Fishing for Topics in Teaching and Teacher Education: Finding Publishable Research in Large Data Pools

Abstract

Drawing on the history of ideas, the use of knowledge, and what is known about research links, linkages, and interactivity, this ‘fishing for topics’ article focuses on how funded narrative inquiries move from fieldwork to contribute to the literature and what is known about teaching and the teaching profession. This fluid inquiry addresses the following research questions: (1) How are patterns/themes identified in data pools? (2) How are exemplars created that become published research stories? and (3) How does one manuscript relate to other manuscripts in the same and different data pools? Initially, the featured scholarship was produced using narrative inquiry’s interpretive tools of broadening, burrowing, and storying/restorying. Then, serial interpretation was undertaken to elucidate how research ideas materialized within/across the Korea-U.S. and the U.S.- China data pools. This innovative approach involved organizing the two studies into two metalevel story serials. Through this layered narrative inquiry approach, the overarching themes of fluid inquiry, flow of topics, and links/linkages/interactivity across data pools were identified. Two new narrative conceptualizations were named: meta-level story serials and meta-level serial interpretation. The insights arising from this “fishing for topics” article reflect the never-ending ebb and flow of waves splashing up to shore.