Growing Up

A Journey Toward Theoretical Understanding

Bibliographic Data

ID2385386
AuthorsCelia Dillow (University of Sheffield)
Year2009
Volume15
Issue8
Pages1338-1351
Publication date2009-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1077-8004 • E-ISSN: 1552-7565
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1077800409339581
OpenAlexW2013255675
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited16

This article describes a struggle and a journey. It shows a struggle between the need to be scholarly and the desire to be evocative; it travels carefully along a path toward less certainty. The article discusses how the author, as a doctoral student, was aware of the need to address her innate resistance to use theory and how she struggled to assimilate this into her research project and text. The author says the journey toward this understanding was akin to a growth spurt-sometimes painful and always surprising. Here, the author uses a narrative style to explore approaches to theory, knowledge, and representation and to show this struggle in the context of her research into lived experience. The author records the way how she constructed her own theoretical framework and show the dawning realization that decisions about approach and method are indeed theoretically informed and supported. Finally, the article discusses how the author faced her theories about theories and discovered that the journey is important and that certainty is an elusive destination

Aesthetics · Certainty · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Linguistics · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Visual arts · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · History · Law · Philosophy · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics

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