Unlikely qualities of writing qualitatively: porous stories of thresholds, in-betweeness and the everyday
Article
Osgood, J. and Hackett, A. 2024. Unlikely qualities of writing qualitatively: porous stories of thresholds, in-betweeness and the everyday. International Review of Qualitative Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/19408447241242425
Type | Article |
---|---|
Title | Unlikely qualities of writing qualitatively: porous stories of thresholds, in-betweeness and the everyday |
Authors | Osgood, J. and Hackett, A. |
Abstract | In this paper, we seek to intervene in the proposition that there are recognisable or abstract-able modes of doing qualitative writing, and instead affirm that writing from a feminist scholarly perspective is often an embodied, domestic, haptic and serendipitous gesture. Occurring in in-between spaces and moments, in which personal and professional life frequently meld, with porous boundaries, our writing practices appear to talk back rhetorically to the notion of writing qualitatively. What are the qualities of qualitative writing? Within education (our field) quality can seem to masquerade as a measurable, generalizable thing, implying a ‘gold standard’ or that different writing practices or products can or should be compared or ranked. For us, writing is frequently encountered as serendipitous, messy and intricately entwined with daily life at numerous scales. This is not to suggest that writing magically takes shape, but rather it is un-abstract-able from daily routines, situations and energies at local and global scales. In the middle of these situations, writing happens when it takes precedence, at whatever cost that might be to bodies, relationships and domestic schedules. Working with a range of feminist philosophers, we draw the temporal, situated, mattering of writing into focus. This paper engages in non-linear story-telling about the processes of our collaborative writing of this paper. We are particularly inspired by Stewart’s (2007:75) approach to writing to convey moments of ordinary life, which she describes as “a circuit that is always tuned into some little something, somewhere. A mode of attending to the possible and the threatening”. We dwell upon the somethings and the somewheres as a means to draw out the temporal passing by of life in all its messiness, as a piece of writing comes together, tracing moments of shimmering intensity and mundane frustration and distraction throughout the work. |
Keywords | writing; stories; motherhood; bodymind; porosity; feminist |
Sustainable Development Goals | 4 Quality education |
Middlesex University Theme | Creativity, Culture & Enterprise |
Sustainability | |
Research Group | Centre for Education Research and Scholarship (CERS) |
Publisher | SAGE Publications |
Journal | International Review of Qualitative Research |
ISSN | 1940-8447 |
Electronic | 1940-8455 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 27 Mar 2024 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 08 Mar 2024 |
Deposited | 16 Apr 2024 |
Output status | Published |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Copyright Statement | This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1177/19408447241242425 |
Language | English |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/10w0xv
Download files
Publisher's version
36
total views9
total downloads5
views this month1
downloads this month
Export as
Related outputs
Refusing perpetual mediation: playing in the undercommons
Osgood, J., de Rijke, V. and Maxwell, M. 2025. Refusing perpetual mediation: playing in the undercommons. in: Osgood, J. and de Rijke, V. (ed.) Postdevelopmental Approaches to Play London, UK Bloomsbury.Exploring possibilities for gender to become otherwise: what do child-snail relations make possible?
Osgood, J. 2024. Exploring possibilities for gender to become otherwise: what do child-snail relations make possible? in: Gannon, S., Pasley, A. and Osgood, J. (ed.) Gender Un/bound: Traversing Educational Possibilities Routledge.Bewildering early childhood ‘pioneers’
Osgood, J., Archer, N., Albin-Clark, J. and Mohandas, S. 2024. Bewildering early childhood ‘pioneers’ . Pedagogy, Culture and Society. 32 (4). https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2024.2355096‘This thing that we do’: in pursuit of hope-full renewals through hydrofeminist scholarly praxis
Osgood, J. and Bozalek, V. 2024. ‘This thing that we do’: in pursuit of hope-full renewals through hydrofeminist scholarly praxis. Gender and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2024.2325407How gender comes to matter: tracing matter, space, place, time and affect in early childhood research
Osgood, J. and Mohandas, S. 2024. How gender comes to matter: tracing matter, space, place, time and affect in early childhood research. in: Bloomsbury Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Early Childhood London, UK Bloomsbury.Gender matters: respectful approaches to gender equity in primary school
Osgood, J. 2024. Gender matters: respectful approaches to gender equity in primary school. in: Learning to Teach in the Primary School London, UK Routledge.Nest/ing: an emergent (un)methodology for becoming otherwise
Osgood, J. and Walsh, C 2024. Nest/ing: an emergent (un)methodology for becoming otherwise. Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2023.2299519Feminist new materialist approaches to childhood studies
Mohandas, S. and Osgood, J. Feminist new materialist approaches to childhood studies. Oxford University Press (OUP).Arboreal Methodologies: the promise of getting lost (with feminist new materialism and Indigenous ontologies) for social studies
Osgood, J. and Axelsson, S. 2023. Arboreal Methodologies: the promise of getting lost (with feminist new materialism and Indigenous ontologies) for social studies. in: Varga, B., Monreal, T. and Christ, R. (ed.) Toward a Stranger and More Posthuman Social Studies New York Teachers College Press. pp. 93-109Afterword to New Images of Thought in the Study of Childhood Drawing
Osgood, J. 2022. Afterword to New Images of Thought in the Study of Childhood Drawing. in: Trafi-Prats, L. and Schulte, C. (ed.) New Images of Thought in the Study of Childhood Drawing Cham Springer. pp. 175-178Arboreal methodologies: Getting lost to explore the potential of the non-innocence of ‘nature’
Osgood, J., Axelsson, S., Cavaliero, T., Hanniffy, M. and McDonnell, S. 2023. Arboreal methodologies: Getting lost to explore the potential of the non-innocence of ‘nature’. Occasional Paper Series. 2023 (50), pp. 113-129. https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1499Adventures requiring care and recklessness: a playful archive
Osgood, J. 2023. Adventures requiring care and recklessness: a playful archive. in: Mazzei, L. and Jackson, A. (ed.) Postfoundational Approaches to Qualitative Inquiry London, UK Taylor & Francis (Routledge). pp. 101-118Down on the ground: the material memoir of the posthuman childhood researcher
Osgood, J. 2023. Down on the ground: the material memoir of the posthuman childhood researcher. in: Osgood, J. (ed.) Postdevelopmental Approaches to Childhood Research Observation London, UK Bloomsbury.mesh/work im/possibilities and inbetweening
Hofsess, B. and Osgood, J. 2022. mesh/work im/possibilities and inbetweening. Visual Arts Research. 48 (2), pp. 18-27. https://doi.org/10.5406/21518009.48.2.03In pursuit of worldly justice in early childhood education: bringing critique and creation into productive partnership for the public good
Osgood, J. 2021. In pursuit of worldly justice in early childhood education: bringing critique and creation into productive partnership for the public good. in: Ross, A. (ed.) Educational Research for Social Justice: Evidence and Practice from the UK Switzerland Springer.CODA: Seismic knots of (un)knowing "toddler"(s)
Kroeger, J., Persky, J. and Osgood, J. 2022. CODA: Seismic knots of (un)knowing "toddler"(s). Global Studies of Childhood. 12 (3), pp. 310-3016. https://doi.org/10.1177/20436106221117203'That's enough!' (But it wasn't): the generative possibilities of attuning to what else a tantrum can do
Osgood, J. and de Rijke, V. 2022. 'That's enough!' (But it wasn't): the generative possibilities of attuning to what else a tantrum can do. Global Studies of Childhood. 12 (3), pp. 235-248. https://doi.org/10.1177/20436106221117167Editorial: The spectacle of 'tantruming toddler': Reconfiguring child/hood(s) of the Capitalocene
Osgood, J., Kroeger, J. and Persky, J. 2022. Editorial: The spectacle of 'tantruming toddler': Reconfiguring child/hood(s) of the Capitalocene. Global Studies of Childhood. 12 (3), pp. 199-208. https://doi.org/10.1177/20436106221117200Risking erasure? Posthumanist research practices and figurations of (the) child
Murris, K. and Osgood, J. 2022. Risking erasure? Posthumanist research practices and figurations of (the) child. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. 23 (3), pp. 208-219. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491221117761Grappling with the miseducation of Montessori: A feminist posthuman rereading of 'child' in early childhood contexts
Osgood, J. and Mohandas, S. 2022. Grappling with the miseducation of Montessori: A feminist posthuman rereading of 'child' in early childhood contexts. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. 23 (3), pp. 302-316. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491221117222Crafting granular stories with child-like embodied, affective and sensory encounters that attune to the world's differential becoming
Osgood, J. and Odegard, N. 2022. Crafting granular stories with child-like embodied, affective and sensory encounters that attune to the world's differential becoming. Australian Journal of Environmental Education. 38 (3-4), pp. 227-241. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2022.11Portal-time and wanderlines: what does virusing-with make possible in childhood research?
Osgood, J., Andersen, C. and Otterstad, A. 2022. Portal-time and wanderlines: what does virusing-with make possible in childhood research? Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology. 13 (3), pp. 208-231. https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.5138From multispecies tangles and Anthropocene muddles: what can lichen teach us about precarity and indeterminacy in early childhood
Osgood, J. 2022. From multispecies tangles and Anthropocene muddles: what can lichen teach us about precarity and indeterminacy in early childhood. in: Blyth, C. and Aslanian, T. (ed.) Children and the Power of Stories: Posthuman and Autoethnographic Perspectives in Early Childhood Education Singapore Springer. pp. 51-67How matter comes to matter in the baby room: thinkingfeelingdoing experiments in early childhood education for more liveable worlds
Osgood, J. 2020. How matter comes to matter in the baby room: thinkingfeelingdoing experiments in early childhood education for more liveable worlds. Invited Keynote Lecture. University of Canterbury, New Zealand 17 Feb 2020Interview with Jayne Osgood
Osgood, J., Semenec, P. and Diaz-Diaz, C. 2020. Interview with Jayne Osgood. in: Diaz-Diaz, C. and Semenec, P. (ed.) Posthumanist and New Materialist Methodologies: Research after the Child Springer. pp. 47-59Special Issue "Reimagining childhood, motherhood, family & community", Genealogy 2020, 4(2)
Osgood, J. and Henward, A. 2020. Special Issue "Reimagining childhood, motherhood, family & community", Genealogy 2020, 4(2). Special Issue, Genealogy.Adventures requiring care and recklessness: doing early childhood research differently
Osgood, J. 2020. Adventures requiring care and recklessness: doing early childhood research differently. Ethnography & Education.In/animate relationalities within the family home: making queer kin through worldling and care
Hohti, R. and Osgood, J. 2020. In/animate relationalities within the family home: making queer kin through worldling and care. Genealogy.Reconfiguring the 'Male Montessorian': the mattering of gender through pink towering practices
Osgood, J. and Mohandas, S. 2020. Reconfiguring the 'Male Montessorian': the mattering of gender through pink towering practices. Early Years. 40 (1), pp. 67-81. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2019.1620181Conferencing otherwise: a feminist new materialist writing experiment
Osgood, J., Taylor, C., Andersen, C., Benozzo, A., Carey, N., Elmenhorst, C., Fairchild, N., Koro-Ljungberg, M., Moxnes, A., Otterstad, A., Rantala, T. and Tobias-Green, K. 2020. Conferencing otherwise: a feminist new materialist writing experiment. Cultural Studies <-> Critical Methodologies. 20 (6), pp. 596-609. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708620912801Pets that have ‘something inside’: the material politics of in/animacy and queer kin within the childhood menagerie
Hohti, R. and Osgood, J. 2020. Pets that have ‘something inside’: the material politics of in/animacy and queer kin within the childhood menagerie. Genealogy. 4 (2), pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy4020038![](/~18/aqs/default-thumbnail.png)