1,721,038 research outputs found
Facing the challenges of writing : finding courage and conviction
No full textIn 1999 I had my first single-authored book chapter to write. It took me six weeks of procrastination, cleaning, walking, eating, agonising, writing and re-writing and boring the pants off anyone who would talk to me about it. When I re-read that first sole-authored book chapter, I still quite liked it, wouldn't change too much if I had my time over. But I have moved on. I am no longer stuck in a black hole when it comes to writing, although from time to time a large one momentarily drifts into my gaze. In this chapter I want to write about what has helped me, and the numerous other writer/researchers I have worked with, to move on. I do this by including some of my writing from "Black holes". In reading the old chapter and thinking this new chapter through I realised that what had helped me to move on and write more easily was: firstly, having some understanding of writer's block or stuck-ness; secondly, self-consciously seeing writing about research as writing and about myself as a writer; thirdly, finding my scholarly writing-researching friends who have helped me to theorise and understand the why and the how of writing; and finally, seeing writing as taking action which requires courage
Writing collaboratively
No full textOur desire as social researchers has been to self-consciously involve ourselves in the spirit of people's lives as participant-observers in order to effect personal, organisational and/or social change. The work we have done together has had a political intent and is firmly located within the critical paradigm of qualitative research. By that we mean that, to paraphrase Marx, the reason we seek to understand the world (or a phenomenon) is to change it. And, to be even bolder, we want change to happen as part of the research process. We realise at this stage in our lives that this is a rather grand, maybe arrogant, claim. Nevertheless, this was our position. The type of research we have done has usually been collaborative and participatory, where we have striven to be inclusive and democratic in both the doing and the writing about the doing of research. Researching this way raises all manner of interesting epistemological questions: Whose and what types of knowledge counts? Whose interests does the research serve? Who designs the research questions? Who asks the questions and how? Who answers, who interprets and how? Who writes and how? Who decides the answers to these questions? In this chapter we begin to explore these questions by using three different stories illustrating both our successes and mistakes in collaborative research and writing practices
Celebrating writing
No full textIn this chapter we reflect on writing qualitative research on practice. We do this by distilling from previous chapters the essential richness and diversity of enacting and celebrating the act of writing. We identify key features of writing and demonstrate that the process of qualitative writing generates valuable by-products, particularly growth and development. In the very act of writing we are able to learn many things: about our subjects, the writing process itself and, importantly, about ourselves
Re-claiming social purpose and adding values to the world around us
No full textThe Western obsession with productivity has brought the world to a crisis that we can escape only with a radical break from the headlong rush for “more, always more” in the financial realm as well as in science and technology. It is high time that concerns for ethics, justice and sustainability prevail. For we are threatened by the most serious dangers, which have the power to bring the human experiment to an end by making the planet uninhabitable.
We are rather angry that we have to write about re-claiming social purpose and adding value to the world. It is, to say the least, distressing. It disrupts and challenges our beliefs in the emancipatory agenda of the educational project and it destabilises any ideas of having made some sort of contribution to “the better society”. It speaks to the fact that we may have failed, or at least not worked hard enough. Our whole sense of purpose has been to make a difference, to pursue social good, to add value not only to the world around us but to the people around us. A rather grandiose notion you may say. Possibly. But it has been the ethical and moral compass of our work. We share the moral outrage of Hessel (2011). Perhaps it is time for such outrage
Thinking the unthinkable : challenges of imagining and engaging with unimaginable practice futures
No full textWhat might practice and work look like in a range of possible futures? This is the central question posed by this book. It seems a straightforward question that simply requires some anticipation of how the world might change and what roles practice might play in different future worlds. But asking this seemingly simple question causes us to confront some powerful limitations of human thinking processes. In some ways, it challenges us – both the authors of this book and its readers, as members of societies that are creating, and preparing for, possible futures – to think in ways that we normally find unthinkable. In this chapter, we will consider evidence suggesting that human brains have evolved powerful ways to avoid engaging with complex and uncertain questions like “What might the future be like?” We will consider many implications of this avoidance, including powerful ideas that go largely unchallenged and so leave humanity vulnerable to inevitable surprises, many of which will be undesirable and even potentially catastrophic (Schwartz, 2003). We will touch on some aspects of societal governance that inhibit thinking about unthinkable possibilities, but we will also give examples of processes by which groups of people can help, and are helping, one another to break free of thinking constraints to make us better prepared for what the future might hold. And, of course, we will discuss what all this might mean for our focal question about the possible futures of practice
Creative research re-presentations
No full textJoy, Hi. Glad I got you. I’ve been thinking about that chapter we have to write for the Creative Spaces in Qualitative Researching book. I’m thinking we could build on our writings around The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago (1996). Judy’s aim was to foreground women who had been inspirational for her, but were not hugely well known. It was an instalment piece of art
Telling people's stories : creating authentic approaches
No full textAngie: Debbie, we need to clarify what we mean by “stories”. Debbie: Yes, it’s a rather slippery term; I find it quite hard to say what I mean. I can say that I don’t mean using the actual mode and structure of the story as a research method. I don’t mean any particular methodology. Angie: Definitely not for me either, although it is for some researchers. Perhaps it would be easier if we explained how we have used stories in our research. In my thesis I used stories: first, they were a means for getting at what participants know consciously and can readily express about the phenomenon being studied or their experiences of it
Boundary riding and shaping research spaces
No full textWhen we talk about boundaries in this chapter, we mean rules, conventions or taken-for-granted assumptions about the way “research is done”, because historically they have served the purposes of the people conducting the research. In our experience, staying within established boundaries, which are often quite heavily guarded, can seem safer than riding or crossing them. There are many examples in research of staying with the boundaries, re-producing the same methodologies and methods. Sometimes this is the most useful sort of researching to be doing. There are times, however, when it is more useful and creative to cross, blur and even ignore the way things have been done before, especially when concerned with a research agenda that seeks change at personal, organisational or societal levels
Creative research landscapes and gardens : reviewing options and opportunities
No full textWhat is creative research? Isn’t all research creative? Well, yes it is, in the sense that all research is attempting to create new knowledge and understanding, but no, in that it may follow formulaic rather than creative research methodologies and methods. When we research with people and about people interacting in and with their social and life worlds, and when we are also concerned with bringing about change and transformation of self, others, groups, cultures, systems, practices and organisations simultaneously with knowledge creation, then formulaic approaches are unlikely to be sufficient
The gendered battlefield : creating feminist spaces in military places
No full textWe are both what could loosely be described as pacifist women. We belong to peaceful activist organisations; we have taught subjects at university that focus on peace studies. We have joined marches for peace in Australia and overseas, signed petitions, refused to smack our children, and helped write policies against bullying. We have tended to hang out with other like-minded women and we have held the belief that patriarchy, by definition, is violent: that the way the patriarchal system maintains its global dominance is primarily through aggression and/or the threat of aggression. We have known each other now for 15 years, but in the context of this chapter we came together as PhD candidate (Donna) and supervisor (Debbie). The research Donna undertook as part of her PhD (Bridges, 2005)., a qualitative study using feminist methodology about the experience of women with the masculine culture of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), forms the bedrock of this chapter. The chapter is about the benefits and challenges involved in a working relationship created by us as university academics and the organisation of the ADF
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