Writing with the ‘Other’: Combining Poetry and Participation to Study Leaders with Disabilities
The Qualitative Report
riting
Qualitative Report 0 1
Rama Cousik 0 1
Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne 0 1
0 1
Mariesa K . Rang 0 1
0 Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne , USA
1 Rama Cousik, Paresh Mishra, and Mariesa K. Rang Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne , Indiana , USA
Part of the Disability and Equity in Education Commons; Leadership Studies Commons; Poetry
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Participation to
Study
Leaders with
Disabilities
Writing with the ‘Other’: Combining Poetry and Participation to Study
Leaders with Disabilities
Abstract
In this paper, we describe the process of transformative co-authorship between researchers and a participant
with disabilities. The researchers were conducting a larger study that aimed to identify different factors that
shaped individuals with disabilities to assume leadership roles. Drawing from interview data obtained from
the participant, one researcher wrote a poem that provided a stage for the researchers and the participant to
engage in reflexive process that transformed the researchers-participant relationship to that of co-authors. This
paper describes this transformative process and what everyone learned from this enriching experience.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Acknowledgements
We thank India Vision Foundation for funding the original study through the Reeta Peshawaria-Menon
Fellowship Award which provided data for this paper.
This how to article is available in The Qualitative Report: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol22/iss11/15
Writing with the “Other”: Combining Poetry and Participation to
Study Leaders with Disabilities
In this paper, we describe the process of transformative co-authorship between
researchers and a participant with disabilities. The researchers were
conducting a larger study that aimed to identify different factors that shaped
individuals with disabilities to assume leadership roles. Drawing from interview
data obtained from the participant, one researcher wrote a poem that provided
a stage for the researchers and the participant to engage in reflexive process
that transformed the researchers-participant relationship to that of co-authors.
This paper describes this transformative process and what everyone learned
from this enriching experience. Keywords: Leadership, Disability, Qualitative
Research Methods, Arts-based Research, Participatory Research
Research is often conducted on persons with disabilities (PWD) rather than with. This
is a phenomenon that is also common to people who may be marginalized due to other factors
such as race, class, socio-economic status, ethnicity, and other minority status. There is a focus
on educational and socio-emotional outcomes for PWD in published work by researchers and
educators in special education. However, since researchers often do not have the disabilities
that they research and write about, the extant literature could be heavily biased presenting the
perspectives of the powered and the dominant groups while ignoring the voices of PWD. Thus,
there is a need for a transformation in the interactional space between the researcher and PWD.
This paper describes the reflexive process of the development of co-authorship between
two university researchers and a participant who is an adult with disabilities.
Kitchin (2000)
argues that both the perspectives of the researcher and the researched are needed, so that one
may understand multiple and insider perspectives. In addition, enabling and presenting the
voices of the researched and seeking their role as co-authors of the resulting text reduces power
distance between the two groups; creates a sense of authenticity; and increases the credibility
of the research narrative.
In this paper, we describe how the first author (henceforth referred to as Author A) and
second author (henceforth, Author B) developed a partnership of co-authorship with the third
author (henceforth, Author C) who was initially a participant in a study conducted by the first
two authors.
Research Context
The benefits of workplace diversity have been documented well in the diversity
literature. For example, workplace diversity has been found to contribute to organizational
attractiveness
(Avery, 2003; Martins & Parsons, 2007)
, performance
(Bezrukova, Thatcher,
Jehn, & Spell, 2012; Ellis, Mai, & Christian, 2013)
and creativity
(Pearsall, Ellis, & Evans,
2008; Shin & Zhou, 2007)
. A diverse workforce can also be a key for organizations to maintain
a sustained competitive advantage (Roberge & van Dick, 2010). Similarly, diversity in
leadership has also been linked to enhanced organizational performance
(Roberson & Park,
2007)
.
As organizations strive to be demographically and culturally diverse, the incorporation
of diversity in leadership is progressively becoming a central issue in organizations. However,
most of the research on diversi (...truncated)