Expanding and sustaining arts-based educational research as practitioner inquiry

ABSTRACT

As practitioner inquiry is now established as a widely-recognized research tradition and flourishing movement for educational change, we might consider ways that practitioner inquiry could be conceptualized and executed to broaden implementation, deepen understanding, and sustain inquiry within teacher education. Arts-based research may be an ideal methodology for the extension and sustainment of such inquiry as its visual, performative orientation lends itself to participant engagement and provides access in the representation and dissemination of results. This article will put forth models for advancing arts-based practitioner inquiry within the field of teacher education, by drawing from multiple cycles of a dual-layered, ABER study. This vision of arts-based practitioner inquiry is that of inclusion, increasing the number of those who conduct and interact with research; collaboration, blurring boundaries between the inquiries of teacher educators and pre-service teachers; accessibility, tapping into the power of the arts to engage and communicate in ways that scientific language cannot; and continued engagement, using learning from one cycle to inform inquiry in the next.     

Dreaming of ‘nowhere’: A co-autoethnographic exploration of Utopia-dystopia in the academy

Abstract

In this postformal co-autoethnographic research, the authors explore the changing landscape of American research universities from their respective locations as mid-career, post-tenure critical pedagogy scholars. By using autobiographical narratives in parallel with a running discussion of rodent habits and habitats, they explore the influence of Enlightenment humanism and Western epistemology in a) forming ‘the academy’ as an institution, and b) regulating how research and knowledge production are taken up within a rapidly neoliberalizing context. They recalibrate their ‘theories of change’ to recast critical researchers and critical pedagogy in relation to a volatile and hostile institutional context. By moving away from progress narratives of education for social change, the authors posit that critical pedagogy and critical research can be thought of as akin to ‘wayfinding,’ providing guidance, direction and reprieve while within the disorienting and violent flux of neoliberalization.     

Researchers under the spell of the arts: Two decades of using arts-based methods in community-based inquiry with vulnerable populations

In the last decade, we have witnessed a growing number of published articles featuring arts-based methods. These methods have been picked up by researchers interested in education in, through and for communities. This scoping review focuses on the use of arts-based methods in community-based research. It was undertaken to provide an overview of how these methods are applied in research practice. Different databases were systematically searched, covering literature published over twenty years (1993–2013). We identified different types of arts-based methods. We described the reported rationales, benefits and limitations, and presented a definition of arts-based methods as used in community-based inquiry. Four challenges were reported: the need to support researchers to explore alternative analytical approaches, the need for methodological reflections, the need to reflect on the voice-component in this work, and the need to push the boundaries of what counts as ‘the’ academic standard. Despite the challenges involved in working on the thin line between art and research, the learning curve it creates for researchers, its value in terms of creating understanding and its capacity to engage participants makes it a worthwhile endeavor to invest in.     

Editorial

Along with the narrative turn in social sciences, the quality of research has become a more and more intricate issue. Action research reports are often narratives, located in the context of the evolving experiences of those involved. In this paper, the problem of quality in action research narratives is addressed, and some principles for assessing the quality of narrative research reports are proposed. The issue is explored both at a theoretical‐conceptual level and through a number of practical cases from the narrative‐biographical research project TeacherLife. As narrative researchers, the authors are not willing to accept an extremely relativistic stand. They argue the need for conceptual tools to grasp the problem of quality of narratives, but tools different from the traditional concepts of validity and reliability, which harbour markedly positivistic connotations. They propose five principles for judging the quality of action research from a narrative point of view. According to these principles, a good action research narrative firstly acknowledges the past course of events that have shaped the present practices (the principle of historical continuity). Secondly and thirdly, it is reflexive (the principle of reflexivity) and elaborates the story dialectically (the principle of dialectics). Fourthly, a decisive criterion for successful action research is that it produces some useable practices that, in one way or another, can be regarded as useful (the principle of workability). The authors agree with Aristotle, who claims that a good narrative involves a balance between ‘logos’, ‘ethos’ and ‘pathos’. They place emphasis on ‘ethos’ and ‘pathos’ through a principle of evocativeness. These criteria are not proposing as an established checklist, and the authors point to the overlap between some of them. They are drawn from experience in supervising action research projects, evaluating narrative reports and encouraging people to write authentic narratives of their research work.     

Contested Latitudes: When is Artwork Scholarship?

"Artwork scholarship" is defined in this context as a forum for inquiry that involves artful expressions, innovative experimentation and critical propositions informed by aesthetic characteristics as well as customary approaches for the advancement of the arts and education. ‘Latitudes’ in turn take into account the adaptations of artful expressions for educational purposes and the contributions of ongoing critique of art as scholarship. If we deliberate on the pedagogic turn to art as research in tandem with a disposition of latitudes, embracing the tensions of ongoing contestations implicated in such evolving conceptual geographies, arts‐based educational research (ABER) becomes a means to negotiate activities that articulate when is artwork scholarship, rather than what is art as research. In this way, latitudes as a proposition – metaphorically, pedagogically and spatially – is a potential mode for the mapping of theoretical, methodological and practical scholarly encounters, embracing the very tension that the arts evoke, and in the course of so doing, makes such work emergent and inclusive of creative possibilities.     

The Steward Street School experiment: a critical case study of possibilities

This article presents a critical case study of an inner city state school that for a decade (1940s–1950s) attracted the interest of a wide contingency of educationalists, policy makers, researchers, artists and various press and film media. It has been argued that if we are to progress ‘social alternatives’ in education, researchers need to construct ‘critical case studies of possibilities’ drawing inspiration from traces of experimental and utopian practice in schools from the past as well as the present. The article demonstrates how this might be achieved through research that questions dominant narratives, goes beyond the public accounts of particular sites of experimentation and explores multiple‐narratives embedded in the records of past practice. The authors argue that such situated counter‐currents in the history of education are necessary both to inform our collective notions of past experience and enrich our regard for future possibilities.     

Inhuman forms of life: on art as a problem for post-qualitative research

Researchers navigating the ontological turn in educational research have increasingly looked to art as an alternative to conventional modes of qualitative inquiry. However, the rapprochement between art and post-qualitative research remains problematic. While some see this turn coinciding with established genealogies in arts-based research, others suggest that existing models of arts-based inquiry are largely incompatible with the radical onto-epistemological orientations associated with post-qualitative research. This paper argues that the integration of art into the social sciences is far from settled, while also offering a series of speculative propositions for an inhuman aesthetics that is responsive to the ontological turn. This inhuman theory of art is elaborated through Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy, and extended through an analysis of collaborative artworks produced by undergraduate visual art students. This leads to a consideration of how post-qualitative approaches might enable mutual activations among art, philosophy, and social research.     

Deleuze,action research and rhizomatic growth

Deleuze and his colleagues, particularly Guattari, have had a profound impact on a number of fields of study. The authors argue that their work offers a range of images to help think about and write action research, a way that acknowledges and celebrates the complexities of the sites of action. The article has a divided structure, coherent with the style of Deleuze & Guattari. The authors present some Deleuzian ideas, particularly the concept of rhizomatic growth, and show how they might profitably be used to analyse and write accounts of action research, reflecting the multiplicities of practice, in this case within education. They have shown the potentialities of the ‘rhizome’ as a way to rethink the field of action research, imagining a new epistemology (in which the concepts work, rather than represent) and how the rhizome demands experimental forms of writing ourselves in action research. They show a cartography (of smooth and striated space) that is required to think rhizomatically about action research.     

Action research,stories and practical philosophy

This collaborative piece written by a philosopher/action researcher and an action researcher/philosopher explores the use of practical philosophy as a tool in action research. The paper explores the connection to be made between what we refer to, roughly, as ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ (while never losing hold of either). The connection is made around ideas of ‘practical philosophy’ and social justice. The authors suggest that ‘practical philosophy’ might develop as a ‘philosophy in human practices’. It begins from the understanding that philosophy is rooted in social practice, with philosophy in educational practices being rooted in educational practice. The paper goes on to explore the use of ‘little stories’ as a way into the diversity of significant particularities. Finally the links are drawn with action research. It is argued that the process of reconceptualisation is itself an action that will make a difference as part of a series of action research cycles.     

Martians in the playground: researching special educational needs

This article offers a critique of what has become known as ‘inclusive education’ under the New Labour administration. The initial impetus for the article was a research project designed to ascertain the impact of the ‘presumption of mainstreaming’ contained in Section 15 of the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000. This stipulates that the needs of disabled children and others with ‘additional support needs’ should be met in mainstream schools. The authors reflect on the implications of this change in terminology, and examine the consequences of the attendant ‘disappearance of disability’. They also explore how ‘inclusion’ became a largely self‐referential concept that has generally failed to attract critical scrutiny. The authors argue that a highly politicised and ideologically‐charged ‘mission inclusion’ has had the unfortunate effect of tightening the boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’. This, they argue, is demonstrated by the emergence of a significant new ‘‐ism’—disabilism—at a time when inclusion was already firmly embedded in New Labour policy.

Take me to the station

And put me on a train

I’ve got no expectation

To pass through here again.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, 1968, from the album Beggars Banquet

     

Applied Theater and Mixed-Status Families: A Collaborative Self-Study with Teacher Education Candidates

ABSTRACT

In this article, we narrate a self-study that emerged through a collaborative, arts-based inquiry around Latinx diversity, especially those arising from citizenship status at the individual and family level. Coming from distinct professional educational landscapes (theatre/drama education, middle/secondary education, and elementary education), we worked inter-disciplinarily to orchestrate a series of workshops for a cohort of elementary teacher education candidates. Our specific focus was rooted in the meanings that applied theatre teaching strategies suggested for us as teacher educators and for the teacher candidates we prepare to teach in schools. We also sought implications that might cultivate broader critical discourses within and across teacher education about diversity. Our blending of self-study with arts-based pedagogies was a purposeful effort to expand our students’ and our own professional subjectivities by disrupting xenophobic and racialized public discourse about national borders using play-based strategies to foster risk and generativity.     

Making and being made: wise humanising creativity in interdisciplinary early years arts education

This paper focuses on how wise humanising creativity (WHC) is manifested within early years interdisciplinary arts education. It draws on Arts Council-funded participatory research by Devon Carousel Project and University of Exeter’s Graduate School of Education. It is grounded in previous AHRC-funded research, which conceptualised WHC in the face of educational creativity/performativity tensions. WHC articulates the dialogic embodied inter-relationship of creativity and identity – creators are ‘making and being made’; they are ‘becoming’. The research used a qualitative methodology to create open-ended spaces of dialogue or ‘Living Dialogic Spaces’ framed by an ecological model to situate the team’s different positionings. Data collection included traditional qualitative techniques and arts-based techniques. Data analysis involved inductive/deductive conversations between existing theory and emergent themes. Analysis indicated that ‘making and being made’, and other key WHC features were manifested. We conclude by suggesting that WHC can help develop understanding of how creative arts practice supports the breadth of young children’s development, and the role of the creativity-identity dialogue within that, as well as indicating what the practice and research has to offer beyond the Early Years.     

Investigating teachers' ‘take-up’ of reflective practice from an In-service professional development teacher education programme in South Africa

One of the key phases in ‘the action research cycle’ is reflection (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988; McNiff, 1988). The extension of teachers' reflective capabilities is one of the stated goals of the University of the Witwatersrand's teacher education programmes. In this article aspects of the findings of a 3-year research project, which investigated teachers' ‘take-up’ from a mixed-mode, inservice professional development programme initiated by the university in 1996 are discussed. The research team has described the overall project as ‘a practice-based case study of cases’. Data sources included classroom observations, videotapes of some of the lessons observed, interviews with teachers, written teacher narratives and questionnaires, and samples of learners' work- all obtained from working with the same sample of primary and secondary school teachers of English, Mathematics and Science for each of the 3 years of the project. The authors engage with what counts as ‘evidence’ of the reflective practices of teachers and consider what factors might enable or constrain the development of reflective capability by teachers working in underresourced, multi-lingual contexts. They reflect on their practices as teacher educators and outline some changes to the programme that could assist teachers to become more reflective practitioners in their classrooms and schools.     

The Future of Evaluation: a retrospective

This article gives an account of the 5th International Conference on Educational Evaluation. It represents discrepant views of contemporary evaluative research, ranging from the ‘disinterested’ approach of Stake, through the pragmatic interventions of Stem, to the ‘committed’ standpoint of Troyna‐‐ the ‘hands‐off’, ‘hands‐on’ and the ‘hands‐up’ schools of evaluation. The authors offer a deconstruction of the conference debates and explore the reconceptualisation of evaluation roles and practices. They conclude (somewhat playfully) that the range of emotional and intellectual responses may be characterised by ‘post‐modern grief’.     

Online education as ‘vanguard’ higher education: exploring masculinities,ideologies, and gerontology

Drawing inspiration from Clegg’s [2008. “Femininities/masculinities and a Sense Self – Thinking Gendered Academic Identities and the Intellectual Self.” Gender and Education 20 (3): 209–221, 241] statement that ‘less traditional universities and areas of course provision and research might be important sites to investigate in relation to academic identity’, I undertake a single strategic case study of an expert, older, male critical educator, employed as an instructor in two ‘less traditional’, for-profit settings: one online university and one brick and mortar university. The article departs from a theoretical consideration of ‘future directions’ of three subfields: masculinities and higher education (HE) from critical and feminist perspectives, masculinities (and other identities) online (through the Internet research subfield of gender and technology), and masculinities and aging from critical and feminist gerontological perspectives. It employs the methodological strategy of ‘sketches’, arguing that these settings, which appear to position critical and feminist pedagogues in the proverbial ‘belly of the beast’, are important spaces in which to explore how a critical pedagogue navigates ‘less traditional’ HE settings.     

Singapore’s educational policy through the prism of student voice: recasting students as co-agents of educational change and ‘disrupting’ the status quo?

This paper examines the implementation of Singapore’s landmark policy, ‘Thinking Schools, learning Nation’ (TSLN), in developing ‘thinking students’ through the prism of student voice. In the context of twenty-first century education and the growing importance of student voice in education, this paper argues that the time might be right to ‘disrupt’ Singapore’s education status quo and incorporate meaningful student voice in education policies. Instead of perceiving students as mere subjects of educational policy enactment, and seeing policy as something that is done to them, it should be reconceptualised as something which is done with them; importantly, students should be recast as key co-agents of educational change, consistent with TSLN’s reconceptualization of learners as ‘thinking students’. Basing its arguments on findings from a qualitative case study of students’ perceptions and schooling experiences of critical thinking in TSLN, this paper considers the case for the inclusion of significant student voice in Singapore’s educational policy reforms. It fills gaps in research on student voices in Singapore’s educational reforms and TSLN’s research from students’ perspective. The paper suggests that the inclusion of student voice in educational reform might be the next landmark step in ‘disrupting’ its educational landscape after the ‘big bang’ of TSLN.     

Normalizing literary responses in the teacher education classroom

In this essay, the authors present analyses of data emerging from a study of a classroom of pre‐service English language arts teachers' readings of a young adult novel that challenged normative sexuality stereotypes. They argue that when literary fictions are included within teacher education ‘methods’ courses, the possibility that literature might support generative learning is eroded by the normative structures of teacher education, particularly those pedagogical beliefs and practices that separate discourses of experience from discourses of knowledge. The authors offer a brief overview of studies of human consciousness, with particular attention to how literary experiences can contribute to its development. They suggest that the identities that co‐emerge with conscious awareness are structured by normalizing discourses instantiated within teacher education methods courses. The essay concludes with a discussion of how the conscious awareness of beginning English teachers might be more expansively developed within pre‐service teacher education.     

Writing and Reading Subjects: Fixing and Unfixing Identity through Close Literary Practices

For a number of years, Rebecca Luce‐Kapler and Dennis Sumara have been investigating the ways in which literary practices of close reading can help change how we think and how we remember. They have also considered how such practices might help make us more critical of normative representations of remembered experience. More recently, they have been joined by Claire Robson, who works with and investigates memoir writing. In 2009, Robson and Sumara were joined by their six older lesbian research participants at a conference held at the University of British Columbia entitled ‘Queerly Canadian: Changing Narratives’. The six women performed extracts from memoirs they had written as part of the research data and joined the researchers in offering theories and insights about the writing processes in which the group had engaged. That presentation and this paper represent the evolution of a two‐year collaboration between these researchers and the six women, who are listed as co‐authors on both the presentation and this paper.