Another year, another ICQI…

…and after my third outing, I feel no less excited, engaged and exhilarated by the ideas expressed, the connections made in conversation and the potent sense of purpose that pervades everything at the Congress. Here is a body of scholars actively striving for a better world, for social justice in all its forms and for an education that is both empowering and liberating – Freire would be proud! There were a few ‘old’ faces missing this year, Laurel Richardson was absent, as were Ian Stronach and Lisa Mazzei, but Bronwyn Davies made a welcome re-appearance. The ‘Godfather’ or Norm, as those of us privileged enough to be on speaking terms with Denzin call him, seemed somewhat distracted this year, but the lion can still roar, as he proved in a number of rousing and inspirational speeches, and write, as I have come home clutching three out of four of his latest publications…Patti Lather too was on sizzling form, engaging in spirited fashion with criticism and commentary from a UK contingent (Bristol, Plymouth) on her recent book Getting Lost – Feminist Efforts toward a Double(d) Science, and Elizabeth St Pierre as always was feisty, attacking lazy, under-theorized qualitative scholarship wherever she found it. Serge Hein presented a paper on ‘Différance and Researcher Reflexivity’ that was fiendishly complex, but compellingly beautiful, and Bud Goodall had us all spellbound with his devastating critique of the state of education in the States today, but whilst passion and talent such as his can flourish in arid, conservative backwaters such as Arizona, there is hope! There was poetry, there was polemic, there was performance, there was research as a peacock in full display, fanning its tail exposing us to the beauty, the depth and the colour of scholarship, that is elsewhere so often hidden behind dry words, dull routines and deadening delivery. My love affair with QI and all that it stands for, continues…