QI ‘inc.

This Monday in September brings morning rain and adds a blush of autumn color to the Ash tree’s leaves outside my window. Today I am thinking about Laurel Richardson and Elizabeth Adams St. Pierre’s chapter: Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 959-978. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. I decided to start my blog again after reading Richardson’s work. I wanted a place to go where I could combine my narrative voice with my research. I feel like I am expanding beyond just using portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot, 1997).

I was so excited to find Richardson’s work because she speaks to honoring one’s own voice. She writes, “The more different voices are honored within our qualitative community, the stronger- and more interesting – that community will be” (p. 959). Richardson encourages writing as a method of inquiry and explains how one writes and evaluates a CAP ethnography – Creative Analytical Processes (CAP) ethnography.

In CAP ethnography, the researcher “crystallizes” the research by writing in a way that “draws from literary, artistic, and scientific genres” (Richardson, p. 963). She evaluates CAP ethnographies on four high standards: 1.) Substantive contribution; 2.) Aesthetic merit; 3.) Reflexivity; 4.) Impact. The questions she writes in the section are worth reading again.

Further in the chapter, Richardson asks the questions: “How can I make my writing matter? How can I write to help speed into this world a democratic project of social justice?” (p. 967). These are the questions that I will take with me into the week of inquiry.