What Constitutes Creativity in Qualitative Research Teaching?

Here is a set of related sentences:


What constitutes creativity in teaching?


What constitutes creativity in research teaching?


What constitutes creativity in qualitative research teaching?


Like stair steps, each one brings me closer to the thing that is at the heart of what I do--teach qualitative research in as creative of a manner as possible.  But, what is that? 


There is creativity in teaching and research teaching, both of which are necessary and related, but then there is creativity in qualitative research teaching. 


Before we get too much further into this conversation, I should probably mention that I love teaching qualitative research.  Maybe it is not coincidental that generally when I am teaching qualitative research, I feel I am deep in the flow of creativity.  So, it would stand to reason if I looked more closely at what feels like flow, I might gain some insight into the elusive notion of creativity in qualitative research teaching. 


When I thought about digging deeper, however, I worried that there would be nothing there specific to qualitative research.  In other words, was I simply being a creative teacher and/or a creative research teacher?  Is that really the sum total of what is needed?  But I persisted and here is a list of things I can identity as part of my practice:


1.  I like my students.
2.  I like my subject:  qualitative research. 
3.  I have been reading about it for quite some time.
4.  I like the mundane parts of my craft as well as the elevated parts, that is, the tedium of organization is as likely to get my attention as the theory, and I consider them to be related.  You can't have one without the other.
5.  I like to find new ways to put my students in charge of the doing and thinking, so I can sit back and watch them make meaning. 
6.  I don't mind trying out new or risky instructional activities.
7.  I never seem to get tired of the excitement that comes when I see students making new discoveries and shifting their understanding of what research is or could be. 
8.  I love it when students go out and find new methodology resources. 
9.  I love it when students identify and develop new efficiencies with digital tools or other items that support their research?
10.  I like teaching students how to write up qualitative research.


Looking over this list of ten items, I am hard put to see how creativity in qualitative research teaching is different than creativity in teaching.  I am not sure if that is a good thing or bad. 


To another academic year of qualitative research students, I say, "Thank You!"  It gets better year by year. 

The Beginning of My Artist's Statement

For the most recent newsletter of the Center for Women and Work, I was asked to write about the role of creativity in my life as an academic--how does creativity serve me personally and professionally.  Here is that statement.

My creative endeavors lie in the arena of fiber and mixed media.  From childhood on, I have been interested in fiber in all its forms – weaving, basketry, sewing, knitting, crocheting.  Several years ago, I discovered felt—one of the most ancient of human fiber forms-- and in doing so found a home base for my creative activities.  Felt draws on all my knowledge of fibers and their unique characteristics.  The process of felting is akin to paper making and ceramics, and felt itself can be marked upon like cloth or paper.  The possibilities seem endless to me. 

            Bringing this artistic interest in closer alignment with my ‘real job’—as a reading specialist, literacy researcher, and now qualitative research methodologist—has been a project of many decades.  Only in the last few years have I been able to formalize the relationship between the hands-on maker and the thinker/writer through the development of  ‘The Journal Project’, a study of an 18 month period of my personal journals that blends qualitative research software, arts activities, and autoethnography.  This project central to my work as a Faculty Associate at the Center for Women and Work. 

            Fiber work connects me to the deepest places in my soul.  It allows me to make tangible the issues of meaning making that are at the heart of qualitative research.  The characteristics of fiber—color, texture, twist, feltability—become tools for expression.  Fiber allows me to honor the process of inquiry, playfulness, spirituality, and the value of making.  With the culmination of ‘The Journal Project’, I am creating an art exhibit that presents felt in the context of discussions of qualitative research methodology, allowing these two powerful sources in my life to join forces.  

River:  A piece that will be shown at the International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry:  May 2011