Abstract
This narrative discusses a research study using both qualitative and quantitative methods to illustrate the connections between writing and healing. College students who answered survey questions about their health reported anxiety as a concern. Writing in journals became a method of coping with anxiety, which led the research to evolve into a social action project of managing stress and eliminating the stigma surrounding anxiety. Resources to help anxiety include exercise, nutrition, and belonging to a supportive community.
TopPandemic Anxiety
We conducted the research for this chapter several years before the pandemic began, but the strategies we implemented for helping people cope with anxiety continue to make a lasting impact. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major effect on our lives. Many of us are facing challenges that can be stressful, overwhelming, and cause strong emotions in adults and children. Public health actions, such as social distancing, are necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19, but they can make us feel isolated and lonely and can increase stress and anxiety. Learning to cope with stress in a healthy way will make you, the people you care about, and those around you become more resilient. (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html)
We continue to share this research to help anyone experiencing pandemic anxiety, which includes surviving the pandemic and coping as life after the pandemic slowly returns to resembling life before the pandemic. Although life may look similar, people transform as a result of their experiences.
TopCurriculum Inquiry Using Research Narratives
Curricular change begins when researchers develop ideas with the purpose of implementing enduring effective change. It is one thing to notice a problem, another to solve it. Researchers can benefit from envisioning ideas from different perspectives and borrowing ideas from other fields. The field of city planning follows a research process that leads to implementation of detailed plans; city planning shares similarities with the qualitative interpretive research fields of narrative inquiry and curriculum inquiry, since both rely on narratives to illuminate issues. Illuminating issues can lead to bringing purpose to life, whether a city planner looks at a piece of land and uses plans to create a new housing development or an educational researcher looks at data indicating college students experience stress and anxiety and uses plans to create a curriculum of healing.
Education endures multiple curricular incarnations throughout the decades, since the only constant in the curriculum of schools remains change. Marshall, Sears, and Schubert (2000) discuss the evolution of curriculum and provide the history that “more than any other philosopher, John Dewey influenced the thought of curriculum scholars throughout the twentieth century, and at the century’s end curriculum questions remain easily related to his definition of education. The enduring curriculum question thus becomes, “What adds meaning and direction or purpose to experience?” (p. 2). The question still remains today. What experiences bring purpose to life?
While researchers often study texts or programs from an existing curriculum, the stories of the people participating in a curriculum add another dimension to the inquiry process because looking at policies and procedures cannot take the place of witnessing the implementation of such policies and procedures when adding people to the process. Marshall, Sears, and Schubert (2000) believe, “through biography as curricular text we can see how individuals reconstructed themselves and their work, including the need to reread past decisions and changes” (p. 199). An idea may appear one way in theory on paper, but watching the idea unfold in practice may tell a different story. Educators want their stories to possess purpose; students may repeat the words of an excellent teacher years after that teacher’s lifetime.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Writing as Healing: Numerous studies have been conducted investigating the influence of writing on physical and emotional health. James Pennebaker is a leader in the field which explores the health benefits of writing.
Anxiety: Different clinicians have different definitions of anxiety, and someone who lives with anxiety will describe it from a different point of view than a clinical definition in a textbook, but the general consensus is that anxiety is chronic fear or stress that can result in panic attacks and a person feeling an inability to cope with life’s stressors.
Curriculum Inquiry: A form of narrative inquiry made popular in the field of research by F. Michael Connelly and D. Jean Clandinin, curriculum inquiry is a qualitative interpretative form of research that focuses on the telling, retelling, and sharing of stories through the lens of curriculum to implement program changes.
Artistic and Technical Writing: English teachers design rubrics which incorporate both artistic and technical writing when evaluating student essays. Artistic writing is the writer’s tone of word choice, also known as voice, while technical writing is the writer’s specificity of word choice.
Writing Voice: Voice in writing highlights a writer’s word choice and tone to compose a journal entry or other written composition that reflects the writer’s personality. Every writer has a unique writing voice, just like each person has a unique speaking voice.
HRQOL (Health Related Quality of Life) Survey: A general health survey in the public domain and able to be used by researchers without securing permission or paying copyright fees.
Planning Process: Used in the fields of city planning as well as curricular change, this process encompasses the following steps: survey, analysis, plan, implementation, and feedback.
Lean In Circles: Sheryl Sandberg’s movement to encourage community support and discussion groups that motivate participants to face their fears and lean in to life.
Community Development: Designing a place where people feel welcomed and supported, whether it is a neighborhood, a classroom, or a network of colleagues who provide support for an individual.