientation, disability status, immigration status), and these identities intersect to create unique experiences of privilege and oppression that cannot be understood in isolation.


• How to apply:


• Disaggregated Data: Collect and analyze quantitative data disaggregated by multiple intersecting categories (e.g., not just "women" but "Black women," "Indigenous women with disabilities," "low-income transgender women").


• Qualitative Nuance: Use qualitative methods to explore how individuals experience the interplay of their various identities in relation to specific inequities.


• Avoid "single-axis" analysis: Resist the urge to focus on one dimension of inequity (e.g., race) without considering how it interacts with others (e.g., class, gender, ability).


• Historical & Structural Contextualization:


• What it means: Understand that current inequities are not random but are products of historical processes (e.g., colonialism, slavery, discriminatory policies) and ongoing systemic structures (e.g., institutional racism, sexism, capitalism).


• How to apply:


• Literature Review: Ground your research in historical analyses of the specific inequities you are addressing.


• Theoretical Frameworks: Employ theories that explicitly address power, oppression, and systemic injustice (e.g., Critical Race Theory, Decolonial Theory, Feminist Standpoint Theory, Disability Justice).


• Problem Formulation: Frame equity issues not as individual failings, but as manifestations of structural barriers.


• Action-Oriented & Transformative Intent:


• What it means: Research is not merely for knowledge production but is explicitly aimed at generating evidence and insights that can be used to advocate for policy changes, implement effective interventions, and empower communities to achieve social justice.


• How to apply:


• Clear Impact Goals: Define upfront how your research findings are intended to be used for social change.


• Recommendations for Action: Develop concrete, actionable recommendations that are informed by the data and co-created with the community.


• Dissemination for Impact: Plan for diverse dissemination strategies that reach policy makers, community organizations, and the general public, not just academic audiences (e.g., policy briefs, community reports, infographics, media engagement).


• Ethical Practice Beyond Compliance:


• What it means: Go beyond basic IRB requirements to uphold a more robust "justice-based" ethic. This includes addressing power imbalances, ensuring equitable benefit sharing, and protecting participants from exploitation.


• How to apply:


• Ongoing Informed Consent: Recognize consent as an ongoing process, especially in participatory research, ensuring participants understand their rights and the evolving nature of the research.


• Reciprocity: Offer tangible benefits or give back to the communities involved in the research.


• Data Security & Anonymity: Be especially rigorous in protecting sensitive data, particularly for marginalized groups who may face greater risks from breaches.


• Fair Compensation: Compensate participants fairly for their time and expertise, recognizing the value of their contributions.

By integrating these principles throughout your transformative mixed methods research, you can ensure that equity is not just a theme but the driving force behind every decision and action, ultimately contributing to meaningful social change.