Exploring the Creative Voice in an Academic Context

Authors

Laura Brearley, RMIT UniversityFollow

Abstract

Who we are changes what we write about and how we write. Simply stated, if the academy is to change, if our views of reality are to be more inclusive, then we need to take a broader view of authorial voices… Tierney and Lincoln, 1997 This paper challenges the traditional paradigm of densely referenced text and the use of a passive, 'neutral' researcher's voice. It draws on current doctoral research that is using creative modes of data representation to examine managers' experiences of transition in organisational life. Within this research, ten managers from an educational institution are being tracked through an externally-driven amalgamation process, in which their jobs have been spilled and their previous organisation absorbed into a larger entity. The managers have drawn images and told stories over a two-year period as the amalgamation has progressed. The paper invites active engagement with the experiences of three of these managers, through poetic text that has been developed from transcripts of interviews. To engage with research represented in creative form is a creative act in itself. The invitation to the reader in creative forms of representation is different from the invitation in a traditional piece of research. This is based on the belief that meaning is not encountered, but constructed and that the act of constructive interpretation is a creative event (Barone & Eisner, 1997). The use of the language of "writer" and "reader" does not fit in such a model. What were once passive readers can now be invited into an experience, through the lens of their own world. This paper is an invitation to become a co-creator of meaning.

Keywords

qualitative research

Publication Date

10-1-2000

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2000.1945

Recommended APA Citation

Brearley, L. (2000). Exploring the Creative Voice in an Academic Context. The Qualitative Report, 5(3), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2000.1945