Writing Qualitatively: Crossing Borders, Claiming the Margins

Abstract

Our paper is an invitation for scholars to challenge the mainstream dominant western approaches to qualitative research and writing. Situated as emerging scholars on the margins, we discuss what it means for us to write qualitatively through the two foci of writing and research. Our methodologies are informed by listening to the stories and shared memories of our academic ancestors and writing through rhythms of poetry. First, we look at writing qualitatively as an invitation to think with others and writing itself as a practice of “claiming the margins.” Second, we look at qualitative research practices that directly relate to our communities, where research and writing become an imperative and a responsibility rather than a choice exercised from a place of privilege. Grounded in the wilderness of the margins, we embark on the ethico-political scholartistry of qualitative writing.