Poetry as a medium for articulating stories
Format Type
Plenary
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
12-1-2021 10:15 AM
End Date
12-1-2021 10:35 AM
Abstract
Qualitative researchers are utilizing diverse ways to present and analyze data to capture people’s narratives. One such way is through the use of poems. The use of poems in research has been widely documented; however, what remains underdeveloped in the literature is an understanding of the use of poems and its alignment with narrative inquiry. In particular, the use of poems as a way to gather stories for analyzing data, especially when participants are not very articulate. Narrative inquiry is interested in the stories that people tell and retell. It provides the flexibility to share stories in diverse ways. Poems are a way of telling a person’s story. This paper highlights the use of poems as a medium to gather stories of wonderfulness of young people with autism. Young people with autism have diverse verbal expression. The use of poems provided a way to capture the stories as well as honor the voice of these young people. This paper offers a detailed description of the creation of poems from participants’ transcripts and how these poems were analyzed in the context of narrative inquiry. Engaging in the poetry making process presented challenges, along with unexpected benefits. These will be explored and discussed in the context of undertaking narrative research among populations with diverse communication needs.
Keywords
Poems, Autism, Narrative Inquiry, Adolescents
ORCID ID
0000-0002-9777-5915
Poetry as a medium for articulating stories
Qualitative researchers are utilizing diverse ways to present and analyze data to capture people’s narratives. One such way is through the use of poems. The use of poems in research has been widely documented; however, what remains underdeveloped in the literature is an understanding of the use of poems and its alignment with narrative inquiry. In particular, the use of poems as a way to gather stories for analyzing data, especially when participants are not very articulate. Narrative inquiry is interested in the stories that people tell and retell. It provides the flexibility to share stories in diverse ways. Poems are a way of telling a person’s story. This paper highlights the use of poems as a medium to gather stories of wonderfulness of young people with autism. Young people with autism have diverse verbal expression. The use of poems provided a way to capture the stories as well as honor the voice of these young people. This paper offers a detailed description of the creation of poems from participants’ transcripts and how these poems were analyzed in the context of narrative inquiry. Engaging in the poetry making process presented challenges, along with unexpected benefits. These will be explored and discussed in the context of undertaking narrative research among populations with diverse communication needs.