Where to next with creative research methods

Abstract

Everyone is creative and has the capacity to work in creative ways. You may be an educator, future educator, teacher-researcher, artist-teacher, education researcher or any other professional working in a formal or informal education setting. Whatever your role, we want to inspire you to embrace working in creative ways and approach this work in ways that suit you right now. This is what we intend this book to provide. We wrote this book to be accessible for those considering creative methods for the first time who may be unsure where to begin, as well as to provide inspiration for those who are more experienced in using such methods. Our first aim was to demonstrate the practical applications of creative research methods for education research. As such, we have provided a plethora of case studies to offer numerous examples of creative research methods in education practice. We have offered reflective and discussion questions throughout to facilitate individual thought and collaborative discussion to support learning. These have been provided to spark ideas and support possibilities. This approach has been carefully aligned with our second aim, to provide you with an opportunity to engage with creative methods in consideration of your designing of research. This book bridges theory and practice, to inform and inspire you as educators and education researchers to conduct more creative research. We offer a starting point for the opportunity to be inspired and to be creative in your approach to research through all aspects of research. Creative research methods include arts-based research, digitally mediated research, mobile methods, embodied research, mixed-methods research, place-based research and transformative research frameworks such as participatory, feminist and activist research.