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Qualitative Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 2, 246-268 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1077800405284365

The Participant as Ally and Essentialist Portraiture

Klaus G. Witz

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This article describes some of the essential features of a methodological approach to studying individuals’ deeper motivations and experiences. The overall approach consists of "interviewing for feeling" with "the participant as ally and co-contemplator," "conceptually developed essentialist portraiture," and cross-case discussion, with an epistemology based on C. H. Cooley’s principle of "sympathetic introspection." The heart of the article is an example of an analysis of excerpts from an interview with an English as a second language teacher regarding her interest in language. The analysis illustrates how to see and conceptualize the manner in which certain essential aspects in the participant’s consciousness and overall orientation evolve in time. This example is then used to illustrate several concerns of portraiture and the epistemological presuppositions of the approach.

Key Words: portraiture • sympathetic introspection • qualitative methodology • subjective experience • in-depth interviews


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K. G. Witz
"Awakening to" an Aspect in the Other: On Developing Insights and Concepts in Qualitative Research
Qualitative Inquiry, March 1, 2007; 13(2): 235 - 258.
[Abstract] [PDF]