Attending to and transforming power dynamics in translanguaged research relationships and methodology

In this response to Lee (2022), I posit that translanguaging has prompted a re-evaluation of applied linguistics and sociolinguistics methodology in part because the theory has implicated issues of power dynamics and coloniality into the study of language. For this, if researchers wish to conduct research from translanguaging perspectives, it becomes necessary to recognize and attend to power dynamics in research design and methodology. This piece suggests some guiding questions for addressing power dynamics in one aspect of translanguaging methodology — forming research relationships. It explores how, in our relationships to our fields, we might promote answerability (Patel, 2014) for the roles our fields have played in the linguistic hierarchization that translanguaging resists. Second, it explores how research relationships with participants might be made more equitable through researcher reflexivity.