Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry

Valerie J. Janesick, Ph.D. (Michigan State University), is Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of South Florida, Tampa, where she teaches courses in Qualitative Methods, Curriculum Theory and Inquiry, and Ethics. Her research and scholarly writing focus on the use of qualitative research methods in the arts and humanities; expanding narrative inquiry through the use of poetry, video, theater, and visual and performing arts; and integrating qualitative inquiry into the understanding of critical pedagogy in the classroom. She has written numerous articles and books about subjects in these areas, including Stretching Exercises for Qualitative Researchers (3rd ed., 2011, Sage Publications) and Oral History Methods for the Qualitative Researcher: Choreographing the Story (2010, Guilford Press). In her spare time Valerie is studying to become a yoga and meditation teacher.

"...This is an elegant and masterful application of basic ideas and practices from Zen--compassion, self-observation, emptiness, impermanence, satori--to all stages of a qualitative research project, even including a provocative 'eight-fold path' for research practice."... -- John M. Johnson, Arizona State University

• Chapter 1 About Zen and Contemplative Inquiry; Chapter 2 Impermanence and Observation; Chapter 3 Non-Self and Interviews; Chapter 4 Interviewing as an Act of Compassion: Do No Harm; Chapter 5 Documents, Photographs, and Artifacts; Chapter 6 Nirvana and Writing Up Qualitative Research; Chapter 7 Poetry, Zen, and Qualitative Research; Chapter 8 A Zen Vista of the Researcher Reflective Journal; Chapter 9 Satori, Zenergy, and Understanding;