Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention

"This Research that We are Doing is Just the Beginning of the Conversation”: Undergraduate Researchers Enacting Literacies of Relationality

Dr. Vaughn W. M. Watson

Michigan State University

Rae L. Oviatt

Michigan State University

Dr. Terry K. Flennaugh

Michigan State University

Chauntel Byrd

Michigan State University

Regina Deloach

Michigan State University

Sarah Jackson

Michigan State University

Jewel Pugh

Michigan State University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/jcotr.v27i2.3302

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Abstract

We extend theoretical perspectives of critical listening and storying with undergraduate researchers of Color as they conducted a Youth Participatory Action Research inquiry. Undergraduate researchers designed, analyzed, and shared findings of their photovoice project examining their transition experiences to a PwI. We asked: what literacy activities do undergraduate researchers of Color enact during the photovoice project; and how are undergraduate researchers’ literacy activities shaping and, in turn, shaped by contexts of relationality? We conceptually frame our work as extending notions of quilting across African Diaspora women’s communities. We discuss how undergraduate co-researchers enact literacies of relationality while examining transition experiences of first-year students of Color. This stance-taking considers how educational communities including teachers, teacher educators, education researchers, and student affairs educators may meaningfully incorporate knowledge, perspectives, and questions of preservice teachers of Color, which are an integral part of transition experiences of undergraduate researchers and future teachers.