Introduction: Transformative Visions for Qualitative Inquiry

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents through examples of her pandemic pedagogy a way forward toward engaging in an empathetic, collaborative, and emotionally engaged form of critical inquiry and teaching that takes up questions of fear, imposter syndrome, and survival in the both the academy and everyday life. It deals with a series of suggestions for academic harm reduction—for fostering students’ sense of confidence and belonging. The book explores and advance the notion of collaborative spirit-writing as the interconnectedness between collaboration, spirit, and writing—about a dialogic engagement that draws upon shared lived experiences, hopes, and fears of collaborative partners. It explores approaches researchers have used to investigate more-than-human phenomena and what these examinations of the more-than-human offer. The book provides “a collage of perspectives that demonstrates how playbuilding, both in its scene generation and dialogic dissemination, is transformative in nature”.