4: Research Design for Possibility-Oriented Inquiry

David, a Black male doctoral candidate in sociology at Howard University, carried his community’s experiences into his research. His dissertation proposal, born from personal observation and scholarly urgency, aimed to dissect the “school-to-prison pipeline” for Black boys in his hometown. His central research question was critical but grim: “What are the key school-based disciplinary practices and neighborhood-level risk factors that predict Black male students’ entry into the juvenile justice system?” He planned to collect suspension data and arrest records to build a robust predictive model illustrating the pathway to incarceration, aiming to arm advocates with evidence of systemic failure.

However, as David began his preliminary fieldwork with youth mentors and community educators, a tension emerged. While the pipeline’s realities were undeniable, he also encountered stories of resistance, resilience, and redirection. He met young men who, despite multiple suspensions, found a mentor or an after-school program that effectively derailed their predicted trajectory. He saw under-funded community centers acting as oases of hope. His initial research question, focused on predicting entry into the pipeline, suddenly felt insufficient. It charted despair with precision but offered little insight into how to build exits. David found himself at a crossroads familiar to many justice-oriented scholars: How could his work move beyond documenting the grim “what is” to actively illuminating the “what could be”—the pathways to positive futures that already existed within his community?