Design; Research Methodology

This paper presents aspects of a study in progress on the legitimate function of fiction in research. A section on methodology describes how the study started with a project of narratives written in response to the black and white photographs of one of the collaborators. Analysis of the response process revealed a connection between fiction and truth. As the project evolved and was critiqued, the focus changed and transcriptions from presentations, stories from other doctoral students, and an eclectic group of readings moved the study from the concrete response to the photographs and narratives to the theoretical, eclectic, and philosophical. The next section describes how the study evolved and was reinterpreted in response to the specific comments of others regarding executing the work, researching for meaning, continuing the execution, acting as teacher researchers, and researching the research. A section on the researchers ' own agenda touches on crafting, the ethics and aesthetics of fiction, and the function of fiction. A conclusion poses some seminal questions for future discussion and suggests that fiction can be an alternative way to meet the needs of researchers wishing to articulate sensitive issues or convey what literal language cannot. A photograph that was the basis of interpretive stories is included. (Contains 85 references.) (JB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document