Creative Combinations in Qualitative Inquiry

In Qualitative Inquiry: Thematic, Narrative and Arts-Informed Perspectives, Lynn Butler-Kisber offers students of qualitative research a valuable resource that provides useful foundational information about both traditional and arts-based qualitative methods. At the same time, by bringing a discussion of these various methodological approaches together into one text, the book inspires possibilities for creative combinations in qualitative research design. Key Words: Qualitative Inquiry, Methodology, Thematic, Narrative, and Arts-Based Research As someone preparing to teach a course in Qualitative Research Design this summer, I consider the publication of Qualitative Inquiry: Thematic, Narrative and Arts- Informed Perspectives by Lynn Butler-Kisber (2010) an example of cosmic good timing. There are many excellent resources for students and faculty of qualitative research methodology to draw upon, but Butler-Kisber's new book offers something unique among the books written as introductory texts in qualitative research by drawing together both traditional and art-based approaches to qualitative inquiry in one tome. A number of books written as texts on qualitative research come to the subject from a standpoint grounded in the social sciences. Creswell (2007) introduces readers to the five most prominent traditions in qualitative research: ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology, narrative research, and case study, and helps those who are new to qualitative research see how their studies might differ depending upon the approach they select. Patton (2002) provides clear and detailed information to guide the researcher in conducting a qualitative study using these traditional approaches. Neither of these books attempts to explore in depth the more pioneering methods emerging in qualitative inquiry such as those grouped under the heading Arts-Based Research (ABR). Researchers employing these methods are frequently influenced by the theory and practice of the arts and humanities. Helping to further this line of inquiry are some excellent series of new sources available for those interested exclusively in ABR. These works include Leavy's Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice (2009; see Chenail, 2008, for a review), Arts-Based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice edited by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor and Richard Siegesmund (2008), as well as the substantive and substantial Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research edited by J. Gary Knowles and Ardra L. Cole (2008), which brings together numerous exemplars of different arts-based methods. While all of these resources for students of qualitative research provide valuable information and helpful guidance, their focus on either traditional or arts-based methods of qualitative inquiry perhaps inadvertently perpetuates the notion that one much choose between these two approaches when conducting a qualitative study, that one must either be "scientific" or "artistic". Qualitative Inquiry (2010), however, encompasses a range of qualitative methods from grounded theory to performative inquiry. In contrast to the traditional divide between scientific and artistic qualitative research approaches (see Eisner, 1981), Butler-Kisber proposes "a new typology for classifying qualitative inquiry, that qualitative inquiry can be subdivided into three basic types of inquiry: thematic, narrative, and arts-informed" (p. 8). She suggests that qualitative traditions such as grounded theory and phenomenology essentially rely upon categorization in developing a thematic interpretation of qualitative data, and she juxtaposes this approach with the connecting approaches of narrative methods. This notion of connection in narrative research applies to both connecting a social phenomenon to individual stories, as well as connecting researcher and participant in a more intimate way than in some other methodologies. The chapters on grounded theory, phenomenology, and narrative research offer a clearly-written, thoughtful introduction, but students would need to deepen their understanding of these three qualitative methods by looking to works that explain these methods in more detail before attempting to design or conduct a study using one of these traditions. …