Transformative Moments in Qualitative Research

Anna CohenMiller is a TEDx speaker and multi-award-winning qualitative methodologist and educational leader who uses transformational research and leadership to address issues of equity, inclusion and justice in higher education internationally. She specializes in arts-based research to facilitate and amplify the voices of marginalized, overlooked/misheard and colonized communities, focusing on guiding and empowering early career researchers and demystifying justice-centered research. For inquiries, she can be reached through her website: www.anna.cohenmiller.com.

• Foreword: Transformative Stories Move Us Towards JusticeDonna M. MertensIntroduction: Empowering Researchers through Stories: Indigenous Inquiry, Decolonial Research, Emancipatory Learning and the ArtsSection I: Awareness in Qualitative Inquiry1. Knowing Ourselves in Qualitative Inquiry2. Creating a Foundation in Qualitative Inquiry3. Seeking a Critical Perspective in Qualitative InquiryCritical Self-Reflective Questions about Awareness in Qualitative InquirySection II: Vulnerability in Qualitative Inquiry4. Recognizing Failures and Potential Risks in Qualitative Inquiry5. Noticing Vulnerability and Potential for Change in Qualitative Inquiry6. Learning from Others in Qualitative InquiryCritical Self-Reflective Questions about Vulnerability in Qualitative InquirySection III: Transformation in Qualitative Inquiry7. Creating Balance in Qualitative Inquiry8. Building Meaningful Relationships in Qualitative Inquiry9. Developing Self-Transformation in Qualitative InquiryCritical Self-Reflective Questions about Transformation in Qualitative InquiryConclusion: Becoming: Embracing Transformational Learning and Justice in Research through Self-Reflection and Vulnerability

"A timely, innovative, and empowering call to action, CohenMiller's voice is one we've needed for years. Every qualitative researcher should read this book."James M. deLeón Salvo, Founding general co-editor of the Qualitative Research Methods division of Routledge Resources Online"This book is a welcome addition to our field of Qualitative Research. It continues to move our field forward and illuminates our history more fully and our legacy for future researchers. CohenMiller is an elegant writer with a global world view that saturates this text. Anyone who wants to know more about the transformative moments we experience in our qualitative research work will appreciate this book. The individual stories in each section are brilliantly used by CohenMiller. These stories punctuate her themes of critical self-reflection, vulnerability in research, and ultimately transformative justice-centered understanding. This is a sweeping work of imagination and the stories powerfully captured with words, photography drawings, and more. I feel a great sense of hope, compassion, and joy come through every page and every story."Valerie J. Janesick, Professor Emerita, Author of "Stretching Exercises" for Qualitative Researchers and Contemplative qualitative research: Practicing the Zen of research"This book is unique in the burgeoning field of books on qualitative inquiry. Seamlessly marrying methodological advice, narrative, personal reflections, philosophy, psychology, and a kind of mystical artistry, it provides an endlessly rich reading and learning experience. It can be read from beginning to end or delved into episodically.While engaging with important concepts in qualitative methodology, adult education, critical reflection, decolonialization, justice and empowerment, it is never jargon-heavy. One of the contributions of this work is that it renews the concept of social justice, which has become strident and dogmatic in some discourse. Here we find rich, human conceptions of social justice, of what it means to be critical, of willingness to learn and grow in relation to these ideas, and of the role of qualitative research in this endeavor. The power and honesty of the researcher stories in each chapter is stunning; they are truly stories of reflexivity, learning and transformation. The stories, and their accompanying artwork, offer expansion and illustration of the wise, well-grounded and rather lovely writing of Dr. CohenMiller.Transformative Moments in Qualitative Research is not just another qualitative methods book. It is a method, a philosophy and a profound reflection on life, growth and research. Highly recommended."Deborah Court, Author of Qualitative Research and Intercultural Understanding"Transformative Moments in Qualitative Research is a gift to the field of qualitative research and to each researcher who takes up positions of insight and introspection as portals to research validity, introspective researcher learning, and human transformation. CohenMiller shows us how researcher storytelling that engages the visual arts contributes to the growing field of justice-centered qualitative research through creating the conditions for greater access and inclusion. The book illuminates the generative value of critical self-reflection and researcher vulnerability for deepening awareness and transforming learning. Through an interdisciplinary lens that integrates Indigenous inquiry with decolonial research and emancipatory adult education, CohenMiller breaks boundaries and offers us a view of qualitative research anew. This book is a love song and story of liberation to the field."Sharon M. Ravitch, Author of Qualitative Research: Bridging the Conceptual, Theoretical, and Methodological