https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2568-4712
ABSTRACT
This paper illuminates a method of representation of research methodologies and philosophical positioning expressed through the use of poetics, allowing for a more playful space for critical reflection in qualitative research. Methodologies and ontological and epistemological positioning can take on many forms within the research process and can pose a conundrum for the novice researcher. During my exploration for a suitable methodology whilst I undertook a Professional Doctorate in Health and Wellbeing there emerged a selection of poems debating the merits, in addition to the limitations, of the potential options available; all dependent on the philosophical stance I chose to embrace. Within this process, I was encouraged to use this art-based method of poetic expression within the doctoral trajectory which continued throughout the journey to facilitate reflexivity.
Introduction
Cross and Holyoake (Citation2017, p. 535) purport that “poetic thinking functions pedagogically, helping students find a critical voice to enliven and hone their reflexive writing in relation to their doctoral experience and their research positioning”. The process of writing poems to make sense of the information being presented enabled a synopsis of the focus of the taught aspects of the doctorate to be reassembled in poetic form, allowing for an analysis of the methodologies and philosophical positions available to me as a researcher. These were written in the first person due to the reflexive nature of the consideration, rather than engaging in the depersonalisation of the author. My presence is evident through the poetic interpretations which may provide a form of Aristotelian catharsis for the reader (Aristotle, Citation2013).
Whilst poetry can be employed in research as the data source, for analysing the data or presenting the findings, it can be utilised reflexively during the research process (Fitzpatrick & Fitzpatrick, Citation2020). Poetics as an artful method served as a means of capturing the salient aspects of the topic under scrutiny and assisted the recursive reflexive process that is involved in mindful practice to deepen reflexivity (Skukauskaite et al., Citation2021). As Pelias (Citation2018) calls it, “poetising theory”, allowed me to understand difficult concepts which may additionally provide an explication for others to make sense of the ontological and epistemological quandaries that the researcher endeavours.
As a qualitative researcher, the idea of using a quantitative methodology went against the grain but a deliberation of the benefits ensued when attempting to strip back my previous assumptions in order to enter the endeavour with an open mind, especially due to the prolific use of randomised controlled trials (RCT) in the subject area of focus. The poem below was written in response to a lecture on quantitative research during the taught element of the professional doctorate.
Applying the scientific method to the exploration of phenomena juxtaposed the intentions of the investigation when I recognised that the previous attempts to provide the evidence to support the subject area proved to be futile. This suggested that the application of this approach would identify a collective truth, which seemed disingenuous to my developing philosophical stance. Recognising that the lived experience was more enticing than proving an aspect of the chosen subject under scrutiny with quantitative methods led to further exploration where interpretivism and naturalistic inquiry beckoned.
Phenomenology appealed for a while as this methodology seemed appropriate for exploring the human lived experience. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) had become a popular methodology in my research arena so seemed worthy of investigation. However, the notion of “science of experiences” (Van Manen, Citation1990) did not appeal once I gained a greater depth of knowledge of the concept. The goal of phenomenology being to reduce individual experiences of a phenomenon to a description of the universal essence or a “grasp of the very nature of the thing” (Van Manen, Citation1990, p. 177) did not sit within the anti-essentialist ontology of social constructionism that I had started to explore and to which I later subscribed (Burr, Citation2015). The notion of identifying a phenomenon or an “object” of human experience within this methodology, I found, contradicted my ontological assumptions.
Grounded theory was another methodology under scrutiny, appealing for a time yet dismissed despite the possible fit for the study with its inductive approach. However, it seemed that even the originators of this method could not agree on the process, with Glaser criticising the deductive element, speculating what might be with the expectation of asking numerous questions rather than focussing on what exists in the data (Glaser, Citation1992). The question I asked in my deliberation was whether in the analysis a Straussian or Glaserian approach should be used. With Glaser and Strauss (Citation1967) original ideas positioned in a post-positivist paradigm, this seemed inappropriate to my assumptions surrounding the nature of being and the way in which knowledge is acquired. However, Mead’s (Citation1934) concept of sociality which is influential in this methodology suggests that a phenomenon can be several things at once with grounded theory’s aim being to explore diversity of experience (Health & Cowley, Citation2004). The notion of “emergence” which can be applied in many ways for example, from a post-positivist, a constructionist, or an interpretivist stance (Levers, Citation2013) captured my curiosity and the idea that researchers are seen as social beings within the research process when applying the ideas of symbolic interaction seized my attention.
A seduction by the methodology of ethnography ensued which seemed like a more congruent approach to explore lived experience. Whilst undertaking the taught aspect of the doctorate, I attended a lecture by Dr Martin Glynn, a criminologist who used this methodology for his PhD. His work focused on the meanings that black men gave to their lived experiences in relation to the racialisation of crime and criminal justice systems and its impact on the desistance process (Glynn, Citation2014). This led to my poem below, and the enticement towards the methodology of ethnography directed me to the idea of an auto-ethnography. My subsequent research did not claim to use an ethnographic methodology, although the autobiographic aspect could align with an autoethnographic approach (Ellis et al., Citation2010).
The discovery of Narrative Inquiry (Clandinin & Huber, Citation2010; Frank, Citation2012; Leggo, Citation2008; Remenyi, Citation2005; Trahar, Citation2009; Wang & Geale, Citation2015) as a methodology was the “spark from heaven” that led to the ultimate choice. Storytelling struck a chord and seemed congruent to the research. Having taught in a university for 16 years, I began to see how storytelling had become part of my teaching and students seemed more fully engaged when linking a theory to a story.
Whilst exploring possible methodologies that could be utilised in a doctoral study the importance of ontological and epistemological positioning became more apparent. The theory of knowledge or epistemological stance portrayed in social constructionism resonated. The idea of jointly constructed understandings of the world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality seemed more harmonious for the philosophical positioning for the potential research for the doctorate. This ruled out IPA which had been the popular methodology in my subject area when utilising a qualitative approach.
To fully understand the underpinning ideas of social constructionism, it was necessary to uncover the key principles around structuralism and post-structuralism which surround this position. Two poems were developed to condense these ideas into understanding to build a framework for analysis of the data which I created for my research.
Structuralism has been defined as
“an intellectual movement developed in Europe from the early to mid-20th century which argued that human culture may be understood by means of a structure, modelled on language (i.e., structural linguistics) that differs from concrete reality and from abstract ideas, a ‘third order’ that mediates between the two” (Deleuze, Citation2002, p. 171).
The notion of the sign, signifier and signified introduced by Saussure plays an important role in the movement where meaning is created by the production of binary opposites or the relationship between the signs (Barthes, Citation1972). So, in order to understand post-structuralism, it was important to comprehend structuralism as it stems from these original ideas.
Post-structuralism is the intellectual movement which followed during the 1960s, which challenged the notion of culture being understood by means of a structure modelled by language (Harcourt, Citation2007). This way of thinking recognised that text can be interpreted in many different ways and no longer is the reader passive in the activity. Once more, to decipher the concept of post-structuralism it was useful to condense the key aspects in rhyme.
Post-structuralism has been defined by Butler (Citation1990, p. 40) as the rejection of “the claims of totality and universality and the presumption of binary structural oppositions that implicitly operate to quell the insistent ambiguity and openness of linguistic and cultural signification”. It has been said that post-structuralism “frames power not simply as one aspect of society but as the basis of society” (Denzin & Lincoln, Citation2008, p. 416). Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) was the main protagonist within post-structural thinking, and the ideas around deconstruction seemingly positioned with some of the dilemmas I was recognising in my subject area. The idea of analysis or interpretation is not the focus and instead of finding a truth, the text must be unravelled, and contradictions need to be uncovered with binary oppositions exposed in order to be subverted according to Derrida (Citation2016). Notions of structuralism and post-structuralism and how they related to my subject area were discovered and an emerging cultural and dialogical account then offered other possibilities, rather than affording truth claims which could not be supported with evidence accepted by science.
Once the lens of post-structuralism had been assumed, it was then a matter of aligning the research to this worldview. When undertaking qualitative research, there is a focus on reflexivity to address trustworthiness. This replaces validity seen in quantitative research but is not simply a safeguard against subjective bias (Cousin, Citation2013). Objectivity is not a requirement within a naturalistic paradigm as the subjective aspect becomes part of the co-construction of the research (Clandinin & Connelly, Citation2000). From a social constructionist perspective, it is understood that the structures in society exist by human agreement (Barthes, Citation1977; Baudrillard, Citation1994; Derrida, Citation2016; Searle, Citation1995). Yet, there is a tendency for society to want to label things and as a result, agreements are made within a set of relations, traditions, or communities about what “something” is (Gergen, Citation2014). Hosking and Pluut (Citation2010) suggest that within a relational constructionist framework which differs from some versions of social constructivist and social constructionism, rather than gaining knowledge about assumed interior and external worlds, they explore the idea of an “ontology of becoming”, rather than the more usual “ontology of being” (Hosking & Pluut, Citation2010, p. 60). This notion suggests evolving or emerging socially constructed realities of which there are many.
Searle (Citation1995) asserts that there is also a distinction to be made between epistemic subjective-objective and ontological subjective-objective. Epistemically, where knowledge can either be objective or subjective. For example, objectively, The Beatles reached No. 1 in the UK charts on 2 May 1963 with “From Me to You”, or subjectively, The Beatles are the best band ever. Whereas ontologically “objective” and “subjective” are predicates of entities and types of entities and they assign modes of existence according to Searle (Citation1995). Ontologically, pain can be seen as subjective as its existence depends on being felt, whereas mountains are objective as their mode of existence is independent of the perceiver or any mental state. I concur with Searle (Citation1995) that the subjective-objective debate is multifarious as to whether it is viewed epistemically or ontologically. From a social constructionist stance, it may seem impossible to achieve objectivity with this in mind.
Denzin and Lincoln (Citation2008) suggest that reflexivity, especially within the post-structural paradigm concerning quality in qualitative research, requires that we question each of our selves and explore the binaries, contradictions, and paradoxes within. I used reflexivity to interrogate these multiple realities and lay bare the many selves I bring to my research. The poems embedded throughout demonstrate the nature of this recursive method and enabled a truthful authenticity, inspired by the reflective models of Schön (Citation1987) and Johns (Citation2004). Mandler (Citation2018, p. 7) refers to the “second language of poetics” which forces the paradoxical poem to shunt the reader into a deeper level of scrutiny, and as Shange suggests, a poem should fill you up with “something”, or “awaken an emotional response within the reader”. The personal connection with the poem is emblematic of this authenticity.
I recognised through the deliberation of epistemological and ontological positions, that when utilising post-structural narrative inquiry within a study, it was not necessary to employ the post-positivist criteria for rigour in qualitative research such as credibility (corresponding to internal validity in quantitative approaches), transferability (external validity or generalizability), dependability (reliability), and confirmability (objectivity) that may be expected (Denzin & Lincoln, Citation2008). Instead, I proposed to achieve the five dimensions of authenticity (fairness, ontological authenticity, educative authenticity, catalytic authenticity, and tactical authenticity) in interpretivist/constructivist/constructionist research which can be demonstrated by displaying several varying viewpoints and depth of understanding that fairly represents these perspectives (Shannon & Hambacher, Citation2014). Therefore, to ensure fairness, prolonged engagement, persistent observation, reflexivity, and member checking are fundamental (Shannon & Hambacher, Citation2014). High levels of reflexivity were required in this endeavour due to the nature of my inquiry so that bias, which is inherent, is then recognised and discussed, opening up new perspectives and possibilities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the process of meandering though the potential methodologies and philosophical positions allowed for an authentic approach to the research. By poetising the differing methodological options and concepts, I was able to thoroughly explore the nature of each one and decide whether this was a suitable method within the research journey. Interrogating the use of a quantitative approach, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and narrative inquiry and discovering the possible world views that could be adopted to align the research illuminated the most appropriate design. The poetic approach allowed for a deepened reflexivity in the research process which others may wish to replicate for their research trajectory.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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