Reflecting on Violent Ruptures and Loss in Qualitative Research: A Poetic Inquiry

Abstract

Presenting poetic approaches to qualitative inquiry, two immigrant educational researchers from different minoritized communities explore their loss of research participants due to increased state-enforced violence in the context of recent immigration policies (e.g., increased presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in immigrant communities and anti-Muslim rhetoric) through poetic inquiry. Presenting the processes and products of engaging with participant loss through poetry, the authors highlight a theoretical and methodological approach to qualitative inquiry, which works toward building intimacies among women of color feminist educational researchers. On the one hand, this work aims to develop qualitative methodologies that seek to reduce harm and violence and foster understanding among different communities of researchers and their participants. On the other hand, it seeks to illustrate how poetic approaches to qualitative research can be used as a reflexive tool to explore the hidden socio-emotional components of the educational research process.