Donna Frost

Design and methods 119 4 Non-collaborative meaning making: analysis and synthesis across both inquiries After cessation of the NP inquiry the collective processes of capturing experience, data generation, data analysis and collaborative meaning making came to an end. I then conducted an analysis and synthesis of the data across the entire CCCI study, working largely alone. Themethod usedwas based in part on the process described in the eight steps above, altered to accommodateworking individually, because the same principles grounded and guided this phase as in the collaborative process of meaning making. Additionally, this phase of the analysis involved distilling out the essence of the inquiries into publishable form, stepping outside and away from the continual process of refinement and meaning making and, instead, taking a stand: preparing the knowledge generated within the inquiries for presentation to a wider audience. First, the data were organised around the particular inquiry questions posed at the beginning of each new practice inquiry loop. That meant that a ‘section’ of data contained the inquiry question, all the practice inquiry cycle data relevant to that question, and the CCCI meeting data that followed the practice inquiry cycle. I immersed myself ‘physically’ in the data by arranging all the creative expressions, transcripts of interviews, conversations or journal entries and/or photos of notes taken on one side of me, and the meeting data on the other, generally physically printed, not just electronically. I often worked with the data laid out on a number of tables, on the floor or affixed to the walls so that I could move among it. I listened to the audio recordings made in practice, if they were present, and to the recording of the meeting. I stopped the recording whenever necessary to examine the relevant materials produced either in practice or during the CCCI meeting, sometimes to note down specific remarks if they hadn’t already been transcribed. These activities corresponded for me to steps i and ii of the CCCI lemniscate, and to steps one, two and three of the collaborative meaning making process described above. I was re- visiting both the practice and meeting experiences. I synthesized my reaction to re-visiting a particular inquiry cycle in the form of a creative expression (see Figure 4 . 6 ) such as painting a picture, using association cards in combination with key words and metaphors, creating a collage or using collected objects to make an installation. This phase of the analysis corresponds with step iii in the CCCI lemniscate and with step four of the collaborative meaning making process.