Abstract
Nancy Small and Bernadette Longo's Transnational Research in Technical Communication: Stories, Realities, and Reflections is an edited collection of stories, anecdotes, definitions, theoretical frameworks, pedagogy, suggestions, and methodological endeavors. All 11 chapters in this collection are presented as “storied case studies.” That is, instead of traditional case studies that present an event, story, or incident in a contemplative form, viewed through varied perspectives, storied case studies amplify the incidents and experiences of the narrator–researcher to achieve the credibility and validity of the experience—hence, the research findings (pp. 14–17). Each chapter is written in a deeply reflective format to tell the experiences of working and researching transnationally. By presenting stories in which the researchers’ training and learning of Western scientific research methods and ethics need to be unlearned and revised, Small and Longo amplify the experiences of the researchers, enhancing the credibility and validity of their findings. The collection thus aims to challenge traditional Western research practices and ethics, urging researchers to unlearn and revise their approaches when conducting translational research.
The first three chapters reflect on Western researchers’ experiences doing empirical research in non-Western contexts, underlining the way that research positionality, processes, and frameworks change in these contexts. In Chapter 1, “Planning and Pivoting: Archival Works in Botswana and South Africa,” Emily January Petersen presents a story of doing archival research on the history of women’s organizations in Botswana, Johannesburg, and Pietermaritzburg. Petersen underlines how her positionality as a White American with the academic and social privileges that come from working at a Western university is both reaffirmed and conflated when tackling traces of colonialism at transnational sites such as the Federation of South African Women (p. 33). Likewise, in Chapter 2, “Grappling With Globalized Research Ethics: Notes From a Long-Term Qualitative Research Agenda in India,” Breeanne Matheson shares her challenge in anticipating the geographical, cultural, and social dynamics of doing research in India. She concludes by suggesting that in international research sites, international researchers need to prepare to make injustices visible because “transnational research can easily become a colonial possession of knowledge” that does not belong to the researchers (p. 45).
Similarly, in Chapter 3, “Lost in Translation: Losing Rigid Research Team Roles in a Field Study in Vietnam,” Sarah Beth Hopton, Rebecca Walton, and Linh Nguyen retell how incorporating mutual learning praxis—the practice of avoiding discomfort while discarding Western notions of research and the practice of learning culture—was important for them in their research on Agent Orange in Vietnam. The article is written in a narrative format in which each author reflects on their experience of working and researching transnationally. As shared in the narrative, for Nguyen, working as a translator means being a cultural broker and a mentor of cultural etiquette. In a similar vein, according to Walton and Hopton, researching in a transnational research site means that “it can be awkward to meet mentees’ needs, especially psychological needs (e.g., bonding with teammates over selfies and bubble tea)” (p. 63).
The ensuing three chapters delve into the experiences of Western researchers engaging in community research within non-Western settings. The authors elucidate how their direct interactions with local communities not only facilitated a deeper understanding but also enabled meaningful contributions to pedagogical practices and methodological advancements in the field of technical communication. In Chapter 4, “Accidental Tourist in a Narrative World With Technologies: A Story From Katanga Province,” Bernadette Longo shares how knowing internal politics and social actors was important in the community partnership she organized with Fungurume Mining Company for the Information Design course she taught at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities in 2007. She reflects on how the political context encompassed more than just the sociopolitical situation in the country. It also involved the multifaceted repercussions of globalization, neoliberalism, and capitalism, all of which proved challenging for her to discern and vocally oppose (p. 76).
Similarly, in Chapter 5, “Across the Divide: Communicating With Company Stakeholders in Papua New Guinea,” Bea Amaya explores her role as a business plan developer in the tribally owned company PNG Landco, located in Papua, New Guinea. Amaya recollects, among other things, the ways that the locals reacted to the Annual General Meeting Report—“shareholders examined every page, studied each of the faces of the Board of Directors and the Management teams, looked at every photograph, and even ran their palms over each page of the documents, seeming to take pleasure in the feel of it” (p. 91). In the same vein, in Chapter 6, “‘Nuesta vida en el medio oeste, USA’: Listening to Mexican Immigrants,” Laura Pigozzi talks about the process of researching critical topics such as informed consent among the Latinas community. Pigozzi explores the preparation that a researcher must do to obtain IRB approval, choose a research site, select participants, and conduct interviews. She explains how her Mexican heritage prepares her to anticipate and address power imbalances and to gain the participants’ trust (p. 108).
The final five chapters focus on the ethical challenges of researching transnational research sites. In Chapter 7, “Syrian Refugee Women's Voices: Research Grounded in Stories and Recipe Sharing,” Nabila Hijazi writes about ways that researcher ethics may be compromised when researchers share similar identities and heritage—if not the same experiences. She reflects that sharing a similar cultural and sociopolitical heritage “broke the researcher/participant line …opening the door for personal, private, intimate, and deep conversations” (p. 126). In Chapter 8, “Relearning Your Knowledge —the Loud Silence,” Yvan Yenda Ilunga questions whether social science researchers can be objective in their research. He mentions “that we might be burying critical knowledge at the expense of preserving so-called objectivity in research and production of knowledge” (p. 136). Similarly, in Chapter 9, “Chemistry Publication Ethics in China and the United States: Transdisciplinary Teaming in a Time of Change,” Kathryn Northcut shares the way research policies, publication ethics, credibility issues, and human-subject research differ across countries and the way such differences affect individual researchers and the collaboration spirit in transnational research.
In Chapter 10, “Mingled Threads: A Tapestry of Tales From a Complex Multinational Project,” Rosário Durão et al. presented what they learned from their project, Visualizing Science and Technology Across Cultures, at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. They commented on the practices of researchers, such as personal commitment, discipline, coordination, and support mechanisms during times of fear, doubt, and frustration (p. 167). Finally, in Chapter 11, “Importing Lessons From Qatar: Toward a Research Ethic in Transnational and Intercultural TPC,” Nancy Small reflects on her research experience in Qatar, enlisting five principles of transnational research ethics: accountability, responsible preparation, responsive adaptivity, accountable representation, and reception. Small maintains that transnational researchers, as listeners to problems, must be “prepared to tolerate or even welcome uncertainty and to see the unexpected in terms of serendipity rather than derailment” (p. 204).
In its entirety, this compilation furnishes valuable insights into the journeys of transnational researchers and imparts guidance on conducting ethical research within diverse cultural contexts. It advocates for researchers to engage in reflective practices regarding their assumptions, question conventional research methodologies, and approach transnational research endeavors with both thoughtfulness and a sense of responsibility.