Becoming 'poemish'

Wood, Rachel

Abstract

Rachel …where do you stop and law starts?

Bea

I don’t think you stop at all,
I think it’s interwoven.
I know that there are rules in law,
it’s a strict way to think and stuff.
But it’s all around you,
you’re kind of just in it,

For me it’s every day.
There’s not a day I’m not studying.
There’s not a day I don’t pick something up,
see something on the news,
speak about it.
It’s kind of just my life now.


This session examines the implications of adopting a qualitative methodology in legal education research. It discusses the use of narrative inquiry and poetic transcription in the context of a doctoral inquiry into the ‘ways of knowing and being’ of undergraduate law students, an inquiry which explores theories of personal epistemology and self-authorship. This session focuses on use of a model of narrative inquiry which approaches research into the lived experience of participants using a three-dimensional model of time, place and social relationships (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000) to create narrative perspectives. It focuses on the reflexive process of interpretation and representation of participant voices through poetic transcription. This is a method which draws explicit attention to the constructed nature of research findings, and allows for a written representation of data which can more closely represent the spoken word than traditional prose (Richardson, 2001). Using examples drawn from the study, the presenter will suggest that poetic representation creates a form of ‘slow’ data which enhances meaning, creating a richer perspective of participant experiences for the reader.

This session will be of interest to delegates wishing to explore and discuss the wider issues and challenges arising for legal scholars using qualitative methods of research.

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: Socio Legal Scholars Association Annual Conference
• Start Date: Apr 4, 2023
• End Date: Apr 6, 2023
• Deposit Date: Apr 12, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 13, 2023
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10621241
• Related Public URLs: https://www.slsa.ac.uk/index.php/annual-conference