Crystallization as Methodology
Through reading, experiences, and an interest in media making, it is conceivable that the word as well as the approach to crystallization is supportive of my research design. From the graphic rendering of this concept, and previously shared in the literature review section on crystallization, my why includes finding a balance between depth and breadth in the process and products from this research, creatively crafting flexible amalgamations with data gatherings and generated analyses, and iteratively processing the codes and findings while managing the complexity of the interpretations in order to enhance sensemaking (Ellingson, 2014; Richardson, 2003; Guba & Lincoln, 2005)."You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
(Princess Bride, 1987)
Crystallization can “build thick and rich descriptions through multiple forms, genres and modes to embed the researcher in a reflexive process allowing them to apply their craft” (Stewart et al., 2017, p. 3). In this way, as I craft research, my research reflexively crafts me. Ellingson (2014) advocates for crystallization as a creative, flexible amalgamation of everyday stories rather than a specific set of strategies.
I have selected a crystallization framework for multiple reasons. First, crystallization creates knowledge about a phenomenon through a process of generation to deepen complex interpretations (Ellingson, 2014). Because teaching practices are relational, and the application of MDL to those practices particularly within OEPr are mediated through technologies, these relational moments can be seen, heard, felt, shared, analyzed and categorized in multiple, nuanced ways across a variety of digital artifacts. Crystallization can reveal these multiple facets of the lived experiences of TEds in faculties of education.
Second, a crystallization framework applies various analysis strategies to generate understanding from a multiplicity of moments along a qualitative continuum (Ellingson, 2014). By applying crystallization to the P-IP methodology, I can open avenues to make sense of the data entanglements (Ellingson & Sotirin, 2020) that will inevitably be found in the MDL and OEPr stories shared by TEds. My research will include variations of typology, visualizations, and pattern making to reveal rich descriptions of the data moments yet to be revealed.
Third, the multiple variations of texts and representations created within this research work will depend on “segmenting, weaving, blending, or otherwise drawing upon two or more genres or ways of expressing findings” (Ellingson, 2014, p. 445). It is through the many media making productions of both the participants and myself as the researcher, that the stories of lived experiences with MDL and OEPr will be revealed.
Fourth, crystallization requires reflexivity throughout the process of design, data gathering, and representation generated from the findings and analysis (Ellingson, 2014). Within the P-IP methodology this reflexivity will help mw critically examine the non-neutrality of technologies as it simultaneously amplifies and reduces (Kennedy, 2016) the mediations within the OEPr of TEds. Fifth, crystallization fits P-IP methodologies as it “embraces, reveals, and even celebrates knowledge as inevitably situated, partial, constructed, multiple, and embodied” (Ellingson, 2014, p. 446). Like P-IP methodologies, crystallization has no pathway or formal structure but follows an emerging design that is both integrative and dendritic (Ellingson, 2009) while the data entanglements (Ellingson & Sotirin, 2020) are woven, patched, layered, blended, dispersed, and disparate.
To be true to the orientation of wonder that is an essential methodological aspect of P-IP inquiry, I will infuse crystallization strategies when engaging with data while iteratively applying coding strategies (Saldaña, 2016) to the lived-experience stories, images, and media shared by the participants, in order to be attentive to the “sudden realization of the unsuspected enigmatic nature of ordinary reality” (Van Manen, 2014, p. 360). My research design decisions are tempered by the fact that crystallization may be a challenging methodology requiring sustained commitments of time and energy (Ellingson, 2014). It is the creativity within the iterative readings and renderings that provides an exciting framework for this research design.