Cahill’s research strategy is intimately tied to the work of Paulo Friere In the words of scholar Meredith Minkler:

    “A Freirian approach to liberation education involves a facilitated social action process in which groups come together in “culture circles” to listen to each other, engage in dialogue about the struggles in their lives and the social and historical roots of those struggles, envision and employ collective actions to create change, and reflect upon those actions as they develop further actions for change” (Minkler, 2012, pg. 66).

    Cahill and her co-researchers explicitly ground their research in this approach by first listening to the stories of undocumented students — starting with personal experiences and moving to social theorizing and action (Cahill, 2016, pg. 125).