Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss how the intersection of qualitative inquiry and poetic-inquiry grounded in arts-based research allows me to construct knowledge about self and the transnational shuttling of two female graduate students from India during their first year of education in the United States. Resonating with the participants’ experiences, I describe the messiness of being an insider-outsider researcher and use arts-based research to portray the in/visible forms of voice, silence, and secrets. Specifically, I play with poetic representation to blur the boundaries between the researcher and the researched while integrating multiple forms of arts-based ways of collecting data that explore how silence and secrets function in the lives of transnational females. Calling for an integration of arts-based epistemologies, I emphasize the need to conceptualize arts-based approaches not just at the data representation stage in qualitative inquiry but throughout the entire qualitative research process.

Keywords

poetic inquiry arts-based research transnationalism

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Educational Research Association. (2008, July 11). Definition of scientifically based research. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.aera.net/Portals/38/docs/About_AERA/KeyPrograms/DefinitionofScientificallyBasedResearch.pdf

Angelou

(1981/1993). Poems. New York: Bantam Books.

Barone

, & Eisner

(1997). Arts-based educational research. In Jaegar

R. M.

, & Barone

(Eds.), Complementary methods for research in education (2nd ed., pp. 72–116). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

Barone

, & Eisner

(2006). Arts-based educational research. In Green

J. L.

, Camilli

, & Elmore

P. B.

(Eds.), Handbook of complementary methods in education research (pp. 95–109. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Bhattacharya

(in press). Cirque du silence: Acrobatics of a transnational female academic. Cultural Studies <—> Critical Methodologies. doi:10.1177/1532708612468871

Bhattacharya

(2007). Voices lost and found: Using found poetry in qualitative research. In Cahnmann-Taylor

, & Siegesmund

(Eds.), Arts-based research in education: Foundations for practice (pp. 83–88). New York: Routledge.

Bhattacharya

(2009). Negotiating shuttling between transnational experiences: A del colonizing performance ethnography. Qualitative Inquiry, 15, 1061–1083. doi:10.1177/1077800409332746

Butler-Kisber

(2008). Collage as inquiry. In Knowles

J. G.

, & Cole

A. L.

(Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research (pp. 265–276). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Cahnmann

(2003). The craft, practice, and possibility of poetry in educational research. Educational Researcher, 32(3), 29–36. doi:10.3102/0013189X032003029

10.

Cahnmann

(2006). Reading, living, and writing bilingual poetry as ScholARTistry in the language arts classroom. Language Arts, 83, 342–352.

11.

Cahnmann

(2008). Arts-based approaches to inquiry in language education. In King

, & Hornberger

N. H.

(Eds.), Encyclopedia of Language Education (Vol. 10, pp. 243–254). Kluwer: Springer Science and Business Media.

12.

Chawla

(2011). Between solids/monologues in brown: A mystory performance. Critical Studies <—> Critical Methodologies, 11, 47–58. doi:10.1177/1532708610386921

13.

Eisner

E. W.

(Ed.). (1976). The arts, human development and education. Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.

14.

Finley

(2011). Critical arts-based inquiry: The pedagogy and performance of radical ethical aesthetic. In Denzin

N. K.

, & Lincoln

Y. S.

(Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (4th ed., pp. 435–450). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

15.

Kingston

M. H.

(2002). To be the poet. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

16.

Kinzie

(1999). A poet's guide to poetry. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

17.

Lee

(1995). Poetry and unknowing. In Lilburn

(Ed.), Poetry and knowing: Speculative essays and interviews (pp. 29–44). Kingston, ON: Quarry Press.

18.

Leggo

(2008). Astonishing silence: Knowing in poetry. In Knowles

J. G.

, & Cole

A. L.

(Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research (pp. 165–174). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

19.

Lowitz

(2000). Yoga poems: Lines to unfold by. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press.

20.

Norum

K. E.

(2000). School patterns: A sextet. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 13, 239–250. doi:10.1080/09518390050019659

21.

Pelias

(2004). A methodology of the heart: Evoking academic and daily life. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

22.

Peters

(2008). Red, white, and brown [Television special]. New York: Comedy Central.

23.

Saldaña

(2003). Dramatizing data: A primer. Qualitative Inquiry, 9, 218–236. doi:10.1177/1077800402250932

24.

Sinner

, Leggo

, Irwin

R. L.

, Gouzouasis

, & Grauer

(2006). Arts-based educational research dissertations: Reviewing the practices of new scholars. Canadian Journal of Education, 29, 1223–1270.

25.

Smith

L. T.

(1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous people. New York: Zed Books.

26.

Sullivan

(2005). Art practice as research: Inquiry in the visual arts. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Voices,Silences,and Telling Secrets

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References