Abstract
Qualitative inquiry is increasingly popular in health professions education, and there has been a move to solidify processes of analysis to demystify the practice and increase rigour. Whilst important, being bound too heavily by methodological processes potentially represses the imaginative creativity of qualitative expression and interpretation—traditional cornerstones of the approach. Rigid adherence to analytic steps risks leaving no time or space for moments of ‘wonder’ or emotional responses which facilitate rich engagement. Poetic inquiry, defined as research which uses poetry ‘as, in, [or] for inquiry’, offers ways to encourage creativity and deep engagement with qualitative data within health professions education. Poetic inquiry attends carefully to participant language, can deepen researcher reflexivity, may increase the emotive impact of research, and promotes an efficiency of qualitative expression through the use of ‘razor sharp’ language. This A Qualitative Space paper introduces the approach by outlining how it may be applied to inquiry within health professions education. Approaches to engaging with poetic inquiry are discussed and illustrated using examples from the field’s scholarship. Finally, recommendations for interested researchers on how to engage with poetic inquiry are made, including suggestions as to how to poetize existing qualitative research practices.Supplementary InformationThe online version of this article (10.1007/s40037-021-00682-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
We propose that poetry through the medium of poetic inquiry may offer one way in which to restore creativity and deep engagement with qualitative data to qualitative inquiry within medical education
Within health professions education (HPE) research, poetic inquiry finds a natural home as part approach of phenomenology
Though qualitative research is increasingly valued, barriers still exist to the progression of qualitative research within HPE
Summary
Poetry is a vehicle for human meaning making. It is part of everyday life which, if you look, you’ll find in advertisements, music, even sports cheers. We outline two approaches to participant-voiced poetry: 1) Glesne’s method of poetic transcription and 2) Gilligan et al.’s listening guide, drawing on examples from HPE to illustrate their use. Through inviting researchers to engage deeply with participant accounts, poetic inquiry within HPE is not just a tool, but a way of being that gives rise to the space for wonder, surprise, emotions and creative expression and interpretation. As researchers open up the possibilities of the method, it may be beneficial to learn more about typical poetic conventions such as form, meter and rhyme to advance your craft—but this is no means a prerequisite, at least in our eyes, to the ability to produce ‘good enough’ participant-voiced poetry
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