In his article “’Street Life’ as a Site of Resiliency: How Street-Life Oriented Black Men Frame Opportunity in the United States”, Yasser Payne put together a participatory action research (PAR) team of street-life oriented black men to examine the attitudes other street-life oriented black men have towards opportunity. His research methods are of the constructivist paradigm as constructivism is examined in “Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research” (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). A paradigm will be defined as a “philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated” (Merriam-Webster, 2017). Payne conforms to the constructivist worldview in his article with the use of his sites of resiliency theory as a way to better understand how street-life oriented black men construct their notions of resiliency, where resiliency is described as an ideology that is grounded in personal and economic survival. This will become apparent as a connection is made to 5 of 10 issues Guba and Lincoln pose and their interpretation of what each paradigm believes. The issues examined are inquiry aim, nature of knowledge, knowledge accumulation, inquirer’s voice, the training of novices.
In short, the aim of inquiry in the constructivist view is the understanding and reconstruction of constructs that are held by people, including the inquirer. A construct will be defined as a set of variables that can define a person such as personality traits, emotional states, attitudes towards something, and abilities. Payne puts together a participatory action research group (herein PAR) of 4 street-life oriented black men to study other street-life oriented black men. These men essentially research themselves, that is, people who hold similar constructions, playing the role of the inquirer and the participant, to better understand their experience and attitudes towards economic and educational opportunity. Activism is also important of this view, and plays part in this research as the people that were surveyed “received $10 dollars for completing surveys and $20 for completing interviews. In addition… participants received an informed consent form… resource package… about employment and educational opportunities.” The men surveyed ranged from the ages 16 through 65 years old to see how different generations construct their notions of resiliency.
The nature of knowledge is of individual reconstruction revolving around consensus, with change more likely to happen as different ideas are presented. It is noted that Payne is investigating how the men see street-life as a site of resiliency, and their attitudes towards opportunity. Who better to define street-life and the sense of resiliency it gives than those who live or have lived the so-called “street-life”? Payne and the PAR team conducted community surveys and interviews, with a sample size of 371, and 2 separate, small, group interviews. The first group interview consisted of 4 participants between ages 16-17 and the second group interview of 3 participants between ages 29 and 48. In these interviews, the idea of multiple “knowledges”(with age being a crucial differentiator between those surveyed) comes into play, being that those in the younger age sample typically held more positive attitudes towards overall opportunity, and those of the older age sample generally more pessimistic (pg. 20, Table 5). In the group interviews, the general consensus among both age groups was that street-life is a means of survival. However, the younger groups saw street-life as something that is necessary to survival regardless of the risk. The older group saw street-life as the result of failed social structures and in some sense, where truthful integrity lies. One of the men interviewed, Tommy says, “He’s going to tell a lie, because he’s got a lot to lose. That person [hypothetical street-life oriented Black male] ain’t got nothing to worry about. Why not tell the truth?” which I believe shows how they might see the streets are where true integrity is found. Since these are all street-life oriented black men, we can most certainly say that they are capable of interpreting the ideas of street-life and resiliency.
Knowledge accumulates as more sophisticated constructions are formed, and through a vicarious experience that is often provided through a case study. This act of researching is a direct attempt to create more informed constructions through a process that is based on interpretation, which in this case would be the interpretation of resiliency. The vicarious experience is provided through the PAR team because they are participating in the research, with participatory action research in itself being a form of a case study.
Novices in this view must be resocialized from their view of science – to have their view of science reengineered – through training in quantitative and qualitative methods. Payne’s PAR team, being of street-life orientation, can be assumed to not have much (if any) experience in research methods. This assumption is drawn from Payne’s own assumption that street-life oriented black men have “experienced little access to quality…educational opportunity” (pg. 5). With that being said, the PAR team did participate in a research methods workshop where the training consisted of theory, method and analysis (resocialization). Novices must also understand the overall structure that surrounds their inquiry (race, gender, history, location etc.) and this is achieved in that what the PAR team is researching is how street-life oriented black men frame their notions of resiliency in a sample where the age range is from 16-65 years old. In addition, survey and interview data were collected from “hot sites”- areas with high street activity.
The inquirer’s voice is that of the “passionate participant” as the facilitator of the multivoice reconstruction of the inquirer and of other participants. Payne is the primary investigator of this study. He leads a team of would-be researchers. Before their training, I assert that is likely that these men were unable to reimagine their notions of street-life. By giving them the tools necessary, Payne plays the role of the facilitator, with the multivoice being the “voices” of the PAR team that will allow them to form new perceptions of street-life.
The aim of the constructivist view is to reach a consensus construction that is more informed or sophisticated overall. The methods of Payne in this study clearly follows the constructivist paradigm and this is most notably shown in his use of participatory action research where the researchers (street-life oriented Black men) survey other street-life oriented Black men. The knowledge of what street-life is, resiliency, and attitudes towards opportunity is created and continuously reconstructed as interactions between the research team and those investigated occur.