Creative Research Methodologies in Practical Theology

Member checking, also known as respondent validation, is a common qualitative research practice that involves presenting written data to participants in order to receive feedback and check for inaccuracies. While often cited within longer lists of techniques for validating research, member checking holds the potential for bringing researcher and participant together toward the co-creation of knowledge. This not only adds new insights to the research itself, but also cultivates a methodology that is decolonial in praxis, not seeking to extract from but to partner with in the analyses and interpretations of experience beyond researcher re-presentation. Drawing upon a current research project to understand practices of decoloniality among pastors of color, I apply the practice of in-depth member checking in the analysis and writing phase, thereby opening up my own interpretations to possibilities and realities that further center the lived experiences, practices, and knowledges of participants.

This presentation introduces abductive analysis as a qualitative research methodology that ought to be adopted as a means for theological reflection.  Abductive analysis orients the researcher to surprises in data that might provide explanatory potential outside the study’s initial parameters. It helps generate new theories based on unexpected findings that abduct or lead the researcher away from their preconceived notions and generally accepted norms toward possible new insights.  Using abductive analysis as a theological method provides researchers in theology and qualitative research a way to create space for the work of the Holy Spirit amidst supposedly predictable empirical realities.  Assuming God’s presence is real and active in human experience, orienting one’s analytical attention toward unexpected surprises creates space for the Holy Spirit to disrupt and realign our research and our faith.

This paper will consider creative methodologies as a means for theological inquiry, identifying how a/r/tograhphy and creative research methods might be used to deepen researcher understanding and dissemination of work. Highlighting the approach as cognitively demanding, holistically integrated and accessible to a wide variety of people, the presenter will explore practical examples and broad theological traditions. This paper emphasizes the importance of multimodal methodologies as a way to highlight voices that are traditionally marginalized using modes that are academically neglected. Sharing performance poetry, textiles, and academic scenarios where room is given for creative expression will mean this paper is offered as a living exemplar of ways in which creativity and intellectual rigor are in harmony with one another and enrich theological inquiry as a discipline. Theological work is a work of heart, hands and head, and the paper seeks to make this explicit as a research practice.