Co-producing composite storytelling comics : (counter) narratives by academics of working-class heritage

This work was supported by the Society for Research into Higher Education, (grant number Davis NR2129).Composite storytelling as a social qualitative research method represents a growing spirit of creativity to explore themes of social injustice. This article discusses the potential methodological affordances and challenges of such approaches when used to collectively unsettle, interrogate and (re)imagine what it means to become an academic of working-class heritage. The participatory project discussed in this paper involved eight social science and humanities academics in UK-based elite higher education institutions. In a series of storytelling sessions, the participants created narrative encounters to foster moments of critique and analysis to explore the complex social realities of their routes into and through academia as people of working-class origins. Working alongside an illustrator, the participants used empirical insights to create composite stories in multimodal comic formats. Through this work, we seek to prompt further discussions about the generative possibilities of pursuing similar methods in the social sciences and beyond to challenge forms of social injustice.Peer reviewe

Creating SoTL communities through critical storytelling:reflections on a participatory study with Russell Group academics of working-class heritage

While the lives of academics of working-class heritage (WCH) are an increasing source of inquiry, few studies exist which mobilise participatory approaches situating the participants as co-producers of knowledge about their own lived experiences. This proceedings paper discusses a participatory study with eight Russell Group university academics located in the UK. The study mobilised critical storytelling methods to challenge a narrow range of stereotypes which typically represent academics of WCH in deficit tropes (Brook and Michell, 2012; Morley, 2021). In sharing and questioning their stories, an inquiry space emerged to co-produce knowledge aimed at expanding the possibilities of understanding what it means to identify as an academic of WCH. Working collectively with the emergent narrative data, the participants created composite stories representing the diverse, rich complexities of being/becoming an academic of WCH. Aimed at students of WCH considering, or in postgraduate study, the academic and non-academic outputs seek to communicate that academia is a place where people like them exist. The study aligns with pedagogic approaches aimed at providing under-represented social groups with inquiry spaces to co-produce knowledge as part of community development approaches to counter forms of epistemic injustice. The participants shared, critiqued and analysed their lived experiences to comprehend how wider social and cultural factors shaped them. Through this dialogic and reflexive process, a “Third Voice” emerged from contrasting perspectives, producing new understandings of self and shared experiences (Goodson and Gill, 2011: 79). The interrogative process was marked by emotional dissonance, as participants revisited and reconfigured their lived experiences in the presence of each other. In line with the concept of critical hope (Bozalek, Carolissen and Leibowitz, 2014), the participants collectively worked through despair and discomfort to counter reductive caricatures of academics of WCH through stories celebrating the contributions they, and others, have made to academia and beyond.Based on the outcomes of the study to date, the authors consider possibilities for this approach to create SoTL communities through forms of narrative participatory inquiry. Through a series of reflective prompts, audience members are asked to contribute thoughts and questions to generate dialogue aimed at developing the approach further

Co-producing composite storytelling comics:(counter) narratives by academics of working-class heritage

Composite storytelling as a social qualitative research method represents a growing spirit of creativity to explore themes of social injustice. This article discusses the potential methodological affordances and challenges of such approaches when used to collectively unsettle, interrogate and (re)imagine what it means to become an academic of working-class heritage. The participatory project discussed in this paper involved eight social science and humanities academics in UK-based elite higher education institutions. In a series of storytelling sessions, the participants created narrative encounters to foster moments of critique and analysis to explore the complex social realities of their routes into and through academia as people of working-class origins. Working alongside an illustrator, the participants used empirical insights to create composite stories in multimodal comic formats. Through this work, we seek to prompt further discussions about the generative possibilities of pursuing similar methods in the social sciences and beyond to challenge forms of social injustice