Transformative Visions of Qualitative Inquiry: Performative, Philosophical, and Artistic Transformations

Abstract

I am writing this review, Transformative Visions for Qualitative Inquiry, considering performative, philosophical, and artistic transformations as an essential reading for faculty and students—novice and veteran. It inspires readers, writers, and novice and veteran researchers in various social sciences disciplines and educational landscapes to envision innovative approaches to healing from crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and/or earthquakes. These processes encourage resisting, recovering, connecting, finding joy, and embracing life. Likewise, Transformative Visions for Qualitative Inquiry centers on the concept of transformation and its potential for the future of qualitative research amidst a world grappling with the multifaceted implications of COVID-19, climate change, political unrest, inequality, and various forms of oppression. In these times of uncertainty, distinguished scholars from around the world are looking forward with a rejuvenated sense of optimism while staying rooted in the understanding that there is still much work to be done. So, I realized that research must give rise to the challenges of our hopeful yet ever-changing future. The contributors of Transformative Visions for Qualitative Inquiry ponder a variety of topics, including academic healing, environmental justice, the dominance of higher education and its challenges to critical education, arts-based research such as songwriting, participatory workshops, and auto poetics, disruptions to traditional humanist and Western thought, and explorations of empathy and life writing.