Necessary Ruminations and Fractured Renderings: Possible Openings in Relational and Epistemic Justice

I write to interrogate my representation of coconstructed knowledge from participatory action research (PAR) projects and to question my response to disciplinary boundaries and the disciplining process inherent in peer review. My writing is not detached from my relationship as a White researcher to Black youth experiencing structural racism. It is set within an educational policy context in the U.S. that penalizes those already marginalized by failures of the state to provide equity in education. I present this material as I experience it, as ruminations within my head best described like that of two parallel walls lined with mirrors held at slightly different junctures on the wall. When I look at one mirror I see the others, each providing different angles of vision. It is a fractured and necessary rendering. It is deeply subjective, partial, and incomplete. It is also reflective of the workings of power with image patterns that cut across each mirror offering both coherence and doubt in the reality it presents. To get at these ruminations that are prickly to my psyche, I write in the form of letters to those whom I hold myself accountable—the youth (as represented by Delores and Maryana), journal editors within my disciplines of study (social psychology and education), a cojourneyer and visionary, those who share my commitments to critical participatory methodologies, my coauthor, and myself