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Reciprocity in Research and Evaluation: Conceptualizing Utang Na Loob, Pakikipagkapwa, and Alalay as Filipina American Educational Researchers

Christine Abagat Liboon (University of California Los Angeles, USA)

Rose Ann E. Gutierrez (University of Nevada, USA)

Ariana Guillermo Dimagiba (University of California Los Angeles, USA)

Theories Bridging Ethnography and Evaluation

ISBN: 978-1-83549-020-4, eISBN: 978-1-83549-019-8

Publication date: 29 November 2024

Abstract

While the concept of reciprocity has gained traction in qualitative research, especially as the term relates to challenging power dynamics inherent within the research and evaluation process, a gap remains in understanding how a researcher's or elevator's cultural background shapes the way reciprocity is conceptualized and practiced. We explore how Filipino concepts connected to reciprocity (utang na loob, pakikipagkapwa, and alalay) inform the practice of Filipina American researchers and evaluators in academia. We use Sikolohiyang Pilipino and Critical Kapwa in the conceptual framework to guide our study and employ a collaborative autoethnography (CAE) methodology. We present three findings: (1) reciprocity and utang na loob as a nontransactional debt, (2) reciprocity and pakikipagkapwa as seeing the humanity in others, and (3) reciprocity and alalay as carrying the weight together. We discuss this study's implications – regarding theorizing reciprocity, using collaborative autoethnography as methodology, and reclaiming deeper ways of knowing from a critical perspective – for transforming evaluation and research practice. Specifically, through a collaborative autoethnography, we learned the importance of understanding the nuances of language (i.e., Tagalog and other Filipino languages) as a decolonizing approach to arriving at our analysis of pakikipagkapwa through kuwentuhan. Methodologies that attend to a culturally responsive evaluation and research practice – –such as CAE and kuwentuhan– – amplify the voices of silenced communities. Lastly, deeply understanding the cultural context of evaluators' and researchers' experiences and cultural identities as well as studying oneself through a collaborative autoethnography can create practices of reciprocity that have been buried by settler colonialism.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Mindelyn Anderson, Tita Nenita Pambid Domingo, Tito Reuben Domingo, Tina Christie, and Carola Suárez-Orozco for supporting us in writing this chapter. Our colleagues and friends, Elaine Jessica Tamargo, Erin Manalo-Pedro, and Vickie Cabrera, thank you for your insights. Ma. Irene Quilantang, thank you for your direction towards Sikolohiyang Pilipino and Pilipino scholarship. Most of all, thank you to the Pinay scholars and evaluators who contributed their time, thoughts, and hearts to reflect, reshape, and make sense of our worlds through the survey. To the editors. Melissa R. Goodnight and Rodney Hopson, thank you for believing in our work by accepting our chapter for this special issue. May we continue the journey towards healing and liberation in evaluation scholarship.

Citation

Liboon, C.A., Gutierrez, R.A.E. and Dimagiba, A.G. (2024), "Reciprocity in Research and Evaluation: Conceptualizing Utang Na Loob, Pakikipagkapwa, and Alalay as Filipina American Educational Researchers", Goodnight, M.R. and Hopson, R. (Ed.) Theories Bridging Ethnography and Evaluation (Studies in Educational Ethnography, Vol. 20), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 105-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-210X20240000020011

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited