The aim of this study is to present how critical discourse analysis was used to enhance social justice among teenaged mothers. Critical discourse analysis was used to promote critical dialogue between the socially legitimate structures and the marginalized teenaged mothers to deconstruct text and discourses that perpetuate social injustice. The study is anchored on community engagement. Data was generated with seven teenaged mothers, parents, and community leaders. Individual interviews, focus group discussions, and reflections were used to generate data with co-researchers. The study found that when teenaged mothers are exposed to social marginalization, they are denied the needed support in the development of personal, cultural, and social skills. Through critical dialogue, social text and discourses were deconstructed to co-create contextual and shared meaning leading to social justice for the marginalized teenaged mothers. The study concludes that critical discourse analysis is most appropriate in studies with youth or marginalized groups.
TopTheoretical Background
Social justice is a term connected to human rights issues categorized by basic human needs, diversity, non-discrimination, equality, and a group or community issue characterized by discrimination, oppression, inhibiting, or marginalization (Bhagwan, 2017; Hunter, 2010). Within methodological discussions for qualitative research, social justice is both an objective to be achieved through empirical inquiry as well as a responsibility in facilitating equity during such inquiry. In other words, it is not merely sufficient to effect social justice through discussion of research within unjust environments. Rather, research must itself be socially just for the benefit of research participants and the contexts in which they occupy.
Naturally, this has generated various narratives related to research with vulnerable participants, whether in health research (Nordentoft & Kappel, 2011) or in research conducted in conflict zones (Krause, 2021). Issues of power dynamics and reflexivity within the relationship between researcher and subject not only influence the data collection process but also raise questions as to how to interact with those in the field without inflicting harm or otherwise placing others in jeopardy. This has led to important scholarship on ethics approval (Mapedzahama & Dune, 2017), informed consent (Murphy & Dingwall, 2007), and anonymity (Duclos, 2019) with respect to engaged research methodologies requiring direct interaction with research participants.
Much of the research cited thus far relates to methodological measures intended to protect research participants from harm. While these, in fact, preserve social justice by preventing unjust consequences, the contemporary research devotes less focus to the act of research directly facilitating a more socially just environment for the research participants involved. Particularly as the researcher is the primary instrument of data collection within engaged research methodologies, research participants can and should benefit from the sensitizing nature of qualitative research (Robey & Taylor, 2018) if the researcher can identify and address social injustices encountered while in the field. If a primary goal of qualitative critical researchers is to effect social justice, exploring this aspect of qualitative fieldwork can provide useful guidance to researchers interacting with vulnerable research participants.