Data Analysis
The outcome of analyses will be the generation of BIPOC-centered knowledge and action strategies that will be leveraged and privileged in making transformations in Missoula community and municipal structures. BIPOC transformative solutions and recommended social action will be seen as valuable and integral in efforts to dismantle systemic and institutionalized inequality, injustice, and marginalization in Missoula public and private systems, spaces, and places. As a result of the implementation of this local BIPOC-generated knowledge inclusive of transformational social action strategies, Missoula BIPOC residents’ interactions with community and municipal systems and structures will be qualitatively and quantifiably better. Ultimately, creating a just, inclusive, and equitable society where all Missoula residents thrive, grow, and succeed.
Analysis will begin with the evaluation and assessment of existing and archival municipal and County data and after the first qualitative interview. The examination and analysis of existing data will occur within the context of a critical paradigm informed by a racial justice lens. As noted previously, the data will be scrutinized and interviews will be performed with departmental representatives to gain an understanding of BIPOC social reality and experiences with municipal systems. In contrast to the straightforward analyses of pre-existing/archival quantitative data, LEARN qualitative data analysis and collection will be a recursive process using two main analytic processes — phenomenological and narrative with limited integration of appreciative inquiry.
Phenomenological analysis will enable LEARN to identify, describe, and classify experiences as they are understood by BIPOC participant collaborators. The outcomes of this analysis will be: 1) to understand individual and collective BIPOC experiences and social realities of living in Missoula and interfacing with public and private systems, and more specifically, 2) to come to understand what was experienced, how it was experienced, and what transformations/changes BIPOC participant collaborators and stakeholders would desire, envision and design (these are components of appreciative inquiry). Important aspects of analyses will include: a) identifying and categorizing relevant themes and meaning structures, b) highlight essential elements of BIPOC experiences, and c) correlating/associating BIPOC specific transformational action strategies to injurious and detrimental interactions within Missoula municipality and business institutions.
Coupled with this phenomenological process will be narrative analysis that focuses on the content of stories and the ways they are constructed by BIPOC participant collaborators as they discuss experiences of marginalization, inequity, injustice and oppression in Missoula. Narrative analysis will provide a means of gaining insight into the kinds of events and experiences BIPOC individuals and groups identify as having salience.
Further, through a limited integration of appreciative inquiry, analyses will distill cogent, well-developed and designed BIPOC-centered social action strategies and recommendations that will be disseminated to Missoula City Council and other stakeholders so they can transform private and municipal structures. The end result will be a significantly improved social reality for BIPOC residents as they live, work, study, and play in Missoula because all the recommendations for change would have been grounded fully in the findings that emerge from the Missoula BIPOC community.