Janet Newbury

Relational Inquiry: Generating New Knowledge With Adolescent Girls Who Use Crystal Meth

Qualitative research is continuously evolving and expanding as researchers seek methodologies that reflect the intersubjective nature of experience. Relational inquiry is an approach which considers the relationships (a) between researchers and participants, (b) among multiple dimensions of the participant’s lived experience, and (c) between the subjectivity of the participant and the phenomenon under study. In this article, the authors present a study in which the experiences of adolescent girls who use methamphetamines are explored through the use of photograph elicitation. The authors demonstrate how engagement with photographs can bring forth narratives from which researchers, teachers, practitioners, and, indeed, adolescent girls can learn.

A Place for Theoretical Inconsistency

The current article articulates how the expectation of theoretical consistency can be constraining for qualitative researchers. The author considers the origins of the tradition of theoretical consistency, and suggests that postmodern research - particularly that which focuses on social justice - might in fact be served by considering possibilities that emerge from multiple theoretical perspectives. To illustrate the application and contribution of theoretical inconsistency, three concrete examples of how these ideas have been applied within qualitative studies are discussed. By pragmatically drawing connections across theoretical differences, it is hoped that researchers will engage critically with their own theoretical commitments and assumptions, thus opening themselves up to new possibilities and to new and creative ways of coming together.

Making Meaning in Context: The Puzzling Relationship Between Image and Metaphor

Using both images and metaphor proved an effective qualitative method in our study with adolescent girls who use crystal methamphetamine. The combination increased the depth of learning by inviting less calculated responses and the breadth of learning by allowing for consideration of societal and contextual dimensions of experience. In this article, we demonstrate how combining images and metaphors in qualitative inquiry can enable researchers to resist the tendency to distill complex experiences down to manageable forms. In so doing, we offer a contextualized perspective of how change may occur, thus reconceptualizing our roles as practitioners.

Situational Analysis: Centerless Systems and Human Service Practices

Bronfenbrenners ecological model is a conceptual framework that continues to contribute to human service practices. In the current article, the author describes the possibilities for practice made intelligible by drawing from this framework. She then explores Whites “Web of Praxis” model as an important extension of this approach, and proceeds to offer Clarkes “Situational Analysis” as another fruitful tool for practitioners who seek relational ways of engaging with clients. With the example of a practice scenario, readers can consider the practical possibilities that open up with the shift in perspective invited by situational analysis.

Learning to Let Go of Sustainability

By critically engaging with current sustainability discourses and practices, this chapter strives to open space for more/different possibilities from the illusion of restoration or the seduction of neo-romanticism. Recognizing the global interconnectedness of humans and nonhumans alike by tracing (some of) the journey of a glass jar, the authors consider the roles of economic development, gender dynamics, political realities, and our relationships with the material world that may perpetuate unsustainable practices—even in the name of sustainability. This chapter thus complicates what can otherwise be dangerously simplified notion of restoration or desire for a ‘return’ to more sustainable days gone. Deconstructing the discourses of sustainability begin to reveal opportunities for other ways forward in the move from technical-rational fixes in favour of ontological approaches to change. In this chapter we examine how ontological shifts can substantially alter power relations, inviting us to recognize multiple and simultaneous possibilities for change through a hermeneutics of sustainability that strives to make space for emergent, democratic, and responsive actions when charting more equitable and ‘sustainable’ ways to live.

Inquiring Into Life as We Live It

This article marks the first steps in an inquiry into community-based approaches to well-being for children and families. The author outlines the development of her methodological approach, which draws significantly from human geography. The study, while concerned with broader social and economic dynamics, is situated in a particular community which is undergoing economic, ecological, and political transitions. By grounding the study in this way, individual and collective experiences can be better understood and responded to. The intention is to make methodological decisions explicit in order to engage readers with the significance of theoretical considerations when embarking on qualitative research.