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Arts informed Research: An Introduction

Robyn Ewingrobyn.ewing@sydney.edu.au

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An Outline

• Towards a definition of Arts Informed Inquiry• Towards a rationale for using the Arts in

research where appropriate• Some exemplars from this faculty• Challenging questions

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Towards a definition

No single definition!! An umbrella, big picture term.

Various terms – can be confusing.

Some examples: Arts informed research Arts informed inquiry Arts based inquiry Arts based research

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Relationships / blurred boundaries with, for example,

• practice-led and practice-based research

• some phenomenological research

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Examples of arts informed methodologies:

• Narrative inquiry

• Performance based research

• Theatre/ based research

• Portraiture

• Patchwork

• A/r/tography

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Arts Informed Research

• …the process and forms of researching and representation are informed by the arts rather than being based in them or even, perhaps, about them. (Cole and Knowles, 2008, p.219)

• Arts and arts processes for systematic inquiry not for arts own sake (Diamond and Mullen, 1999) – open to all.

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Arts-Based Research

Pursuing Art/ engaging in Art as the basis of inquiry [Shaun McNiff’s Art-based Research (1998) or chapter in Knowles and Cole (2008)].

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• the presence of ambiguity or openness

• the use of expressive and/or contextualised language as appropriate

• the promotion of empathy or engagement with the audience/reader/viewer

• the presence of an aesthetic form or forms (literary, visual and/or performing) in data collection and/or analysis and/or representation and/or dissemination of the research findings

Guiding Principles

• the relationship of integrity between the research topic or issue and its form

• the opportunity to explore multiple perspectives around the research question(s) dilemma(s)

• reflexivity and the personal signature or presence of the researcher/ writer

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• aims to be transformative – potential to draw a wide audience to engage with the findings (developed from Barone & Eisner, 1997, pp. 73 -78 and Knowles and Cole, 2008, p. 61-2)

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Arts Informed Research provides a set of tools/processes that are usually different from those traditionally employed in social science research

These processes/tools are based on particular epistemological and ontological assumptions and useful in investigating particular questions, dilemmas, experiences and issues.

Different research questions require different methodologies and tools – not appropriate for all research questions.

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• Towards new paradigm spaces or pushing new boundaries?

• Allows us to feel/explore issues related to human experience, dilemmas, issues, teaching and learning:

The language of the academy and all that it symbolized fell short in its ability to capture and communicate the complexity of human experience in all its diversity

(Knowles and Cole, 2008, p.57)

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Some examples of arts informed research in this faculty:

1. Early career teachers’ narratives (Ewing and Manuel, 2005; Anderson, 2004)

2. The Hungarian in Australia: A portfolio of belonging (Cutcher, 2004).

3. Storytelling and early career teacher identity (Campbell, 2013)

4. Teaching is my Art now (Stanley, 2008). Collages and novelette of five early career Visual Arts Teachers

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5. The quiet child in the classroom (Shields 2001).

6. Self study of an early career academic through stories involving ‘the other’ (Yoo, 2008)

7. Digital storytelling to improve students’ cultural understanding and English proficiency(McGeoch, 2007, 2012)

8. Affective qualities of outstanding tertiary teachers (Hodson, 2012)

9. Social and emotional well being of children through portraiture and patchwork (Brunker, 2013)

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Narratives/vignettes portray the complexity of expectations and aspirations of early career teachers with actual experiences – helps teacher educators, principals, policymakers etc. understand why retention is a key issue for the future of the profession – extends our knowledge about teacher attrition and the importance of effective mentoring beyond the surveys and statistics. Used in professional development of mentors as well as with final year pre-service teachers.

Narratives of early career teachers

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Gibson and Ewing (2007 and 2008) aimed to use images and symbol to:

• renew final year pre-service teachers’ own creative processes

• facilitate their exploration of their teaching identities at this stage of their professional journey

• encourage them to consider the implications for the future students in their classrooms.

Collage and metaphor

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• Stanley (2008) sought to capture her own and that of four other artists/early career visual arts teachers through collages and a novelette. Findings contributed to both early career and early career Visual Arts research. Public exhibition informed the wider community.

Collage and novelette

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Performance based on four early career teacher-performers’ personal stories interwoven and thematically linked to a retelling of ‘the Selkie myth’ (Campbell 2012, 13). Storying related to early career teacher identity.

The Selkie Project (Campbell, 2013)

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• Case studies exploring children’s experiences of an exhibition in an art gallery.

• Looks at the voices and vision of young children making sense of Art.

• Explores how adults might respond to this meaning making.

Young children & aesthetic experiences (Lea Mai, 2013)

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Uses digital storytelling to examine the role of the teacher in students’ developing intercultural understanding during TESOL and EFL classes.

Adventures with selves (McGeoch, 2007, 2008, 2012)

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Promotes empathy & empathic understanding: INTERSUBJECTIVITY (researcher’s ability to reconstruct the perspectives of the subject of the inquiry within themselves). Therefore important for teacher education, learning to learn, teacher thinking, learning to teach, reflection and social work, health…

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Challenging Questions

• What types/sorts of research issues/questions might be best investigated using arts informed inquiry?

Exploring, analysing or representing individuals’ experiences or understandings about complex Ambiguous phenomena or concepts – the ‘liminal’ spaces and places. (Conroy, 2002).

• What criteria do we employ to judge the quality of an arts informed inquiry? What are the canons ?

Strong warrants (Berliner, 2001), authenticity, relatability, verisimultude etc, but also can be interrogated more broadly by the wider community.

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• Is narcissism/self infatuation/adoration a problem? If so, how can this be prevented?

Can benefit many as well as the individual who has engaged in the inquiry.

• How can self awareness and critical scrutiny be maintained?

Transparency

Rigour, discipline, and‘systematic re-visiting, re-questioning, re-writing, re-imaging and re-thinking’ (Weber and Mitchell, 2002, p.121-2).

• You cannot define the final outcome when you are planning to do the work….In the creative process, the most meaningful insights often come by surprise, unexpectedly and even against the will of the creator…the examination of meaning through the process of creative expression. (McNiff, 2008, p. 40)

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• …arts-based methodologies bring both arts and social inquiry out of the elitist institutions of academe and art museums, and relocate inquiry within the realm of the local, personal, everyday places and events.

(Finley, 2008, p.72)

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• Is it possible to undertake arts informed inquiry and represent/report this research only using art forms? (ie., no explanatory written text)

In our faculty at the University of Sydney all art has always been accompanied by a written submission.

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…both schools and teachers are embodiments of contradictory and ambiguous attitudes (Conroy, 2002,p.121).

Arts-informed inquiry enables us to push the boundaries of more traditional research methodologies to gain new insights and understandings about the liminal.

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Useful references

• Barone, T. (2001). Touching Eternity. New York: Teachers College Press.

• Cole, A. and Knowles, J.G. (2008) (Eds). Handbook of the arts in qualitative research: Perspectives methodologies examples, and issues. Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage.

• Cole, A. & McIntyre, M. with Burns, L. (2006). Living and dying with dignity: The Alzheimer’s project. Halifax, NS: Backalong Books.

• Conroy, J. (2004). Betwixt and between: the liminal imagination, education and democracy. New York: Peter Lang.

• Cutcher, A. (2004). The Hungarian in Australia: A Portfolio of Belongings. Unpublished PhD, University of Sydney.

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• Ewing, R. & Gibson, R. (2007)Creative teaching or teaching creatively. Waikato Journal of Education(Special issue on Creative Research in the Arts) 13,159—178.

• Ewing, R. & Smith, D. (2004). Locating new epiphanies. In A. Cole, L. Neilsen, J.Gary Knowles & T. Luciani (eds) Provoked by Art. Theorizing Arts-informed Research. Nova Scotia: Backalong Books.

• Ewing, R. & Hughes, J. (2008). Arts informed inquiry in teacher education: Contesting the myths. European Journal of Teacher Education Research Journal 7 (4) 512-22.

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• Hughes, J. (2003). Performing Shakespeare: A reconstructed student teacher’s tale. Drama Australia Journal (NJ). Vol 27 (2) pp 53-63.

• Hughes, J. & Howard, M. (2005). Shakespeare and Gay Youth at Risk. Risky Business Symposium: The Creative Arts as an Intervention Activity for Young People at Risk. The University of Melbourne 20-22 October.

• Gibson, R. & Ewing, R. (2005). Integrating the creative arts (with integrity). Policy and Practice in Education, Vol. 12 (1,2), pp. 29-43

• McGeoch, K. (2005). Creating children’s theatre: A novice playwright’s process. Unpublished MEd dissertation, faculty of Education & Social Work, University of Sydney.

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• Mortimer, A. (2001). Progressive education: The lived experiences of Currambena school 1969 to 2001. Master of Teaching Honours thesis. Faculty of Education & Social Work, University of Sydney.

• Shields, B. (2001). The quiet child: A personal journey from exclusion to inclusion. Unpublished Master of Teaching thesis, University of Sydney