Intentionality and Serendipity in Practitioner Research: Data Collection in the “Spaces-in-Between”

• In Event: Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: Rethinking the Interview

Abstract

Practitioner research emerges from, as it speaks back to, one’s practice. When practitioners conduct research, valuable data can emerge from serendipitous and unlikely places – in addition to the data one intentionally collects – that are embedded in everyday practice. Through interviews, this research asks practitioner researchers critical questions: How do practitioners discover/acknowledge serendipitous data sources? Is casual conversation not recorded, data? Is it ethical to view/not view it as such? Aren’t these questions artificial since these data inform the researcher’s interpretations and therefore frame data analysis and ensuing theoretical arguments? This research suggests frameworks and practices useful to conducting research in the “spaces-in-between” and explores the implications of this for the conceptualization and design of qualitative research more broadly.

Authors

• Andy Danilchick, University of Pennsylvania

• Sharon M. Ravitch, University of Pennsylvania