Exploring and Making Meaning of White Spaces Through Narrative Inquiry: Three Educational Researchers' Stories

• In Event: 63.084 - Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: 63.084-14 - Living Research Narratives

Abstract

In this paper we interweave via hermeneutic mode of reading three stories of unique lived-through experiences to gain in-depth understanding of our practices as educational researchers. We conceptualize stories as white spaces within which we stumbled; where experiences diverged. These spaces could be labeled as failures or explored. Narrating our experiences, we examine white spaces that could lead to transformation and furtherance of educational research towards engagement, social justice, and human freedom. Narrative inquiry and phenomenological understanding comprise our story telling and reading theoretical framework. Viewing educational research as an ongoing and self-and-co-reflective engagement process gives voices to silenced moments; brings more experiences to critical scrutiny; and contributes to “new critical dispositions towards research and teaching” (Dimitriadis, 2012, p. xi).

Authors

• Elena Yu Polush, Ball State University

• Jayne R. Beilke, Ball State University

• Gilbert C. Park, Ball State University