“I Tell You, It’s a Journey, Isn’t It?” Understanding Collaborative Meaning Making in Qualitative Research

Abstract

While collaboration is common in qualitative inquiry, few studies examine the collaborative process in detail. In our study, we adopt an interpretive, reflexive stance to explore our process as a collaborative qualitative research team. We analyzed transcripts of eight research meetings for aspects and assumptions underlying our collaboration. Three overarching aspects of our process emerged from the analysis: position-taking, meaning making, and producing. We adopt a learning stance in our work together and make meaning through an iterative, dialogic process that foregrounds and backgrounds key elements of the research process. While some scholars have questioned whether truly collaborative research ever occurs among peers, we illustrate through our findings what such a process can look like.