Beyond an Easy Sense: A Diffractive Analysis

In this article, I use Karen Barad’s concept of diffraction as a methodological practice of reading “insights through one another” in response to the editors’ call for examples of analysis after coding in qualitative inquiry. A diffractive reading of data through multiple theoretical insights moves qualitative analysis away from habitual normative readings toward a diffractive reading that spreads thought in unpredictable patterns producing different knowledge. In response to the editors’ pedagogical approach for the issue, the article focuses on an example from previously collected interview data and how a diffractive analysis produces questions and knowledge that are only possible in analysis after coding in qualitative inquiry.