RES 012. Research methods in the arts and humanities. First edition

A training course that forms part of Epigeum's Research Skills Master Programme.

Traversing theory and transgressing academic discourses : arts-based research in teacher education

Pre-service teacher education is marked by linear and sequential programming which offers a plethora of strategies and methods (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Darling Hammond & Bransford, 2005; Grant & Zeichner, 1997). This paper emerges from a three year study within a core education subject in preservice teacher education in Australia. This ‘practitioner’ research (Zeichner, 1999) engaged the problematics of authentic and meaningful learner-centred teaching and learning through an arts-based curriculum. Over the period of the study, two hundred and eighty pre-service teachers participated in a ‘dialogical performance’ (Conquergood, 2003) of pedagogy about curriculum and assessment through the construction of art about curriculum and assessment. The possibilities of an arts-based pedagogy in pre-service education were affirmed by the research. An enacted epistemological move by the teacher educators led to similar shifts by the students. This opened a space for the reappearance of learner through engagements with identities, positionings and agency. This was an act of ‘putting theory to work’ (Lather, 2006, 2007) and invoked transgressive practices of academic discourses.

Finding aesthetic form inside the tome: the doctorate and arts based educational research

 In this paper we outline how the elements and forms of arts informed research can be used in doctoral education. Drawing on Cole and Knowles (2008) interrogation of the elements and forms of arts informed research, we rework their questions and apply them to the Australian model of the Doctor of Philosophy and consider the possibilities for arts based educational research within this model; its impacts on the doctorate itself and our role as supervisors. In the paper we ask: How can the arts (broadly conceived) inform the doctoral research process? How can the arts inform the representational form of doctoral research? What might this mean for us as supervisors? In our discussion we draw upon our work as researchers and supervisors, and consider Halse's (2011) concept of the ‘supervision as becoming’ (p. 569). Through an analysis of our supervision practices we reframe supervision as becoming in part, beyond a practice of hierarchical relationships and/or becoming as the mirror of the supervisor. Rather, we offer an explanation of research training and credentialing as taking forward a vision of new practices which although they are informed by the arts and arts based practices are however not risk averse. While we agree with Cole and Knowles (2008) to connect the work of the academy with the life and lives of communities through research that is accessible, evocative, embodied, empathic, and provocative is productive, something else is required in these times. SuperVision, is required both on the part of the candidate and the supervisors and/or supervisory panel to ensure that the PhD is executed in a way that can meet the university requirements and further is enabling of a sustainable career pathway beyond the initial doctoral education.

External impact of arts management research: An extended analysis

Arts management is a discipline whose research domain has grown in impact over the last quarter century.This study provides an external thematic, content and citation analysis of arts management articles in top-tiermainstream management and marketing journals between 1987 and 2010. It explicates article, author andcitation frequencies based on author information, publication patterns and thematic citation metrics, thuscontributing to the development of the arts management body of knowledge. Specifically, the study examinesthe function of arts management research as a bridging mechanism to its parent disciplines in managementand marketing. The authors identify thematic citation metrics of research published in mainstream journalsas well as frequencies and publication patterns, so that scholars can make decisions affecting their futureresearch directions. The authors conclude that there is little correlation between age/rank of journal andfrequency of citations, with younger journals becoming established as key players within relatively shortperiods.

A virtuous circle: the positive evaluation phenomenon in arts audience research

Arts impact evaluation is the subject of widespread criticism, ranging from a detailed critique of methodology to a wholesale rejection of the very purpose of the endeavour. In particular, it is often identified that audience evaluations are almost always positive. Yet whatever the critique, arts impact evaluation is becoming more and not less prevalent as a condition of public and philanthropic funding. This article explores both the methodologicaland conceptual problems that contribute to the perceived positive characterof social impact research, in two parts: (1) an investigation of the critical literature on audience evaluation, particularly in relation to the argument that evaluation is inevitably positive and as such leads to a confusion between the goals of evaluation and arts advocacy; (2) a reflection on our practices as audience researchers in the performing arts and the practical factors that contribute to the dominance of the positive in audience evaluation.

Descriptive catalogue of the exhibit of the Wellcome Chemical Research Laboratories at the International Exposition, St. Louis, 1904 : exhibit no. 15. British Chemical Section. Liberal Arts Building.

Key plan to exhibit on inside of front cover.

Wells's natural philosophy : for the use of schools, academies, and private students. Introducing the latest results of scientific discovery and research; arranged with special reference to the practical application of physical science to the arts and the experiences of every-day life. With three hundred and seventy-five engravings /

Mode of access: Internet.

A dictionary of chemistry, exhibiting the present state of the theory and practice of that science, its application to natural philosophy, the processes of manufactures, metallurgy, and numerous other arts dependant on the properties and habitudes of bodies, in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. With a considerable number of tables, expressing the elective attractions, specific gravities, comparative heats, component parts, combinations, and other affections of the objects of chemical research. Illustrated with engravings.

Paged continuously.

From art for arts sake to art as means of knowing:a rationale for advancing arts-based methods in research, practice and pedagogy

This paper advances a philosophically informed rationale for the broader, reflexive and practical application of arts-based methods to benefit research, practice and pedagogy. It addresses the complexity and diversity of learning and knowing, foregrounding a cohabitative position and recognition of a plurality of research approaches, tailored and responsive to context. Appreciation of art and aesthetic experience is situated in the everyday, underpinned by multi-layered exemplars of pragmatic visual-arts narrative inquiry undertaken in the third, creative and communications sectors. Discussion considers semi-guided use of arts-based methods as a conduit for topic engagement, reflection and intersubjective agreement; alongside observation and interpretation of organically employed approaches used by participants within daily norms. Techniques span handcrafted (drawing), digital (photography), hybrid (cartooning), performance dimensions (improvised installations) and music (metaphor and structure). The process of creation, the artefact/outcome produced and experiences of consummation are all significant, with specific reflexivity impacts. Exploring methodology and epistemology, both the "doing" and its interpretation are explicated to inform method selection, replication, utility, evaluation and development of cross-media skills literacy. Approaches are found engaging, accessible and empowering, with nuanced capabilities to alter relationships with phenomena, experiences and people. By building a discursive space that reduces barriers; emancipation, interaction, polyphony, letting-go and the progressive unfolding of thoughts are supported, benefiting ways of knowing, narrative (re)construction, sensory perception and capacities to act. This can also present underexplored researcher risks in respect to emotion work, self-disclosure, identity and agenda. The paper therefore elucidates complex, intricate relationships between form and content, the represented and the representation or performance, researcher and participant, and the self and other. This benefits understanding of phenomena including personal experience, sensitive issues, empowerment, identity, transition and liminality. Observations are relevant to qualitative and mixed methods researchers and a multidisciplinary audience, with explicit identification of challenges, opportunities and implications.