Writing to Know: A Pathway to Self, Others, and the Social World

• In Event: Writing and the Articulation of Qualitative Research

Abstract

We engage with the idea of writing as a means of inquiry (Ellis, 2004; Goodall, 2000), and, in so doing, position our collaborative writing process as a way to know. Positioning ourselves as active producers of knowledge (Richardson, 1997), we begin the chapter by sharing three presuppositions we bring to our conceptualization of writing as a way of knowing in qualitative inquiry. First, we position writing as central to our work as qualitative researchers, recognizing that it is (often) part of our data collection process, our unpacking of our social locations and where they rest/lie in relation to our research, our sharing of findings, and our contribution to producing the social world. Second, we argue that as writers-knowers we are always already trafficking in certain versions of the social world (Potter, 1996), and, in so doing, are responsible (at least in part) for the world we produce when we describe, interpret, and critique social phenomena (Noblit, Flores, & Murrillo, 2004). Finally, we position our writing-knowing as partial (Noblit et al., 2004), and, as such, recognize that much remains untold (Krog, 1998). Following this framing, we discuss our individual and collaborative writing journeys. Borrowing from Habermas’ notion of lifeworld, we discuss how co-production/co-authoring is a way to explore another’s lifeworld and thereby expand our lifeworlds. We conclude the chapter by overviewing our routinized writing practices, offering pragmatic suggestions for how qualitative researchers might orient to the process of writing to know.

Authors

• Jessica Nina Lester, Indiana University Bloomington
  Presenting Author

• Pei-Jung Li, Indiana University
  Presenting Author