Valerie J. Janesick University of South Florida, USA

Valerie J. Janesick (PhD, Michigan State University) is Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, in the department of Leadership, Counseling, Adult, Career and Higher Education, LCACHE, University of South Florida, Tampa. She teaches classes in qualitative research methods, curriculum theory and inquiry, and ethics in leadership. Her latest book, “Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry: Practicing the Zen of Research (2015) Left Coast Press, argues for the use of Zen approaches to qualitative inquiry cast as Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry.  Her chapters in the Handbook of Qualitative Research (first and second editions) use dance and the arts as metaphors for understanding research. Her book, Oral History for the Qualitative Researcher: Choreographing the Story (2010), Guilford Press, incorporates, poetry, photography and the arts to capture lived experience.  She serves on the editorial board of The Qualitative Report, and the International Journal of Qualitative Methods. She continues to take classes in yoga and meditation.