Research, teaching, and cultural humility

Acknowledgements

Dr. Hancock commits to the ongoing process of cultural humility—being aware of one’s own values and beliefs and how they interact with those of others. This can be uncomfortable, particularly as one discovers the harm that particular worldviews they hold can bring. Yet it is critical for healing and preventing further harm (this link provides an example for researchers).

Clinical and social sciences are not objective, thus it is imperative that we be willing to reflect on the many and dynamic ways personal context may interact with professional practice. In some cases it can be useful to disclose those interactions. More rationale and instructions for how to do so are in this guide to writing a reflexivity statement, and this article is instructive and discusses insider vs. outsider influence on research. Ideally these would be disclosed in discussion in order to avoid assumptions and misunderstandings.

Dr. Hancock (she/her) is a Jesus-following, white European, straight, cisgender woman in the United States—among other things less relevant to this website. Tremendous harm to people outside of these groups is caused by people inside of these groups, so conscious consideration of these worldviews impacting the work presented here is needed. Dr. Hancock continues to learn from and partner with people who shed light on the intricacies of culture in interactions and bring additional worldviews to the work. It is her hope that any privilege from these parts of her identity or her position as a professor at a university is used to increase understanding and equitable treatment of marginalized communities, without taking away opportunities for voices of LGBTQIA+ people to be heard.