Inyeon as embodied inquiry and praxis in teaching and research: exploration of a Korean ethico-onto-epistemology of relationality

This study aims to introduce the Korean cultural concept and practice of inyeon and its implications for qualitative research. We take up this study in response to transnational/transcultural calls for decolonizing inquiry—centering ways of being and knowing without legitimizing them through Eurocentric perspectives. In this inquiry, we reconceptualize inyeon as an ethico-onto-epistemological phenomenon and orientation in qualitative research. Reflecting on our experiences as educators and scholars, we exemplify inyeon-conscious inquiry in teaching and scholarship, which is intertwined with the ways we exist, live, and communicate in pursuit of truths. This paper is our invitation for educators and scholars to engage in inyeon-conscious practices as a decolonizing (post-)qualitative research methodology, one that acknowledges interconnectedness with both human and non-human beings, recognizes agency, and embraces a nonlinear understanding of time and space.