Learning through Doing: Doctoral Students' Experience Learning Foucauldian Discourse Analysis in the Field of Public Health

In: International review of qualitative research: IRQR, Band 11, Heft 4, S. 432-451

Abstract

In this article, we discuss our experiences learning how to do Foucauldian discourse analysis as doctoral students situated in a school of public health. We mobilize language of "learning through doing" as we reflect on the struggles of conducting doctoral dissertation research. While challenging, these struggles have been productive because they have resulted in epistemological shifts. We explore the following pivotal learning moments that have been central to producing changes in our epistemological positions: (1) realizing there are no predetermined methodological templates, (2) letting go of positivist notions of bias and representativeness, (3) recognizing the iterative nature of the qualitative research process, and (4) experiencing the centrality of writing to qualitative inquiry. Our article recognizes the profound relevance of "doing" within the process of learning critical and interpretive approaches to qualitative research and in unlearning positivist ideas about the production of knowledge that dominate the field of public health.