Relational, Appreciative, and Process-oriented Digital Storytelling: A Duoethnography

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an approach to group and community digital storytelling based on the following pillars: (a) extensive periods dedicated to group forming; facilitating meaningful interactions and members synergies through organized group work activities, (b) cultivating an appreciative and inclusive culture that takes advantage of the individual differences, and (c) a process-oriented practice, informed by systems thinking, that listen to the individuals’ voices and needs as well as to the group-as-a-whole process. In this context, digital storytelling could help people and communities to re-author themselves in more empowering, meaningful, and life-promoting ways. In the first part of this work, we discuss the theoretical underpinnings of our approach, we describe the details of a first pilot offering, and we provide an initial narrative evaluation by the participants. In the second part, we engage in an evocative duoethnography of our practice to provide a narrative, performative, in-context, and dense description of our lived experience as designers and facilitators, and as human beings that we actively participated in the unfolding of our program. Implications for the transformative power of duoethnography are discussed.

Introduction to Qualitative Data Analysis and Coding with QualCoder

“…As André (2020) points out, "if QDA software is used for the analysis of qualitative data, there is a fundamental risk that the direction of analysis of the researchers is merely within the shape and cut of the corset of QDA programs" (p. 46). Such reliance on software can lead to oversimplified and mechanical coding, which may interfere with the interpretative process and limit the artistic, creative, and complex meaning-making aspects of qualitative research (Brailas & Sotiropoulou, 2023;DeHart, 2022;Guthrie, 2020). As André (2020) continues, researchers are at risk of not developing "neither their own paths of analytical organization and penetration of the data, nor paths that are independent of the programs.…”

Postdigital Duoethnography: An Inquiry into Human-Artificial Intelligence Synergies

“…Duoethnography is a relational and process-oriented research method that engages two (or more) participants in a deep dialogical inquiry (Brailas and Sotiropoulou 2023). Duoethnography is also an appreciative inquiry practice, because to engage in a transformative dialogue with another human-or, in this case, a non-human 'entity'one needs, first, to acknowledge the value of the other side and celebrate their difference as a learning opportunity.…”

“…Duoethnography is also an appreciative inquiry practice, because to engage in a transformative dialogue with another human-or, in this case, a non-human 'entity'one needs, first, to acknowledge the value of the other side and celebrate their difference as a learning opportunity. This process can turn differences into a driving force for personal and collective transformation (Brailas and Sotiropoulou 2023).…”