Arts informed Research: An Introduction Robyn Ewing

Arts informed Research:
An Introduction
Robyn Ewing
robyn.ewing@sydney.edu.au
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• 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
An Outline
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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
Towards a definition
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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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• …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.
Arts Informed Research
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Pursuing Art/ engaging in Art as the basis of inquiry
[Shaun McNiff’s Art-based Research (1998) or chapter in
Knowles and Cole (2008)].
Arts-Based Research
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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
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• 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
• 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:
of
The language of the academy and all that it
symbolized fell short in its ability to
capture and communicate the complexity
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 teacherperformers’ 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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• 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).
Challenging Questions
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• 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, rewriting, re-imaging and re-thinking’ (Weber and Mitchell, 2002,
p.121-2).
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• 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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• 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.
Useful references
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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
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