Decolonizing Approaches to Family Science as Intersectional Latinx and Caribbean Scholars

ABSTRACT The field of human development and family science is broadening the scope for what is deemed legitimate science; however, the voices of Latinx and Caribbean scholars have been largely absent. We contend that it is not sufficient to merely disrupt hegemonic worldviews and practices in the production of knowledge, but it is also necessary to center our ways of knowing as Latinx and Caribbean scholars and practitioners. In this paper, we utilize our sentipensar and third order thinking as intersectional feminist Latinx and Caribbean scholars to approach decolonizing research methods as a form of third order change. We review decolonizing efforts in academia, the effects of colonization in the Americas and the Caribbean and situate our positionalities as context for our work. We describe six stances for engaging sentipensar and third order thinking to illustrate how we respond to our sociopolitical contexts and work toward transformative third order change.