Dialogic Methodology for Transdisciplinary Practice-Based Research

Dialogic methodology is a specific approach to research that invites creative engagement with plural voices and their meanings in lived experience. It draws from the writings of Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin who established an agenda for the study of dialogue.

In Dialogic Methodology for Transdisciplinary Practice-Based Research, E. Jayne White and Mahtab Janfada introduce the premises, processes, and practices of dialogic methodology as a legitimised approach to the transdisciplinary study of practice. Drawing on a series of Bakhtin's original writings and dynamic interviews from dialogic scholars across the globe, the authors advocate approaches to research that invite speculative inquiry and even question the original assertions that oriented the issue in the first place. As White and Janfada set out an alternative pathway for scholars and students to contemplate the relevance of dialogism for their research, they offer an expansive possibility for contemplating issues, paradoxes, or problems across diverse practice contexts. They present their approach as an alternative methodological framework for research in educational contexts, emphasizing the subjectivities that support and/or thwart their effectiveness and purpose. Hence this methodology seeks points of departure from traditional object-subject based research 'on' or 'about' the other, to interdisciplinary investigations that determinedly bring all parties into investigation and inquiry.

Synthesizing the latest research in the field and translating complex ideas into real life practice contexts, this book walks readers through the ins and outs of dialogic methodology, with a view of how to apply the approach to their own research and practice.