Questions, Loneliness, Lists, and Holding Space: Mundane Significance in Qualitative Research Mentoring

Abstract

This article is an investigation of our mentoring relationship in the context of philosophically and theoretically informed qualitative research over the past several years. Specifically, we focus on our work as qualitative researchers from a variety of theoretical and philosophical standpoints. In this article, we think with two theoretical concepts: micro-ethical events and care as a world-making practice along with data from our years-long mentoring relationship. As a result, we describe how we discovered that it is the moments which initially seemed mundane which were most significant in mentoring. We name this contribution as mundane significance, describing three insights for the field of cultural studies: care-full reading practices, making the invisible, visible, and challenging mentor and mentee binaries.