NCRM videos

Tunde Varga-Atkins - Crafting poems for data analysis?

06-11-2019

Tunde Varga-Atkins, from Lancaster University and The University of Liverpool, presents ''Crafting poems for data analysis?' at Methods Fair 2019. Abstract: Bazeley (2013) suggests that playing with different formats of communication can enhance the process of sense-making, whether it be through a poem, a diagram, or a concept map. In this paper, I discuss how I used poems to make sense of interview data in my doctoral study on staff and students’ use of digital capabilities in two disciplines, engineering and management. I had previously utilised images and metaphors to make sense of my research data (Powell & Varga-Atkins, 2013; Tunde Varga-Atkins & O’Brien, 2009). Cahnmann (2003) emphasises that poems, while enhancing different forms of expression, can also play a role in stimulating ideas and concepts in qualitative researchers’ repertoires. Based on my experience of this process, I will illustrate the advantage of poem-writing over other creative arts-based forms for the purpose of data analysis and synthesis.