Mindfully Journeying toward Researcher Reflexivity in Dissertation Advising and Graduate Education: A Visual Narrative Inquiry

Conceived as a visual narrative inquiry (Bach, 2007), collaborative arts-based self-study researchers (Weber, 2014) share and discuss both methodological and pedagogical design of arts-based mindfulness (Kabat-Zinn, 2005) activity within the context of dissertation thesis advising and graduate-level research courses with the explicit aim of mediating students’ emerging understandings of reflexivity (Berger, 2015) in qualitative research processes. The mindfulness intervention activities were conceived and developed as a result of the researchers’ recognition of students’ struggle to recognize and articulate—conceptually and in practice—their positionality as developing researchers. Data sources as well as findings will be represented through both researcher- and participant-constructed narratives and artistic artifacts. The researchers utilize a three-stage recursive arts-based dialogic narrative analysis (Winkle & Farrell, 2014) strategy for examining their individual, collective, and collaborative experiences with our research students and advisees. Beyond articulating for attendees the arts-based self-study research methodologies to be employed for this inquiry, exemplar data-as-artistic-artifacts derivative of this work, and the preliminary findings related to students’ continued challenge to engage reflexively within inquiry, the researchers critically reflect upon the significance these experiences have on their own practices as research advisors and research teaching faculty. References Bach, H. (2007). Composing a visual narrative inquiry. In D. Clandinin (Ed.) Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 280-307). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Berger, R. (2015). Now I see it, now I don’t: Researcher’s position and reflexivity in qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 15(2), 219-234. Kabat-Zinn, J. (2005). Wherever you go, there you are. New York: Hachette Books. Weber, S. (2014). Arts-based self-study: Documenting the ripple effect. Perspectives in Education, 32(2), 8-20. Winkle & Farrell (2014). Developing a collaborative arts-based research methodology: From pedagogy to methodology. Paper presented at the Fifth International Qualitative Research Conference, June 25-27, 2014, Guanajuato, Mexico