Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry: Practicing the Zen of Research – Virtual Workshop
Valerie J. Janesick, Ph.D. University of South Florida, Department of Leadership, Policy, & Lifelong Learning
Hosted by The Qualitative Report at Nova Southeastern University (Virtual)
Friday, September 23, 2022
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM Eastern USA Time (1 Hour Lunch Break)
(Enrollment is limited)
Valerie J. Janesick Biography
Valerie J. Janesick, (Ph.D. Michigan State University) is Professor Emerita, a scholar, author, speaker, and internationally acclaimed researcher. Her work interrogates the theory and practice of qualitative research methods for the purpose of creating a better world. She is the author of numerous books, articles, and book chapters focusing on oral history, qualitative research design, and using the metaphor of dance and yoga to make sense of research in the public sphere. She uses the arts to interpret and analyze interview and observation data in the study of women leaders. This workshop draws upon two of her books, Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry: Practicing the Zen of Research, and Stretching Exercises for Qualitative Researchers. She is currently working on a novel set in this pandemic following the travels of a professor who does an oral history project of first responders. She remains active in reviewing articles for major journals that promote equity, critical theory, and welcome photography and poetry as pathways to analysis and interpretation. She is still hopeful that carefully crafted interviews can change the landscape of educational policy and promote leadership for a changing world.
Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry: Practicing the Zen of Research
In this workshop, participants will actively engage in understanding contemplative practices that improve the role of the qualitative researcher. Since the body is the research instrument in qualitative research, the workshop will draw upon Eastern and Western ways of thinking to improve observation, interviewing, seeing and knowing. By explaining contemplative Zen principles, we begin to inform and improve the practice of our research. Activities will include journaling as a research technique, poetry writing, and storytelling in narrative form. Intuition and creativity have long been part of Zen mantra based meditation. So too, qualitative researchers need to develop their intuition and creativity, or “Zenergy”. By doing so, qualitative researchers are enabled to see, hear and feel who participants in our studies really are, which allows for communication between the researcher and participants. This workshop will draw upon two of Janesick’s books, Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry: Practicing the Zen of Research, and Stretching Exercises for Qualitative Researchers. The overall aim of the workshop is to help researchers and researchers in training to think outside the box and continue to model a mindful approach to research. Each hour will follow a theme. These four themes include: Interviewing as an act of Compassion, Observation as Seeing, Zen journaling and poetry, and Documents, Artifacts, Photographs as data. The workshop concludes with an eightfold path for research practice.