That Rare Feeling: Re-presenting Research Through Poetic Transcription

Abstract

This article explores an experimental form of writing that I'm terming poetic transcription. Inspired by Laurel Richardson (1992, 1994a, 1994b), I define poetic transcription as the creation of poemlike compositions from the words of interviewees. In this article, I present six poetic transcriptions of Dona Juana, an elderly Puerto Rican researcher and educator; describe my poetic transcription process; and examine issues that experimental writing—specifically, poetic transcription—raises for research re-presentation.

Poetic Re-presentations on Trust in Higher Education

“…Glesne (1997) wrote extensively on the process of poetic transcription, sharing line-by-line excerpts from original transcripts and represented poems while acknowledging there is no one correct way to do poetic transcription. She says: "The process described here is not the way to do poetic transcription; rather it is one way… I might create different rules next time, and the poetic vignettes would assume different forms" (p. 205).…”

“…One of the main goals of poetic transcription is to carefully reconstruct the thoughts, feelings, insights, and perspectives of participants as they are gleaned from the research data, using the participants' own language, essence and style of speaking (Glesne, 1997;Leavy, 2009;Richardson, 2003). In this sense the poems that are crafted in this manner are "research poems" that merge qualitative data with the craft and rules of traditional or "lyrical" poetry (Furman, Lietz, & Langer, 2006;Leavy, 2009;McCulliss, 2013).…”

“…Educational studies that rely on formal methods to examine processes, behaviours, methods, and curriculum, for instance, far outnumber those using poems or other forms of non-prosaic writing to explore affective interactions, nuances, or experiences (Bingham & Sidorkin, 2004). Emergent research practices, such as poetic inquiry, are sometimes devalued because they do not follow ingrained epistemological norms or academic practices (Eisner, 1997;Glesne, 1997;Nagy Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2008;1992). However, this is beginning to change as more educational and social science researchers use methods from the literary, visual, and performing arts, and as these researchers begin to examine issues of culture, power, and authority in new ways (Blumenfeld-Jones, 1995;Cahnmann-Taylor, 2009;Glesne, 1997;Richardson, 2000).…”

“…Emergent research practices, such as poetic inquiry, are sometimes devalued because they do not follow ingrained epistemological norms or academic practices (Eisner, 1997;Glesne, 1997;Nagy Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2008;1992). However, this is beginning to change as more educational and social science researchers use methods from the literary, visual, and performing arts, and as these researchers begin to examine issues of culture, power, and authority in new ways (Blumenfeld-Jones, 1995;Cahnmann-Taylor, 2009;Glesne, 1997;Richardson, 2000). Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt, and Camerer (1998) suggest that "a phenomenon as complex as trust requires theory and research methodology that reflect trust's many facets and levels" (p. 393).…”

“…This poem represents a style of expressive writing discussed and demonstrated at length throughout this paper, which itself is derived from a research technique known as poetic transcription (Glesne, 1997). Poetic transcription involves the culling and reorganizing of original words and phrases from interview transcripts followed by the use of literary devices such as line, meter, repetition, and pauses to craft artistic renditions (Richardson, 2003).…”