Counterstorytelling as an Analytical Framework for Pastoral Research and Anti-racist Pastoral Care and Theology

This article addresses how critical race theory and methodology can inform narrative approaches to qualitative research in pastoral care and theology. While narrative theories in hermeneutics, psychology, and psychotherapy have been widely used in the field of pastoral theology, critical race theory has been rarely engaged, specifically in narrative approaches to pastoral care. Counterstorytelling is one of the primary theoretical and analytical frameworks that has been widely used in critical race methodology in law, education, and healthcare research. It challenges majoritarian stories that have systemically silenced the voices of people of color by creating new life-giving counterstories that honor the authentic lived experience of people of color. By reflecting on my own experience of conducting qualitative research with undocumented young adults, I examine how counterstorytelling can be used as a theoretical and methodological tool to construct justice-oriented, prophetic, and liberative functions of narrative approaches to pastoral care and theology.