Conference Program

In this article, I want to discuss how I grappled with listening as an ethical relational practice in my research on the belonging of youth of color at an urban Dutch pre-vocational secondary education school. As an immigrant researcher of color, I noticed how my ability to receive the experiences of students in my research was shaped by my own implicit expectations, such as concerning their future aspirations. Drawing on the insights of Anastas and colleagues (2025), I approach listening in my research an instrument for caring for and witnessing the diverse stories of youth of color that are often silenced by dominant power structures. This is particularly important for addressing our responsibility as researchers in challenging unethical and extractive research practices that seek ownership. I illustrate through two guiding themes and empirical examples how I aimed to engage in the work of 1: listening beyond damage and 2: listening to wisdom in my research. First, by paying attention not only to the stories of pain and discrimination but also to experiences of belonging and joy in school, I looked for ways of listening beyond damage, following Eve Tuck (2009), to understand the complexity of how youth of color experience schooling. Having previously researched racism and discrimination experiences of youth in education, shifting my orientation towards stories and feelings of belonging in school has challenged but also expanded my capacity to listen in ways I was not prepared for. Second, listening to the wisdom meant witnessing how the youth engaged in a critical analysis of the dehumanization and belonging they experienced across different schools, and openness to the ways they envisioned their professional futures, even when these did not align with societal notions of success. Overall, this work seeks to expand conversation on ethical and caring ways of doing qualitative research through otherwise listening of the layered and diverse stories of youth in contexts of educational and systemic inequities.

Bio: F. Zehra Çolak is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer working on educational inequities and youth belonging. Her research lies at the intersection of sociology, education, and psychology and draws on the insights of critical theories to trace how justice-oriented pedagogies and belonging emerge as situated practices across urban school classrooms and community-based spaces. Through collaborative and participatory research, her work explores alternative ways of engaging with communities and youth marginalized by dominant power structures.

Institution: Utrecht University, Department of Education

Email: f.z.colak@uu.nl