Arts-based Methods Research Articles

Syrian refugees’ vision for quality education in a Lebanese public school: a participatory visual research

This study explores the quality of education delivered to Syrian students in a public school in Lebanon. Concepts of agency and empowerment are at the heart of this discussion. To address the current lack of student-centred perspectives on schooling in this context, this study supplements the Capability Approach (CA) with a social justice framework and uses visual and art-based methods to gain insights into what these young people have reason to value. It examines the value of combining theoretical insights, analytical approaches and methods that share a commitment to honouring participant agency. Analysis of input from children advocates considering the concept of ‘care’ as an integral dimension to social justice in the context of this study. It also suggests the need for implementing negative and positive peacebuilding strategies and contemplating the relationship between art education and school violence. We argue for a whole-child approach to refugee education, drawing connections between cognitive academic learning and affective embodied wellbeing. We conclude the study by discussing these findings and shedding light on the significance of our theoretical and methodological choices and their potential to inspire future research endeavours and explorations.

Chronic pain experiences of immigrant Indian women in Canada: A photovoice exploration

ABSTRACT Background Over the past two decades, the prevalence of chronic pain has significantly increased globally, with approximately 20% of the world’s population living with pain. Although quantitative measures are useful in identifying pain prevalence and severity, qualitative methods, and especially arts-based ones, are now receiving attention as a valuable means to understand lived experiences of pain. Photovoice is one such method that utilizes individuals’ own photography to document their lived experiences. Aims The current study utilized an arts-based method to explore immigrant Indian women’s chronic pain experiences in Canada and aimed to enhance the understanding of those experiences by creating a visual opportunity for them to share their stories. Methods Twelve immigrant Indian women captured photographs and participated in one-on-one interviews exploring daily experiences of chronic pain. Results Women’s photographs, and description of these photographs, provided a visual entry into their lives and pain experiences. Three themes emerged from our analysis: (1) bodies in pain, (2) traversing spaces including immigration, and (3) pain management methods. Findings revealed that women’s representations of pain were shaped by a clash between culturally shaped gender role expectations and changing gender norms due to immigration processes. The use of photovoice visually contextualized and represented pain experiences, proving to be a valuable tool for self-reflection. Conclusions This research uncovers the multifaceted nature of chronic pain and identifies the influence of immigration, gender, and social relations on the exacerbation of pain in immigrant Indian women.

EXPLORING ARTS-BASED METHODS IN UNPAID CAREGIVING CONTEXTS: A SCOPING REVIEW

Introduction:Unpaid caregiving plays a crucial role in supporting older adults, requiring innovative approaches to understand and enhance caregivers' experiences. Research Objectives: As a response, this scoping review investigates the application of arts-based methods in understanding the caregiving experience, as well as the advantages and limitations of these methods in providing care to diverse populations. Methodology: Building on Arksey and O’Malley's framework, our methodology draws from the Joanna Briggs Institute approach. Eligibility criteria encompassed peer-reviewed publications in English from 2007 to 2022, focusing on unpaid caregivers, arts-based methods, and caregiving experiences. Six comprehensive databases were queried, with the initial searches yielding 761 articles. Full text screening of 66 papers resulted in 19 papers for inclusion in the scoping review. Results: Analysis of the literature revealed the multifaceted applications of arts-based methods in understanding and supporting unpaid caregivers. These encompassed a wide range of creative techniques, such as visual arts, photo elicitation, storytelling, and performance – which provided insights into the emotional, psychological, and social dimensions of caregiving. Findings highlighted the potential for arts-based methods to enhance caregiver well-being, foster self-reflection and self-care, and promote dialogue. Nonetheless, there were notable gaps. Racial and ethnic diversity was often neglected in the studies (addressed in 3 of 19), underscoring the necessity for tailored interventions and methodological considerations for diverse populations. Importantly, dementia caregiving received substantial attention (12 of 19). Final Considerations: This scoping review highlights the growing interest in integrating arts-based methods into caregiving research and interventions amongst qualitative and mixed methods approaches. By mapping out the landscape of existing literature, this review underscores the need for further exploration and methodological refinement to harness the full potential of creative techniques in advancing our understanding of unpaid caregivers' lived experiences. Arts-based approaches hold promise in providing a nuanced and holistic perspective on unpaid caregiving experiences.

Fiction-writing and wonder: documenting a collaborative, creative writing process

PurposeWe articulate cycles of creative storying and data analysis and the wonder that motivated the project by detailing our reading, thinking and writing processes to contribute to the conceptual and practical literature on collaborative writing as method.Design/methodology/approachThis paper documents a process of collaborative writing as method that produced a co-written fictional narrative that evokes questions about schooling.FindingsOur process began with world-building for our fictional future, creating characters to serve as a lens for analysis. From our discussions of the data, we crafted a plotline to present our themes in coherent story. As we explored and shared our readings, interdisciplinarity shaped our project in unique ways.Research limitations/implicationsThroughout, our collaboration and fiction-writing opened spaces for wonder, interdisciplinarity and joy that may inspire other researchers to engage in collaborative and/or creative writing processes.Originality/valueAdding to the rich literature of arts-based research methods, we contribute our reflections on the pragmatics of incorporating reading, writing and thinking for collaboration and creative writing as qualitative research methods for document analysis.

Using Arts-Based Methodologies: Facilitating First-Year Pre-Service Teachers' Collaborative Teaching of Cell Biology

Even with well-prepared lectures, some of my students still struggled to understand some of the concepts of cell biology. I therefore wondered if an exploration of teaching methods involving the arts would help them to engage with the subject content in ways that made it more accessible, and help them to understand the concepts better. Building on earlier approaches of using collaborative learning, I requested students to discuss, plan, and present to each other on cell biology concepts using arts-based teaching methods. In groups of 4-6 members, they could use any strategy such as dance, drama, music, poetry, and drawing to teach the concepts. The students collaboratively prepared content for a concept of their choice and presented it using their chosen and developed teaching strategy. Some of the strategies that students seemed to enjoy using included rapping the concepts, songs, dance, role play, and poetry. A few students resorted to individual PowerPoint presentations. The hope was that the enjoyment would translate into students' familiarisation with and understanding of the concepts better than through traditional teaching. Although the approach demonstrated that students could teach these concepts in versatile and fun ways, it did not assess their understanding of the concepts presented.

Experimenting with arts-based methods and affective provocations to understand complex lived experience of a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder

This article draws on arts-based psycho-social research to explore embodied and visceral knowing and feeling in the context of people living with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD). It presents a discussion of creative artworks solicited through a nation-wide online survey conducted in Australia in 2021 that generated intimate and affective understanding about living with a diagnosis of BPD. To investigate what lived experiences of distress associated with a BPD diagnosis communicate through sensation, emotion, image and affective capacity, the authors put to work Blackman's (2015) concept of “productive possibilities of negative states of being” and the broader theoretical framework of new materialism. This approach allows a more transformative feeling-with that exceeds the normative affective repertoires and scripts associated with a diagnosis of BPD. The authors recognise the often unspoken and invisible affects of complex mental distress and trauma, and purposefully open the space for affective and symbolic aspects of creative artworks to communicate what is less known or has less presence in dominant biomedical frameworks about living with a BPD diagnosis. The article foregrounds the lived and living experience of participants to generate experiential rather than clinical understandings of the diagnosis.

Beyond Aesthetics: Contemporary Art as an Answer to Critics Towards Arts-Based Methods in Organizations

Research showed that art could improve organizations through a kind of importation of artistic skills related to creativity and uncertainty management. Three critics have emerged to contest such artistic interventions in organizations: technical criticism, highlighting practical difficulties of the process; representational criticism which relies on social representations of art; conceptual criticism, which shows unbridgeable differences between art and management. This article explores contemporary art as a potential answer to these critics. Contemporary art gives up esthetic matters and does not need any know-how: everyone can practice it (technical answer). This post-esthetic art appears rather as a professional method than transcendental inspiration (representational answer). The difficult transition between these representations contributes to a greater creativity (conceptual answer). Switching to the paradigm of contemporary art shows the importance of the translation process between art and management, which should be placed at the heart of arts-based methods.

Animating migration journeys from Colombia to Chile: expressing embodied experience through co-produced film

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the process of co-producing an animated film about the migration journeys of Colombian women resident in Antofagasta, Chile. It first establishes the relationship between feminist epistemologies and arts-based methodologies, which hinges on embodiment. It then turns to a detailed discussion of using film co-production as a research method for accessing and expressing embodied experiences of migration. This discussion highlights how moments of discomfort (Gokariksel, Hawkins, Neubert, and Smith, 2021) experienced by the researcher motivated the search for a more collaborative methodological approach that was better attuned to lived experience. This included striving towards more inclusive practices with respect to recruitment, anonymity, and confidentiality. Moments of discomfort also revealed how care and caring responsibilities are entangled with research, and how they gender possibilities of participation and production for community co-producers and artists, as well as for researchers. Finally, through discomfort, lessons were learned about the politics of representing experiences of migration, violence, and endurance, as well as joy. The paper concludes that, whilst by no means a panacea, collaborative arts-based research methods can offer an innovative toolset for exploring embodied experience and for navigating the relational and representational complexities attendant to research.

Crafting arts-based stories of exile, resistance and trauma among Chileans in the UK

ABSTRACT In 2017 an exhibition of over 100 craft pieces created by Chilean political prisoners held in concentration camps during the military dictatorship, was launched in the UK along with an accompanying short film, ‘Crafting Resistance: the Art of Chilean Political Prisoners’. Drawing on these arts-based interventions, the paper reflects on the use of craft objects both as a symbol of political resistance and a means of initiating difficult conversations around forced political exile, trauma and mental health while creating space for people to ‘tell their stories’. Indeed, the paper contends that projects such as Crafting Resistance can ‘care for knowledge’ through the curation of craftwork while simultaneously creating space for counter memories. The analysis also highlights the changing relationship between the craft makers and the craftwork, argueing that placing the craft objects within the exhibition assigns a new role to the objects as they became part of a display of collective memories and potentially contribute towards collective healing. Finally, the paper advocates for greater recognition of the historical use of craft as a political expression, which to date has been relatively neglected in debates around the use of arts-based research and methods.

Pulling the strings: the apparatus of university policy production

ABSTRACT University governing bodies, especially academic boards, play a crucial role in policy formation. However, due to the predominance of managerial values over academic values in the policy-making process, a persistent divide exists between policy formulation and implementation. This divide results from the marginalisation of academics and the dominance of managerial authority figures within these bodies. Our study investigates the latter to determine the precise Foucauldian apparatus used by authority figures to influence policy-making meetings. Using an innovative arts-based method, we analyse ethnographic vignettes through a Foucauldian lens and transform them into collages depicting the apparatus used by authority figures: Strategic Managerial Monumentalism, Managerial Historical Revisionism, Managerial Discursive Dominance, Managerial Panoptic Surveillance, and Managerial Normalisation. We contend that only a well-defined separation of governance powers can effectively counter the encroachment of managerialism and uphold the democratic representation of academic values in university policies to bridge the policy-practice divide.

Experiences of grief and maltreatment among orphans in foster homes in Namibia

Orphans in SSA are often cared for in foster homes. Although there is no consistent picture of whether orphans experience more often than non-orphans child maltreatment, they are at risk of facing violence in their home situation. This study aimed to understand how Namibian orphans experience their treatment in foster care and how exposure to maltreatment influences their experiences of grief. An ethnographic design was used in which 46 children, adolescents, their carers and various experts in northern Namibia participated. Focus groups, individual interviews and art-based methods were used. The results show that the majority of the orphans experience a form of maltreatment, including differential treatment between themselves and the biological children in the household. Risk factors for child maltreatment are identified on child, carer and household level. Children and adolescents long for their parents when they are treated badly and feel the parent could have protected and comforted them, which shows the important role of having a secure foster home situation in coping with parental loss. Parenting interventions to positively influence the risk of child maltreatment in foster care are recommended.

Effects of Arts-Based Pedagogy on Competence Development in Nursing: A Critical Systematic Review.

The integration of arts-based methods into nursing education is a topic of growing interest in nursing practice. While there is an emerging body of research on this subject, evidence on competence development remains vague, largely due to methodological weaknesses. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the effectiveness of arts-based pedagogy in nursing, specifically in terms of students' changes in knowledge, skills, and attitudes. It explores which arts-based approaches to nursing education qualify as evidence-based practice in terms of nursing competence. A systematic critical review of research on arts-based pedagogy in nursing was conducted, identifying 43 relevant studies. These studies were assessed for methodological quality based on the CEC Standards for evidence-based practice, and 13 high-quality comparative studies representing a variety of arts-based approaches were selected. Creative drama was identified as the only evidence-based practice in the field, positively affecting empathy. The findings highlight a research gap in nursing education and emphasize the need for measurement and appraisal tools suitable for the peculiarities of arts-based pedagogy.

Arts-based methods as a trauma-informed approach to research: Making trauma visible and limiting harm

Trauma has become a global health epidemic which means that researching the experiences of those impacted is central to qualitative researchers' work. Subsequently, people affected by trauma may require support during the research process. In this paper, we outline how arts-based autoethnography and the methods of poetry, digital mixed media and drawing align with aspects of an evidence-based trauma-informed framework, highlighting their value when conducting qualitative trauma research. Examples of arts-based representations centring on Author 1's experiences of moving from ‘abuse victim’ to ‘abuse prevention advocate’ will show its application and potential benefits for conducting research with other trauma survivors/victims.

My Perfect Partner: Using Creative Methods to Address Gender Based Violence

Young people aged 16-24 are most at risk of relationship abuse and intimate partner violence, The UK definition of domestic violence includes incidences of abuse between people aged 16 or over, but young people below the age of 16 are also at risk of relationship abuse. Relationship education became compulsory in schools in England and Wales in September 2020. There is increasing recognition of the need for whole school approaches to prevent gender-based violence from happening in the first place, and for equipping schools to teach relationship education and to feel more confident supporting young people affected by gender-based violence (GBV). Drawing on our experiences of delivering relationship education in both mainstream and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) schools in England since 2012, this paper argues creative arts-based methods can be an effective tool in DA prevention and intervention. The paper explores young peoples views of healthy and unhealthy relationships, and ideals of the 'perfect partner', mediated through gender, body image and social media. We present material co-produced with young people in school, including art, drama, poetry and song. We discuss how creative methods are useful as both a research and prevention tool, and the social impact of research derived knowledge on both participants and the wider school community.

Anti-oppressive pedagogy in dance/movement therapy education: Embodied experiences of black, indigenous, and students of color

This study explored the embodied graduate educational experiences of dance/movement therapy students who were Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Eight research participants who were between the ages of 22 to 45 years old were recruited from American Dance Therapy Association approved programs. Participants self-identified as Black/African American and Jamaican, Black/African American, Latinx/Brazilian, Asian/Chinese, Asian/Filipino, Asian/Chinese and Taiwanese American, and Asian/Chinese and White American. A qualitative research design based in phenomenology and arts-based methods grounded in anti-oppressive research were used. Two semistructured interviews and 1 week of embodied observation and journaling were part of data collection. Themes included four embodied states and eight embodied substates. The embodied state, wounded body, spoke to harm that occurred with peers, instructors, and course materials. The embodied state, critical body, included contemplation or action about injustices or inequities for marginalized groups. The embodied state, intersectional body, encompassed participants’ awareness, understanding, and choices around conformity to social norms of their own intersectional identities. The embodied state, flourishing body, were the conscious and unconscious efforts of resourcing through various interpersonal and intrapersonal supports. The findings, in combination with research in the literature, were used to suggest seven recommendations for an embodied anti-oppressive pedagogy in dance/movement therapy.

Centring animal experience through comics-based research: The case of Pavlov’s dogs

The focus of this article is the collaborative creation of Pavlov and the Kingdom of Dogs, a graphic nonfiction novel aimed at highlighting the lives of dogs experimented upon by Ivan Pavlov in late 19th and early 20th-century Russia. The novel delves into the intricate human-canine relationships within the context of St. Petersburg’s scientific, cultural, and political landscape. The collaboration between a researcher, a professional illustrator, and a script editor aimed to challenge anthropocentric narratives prevalent in historical representations of Pavlov and experimental science. Rooted in animal studies and psychology, this project explores the potential of arts-based methods to centre animals and their relationships within historical contexts. It aims to deepen depictions of animal experiences and agency while bridging the gap between human-animal studies and psychology, where attention to animal lives in research settings remains limited. By focusing on Pavlov’s experiments, the project seeks to redefine experimental animals as active historical subjects, contributing to broader discussions on human-animal relationships and ethical responsibilities. The article delineates the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the graphic novel, provides insights into the comics-based research process, and discusses the affordances and challenges of this approach. It concludes by reflecting on the potential of comics-based research to engage both academic and public audiences, ultimately advocating for a deeper understanding of human-animal entanglements and their implications in contemporary society.

Reflections on arts-based research methods in refugee mental health: The role of creative exercises in nurturing positive coping with trauma and exile

Abstract In the field of refugee mental health research, scholars have emphasized the ethical obligation for research practices to benefit participants. They have proposed that research participation itself can promote positive coping in the aftermath of migration. In this article, we aim to advance the understanding of the benefits of arts-based research methods (ABRM) in how they may nurture participants’ positive coping during their experiences as research participants. To do so, we depart from the findings from three drama-based mental health interventions conducted with refugee and migrant young people resettled in Europe on the role creative processes might play in fostering coping. We develop a reflection on how ABRM may tap into these processes to strengthen refugees’ coping and well-being, ultimately supporting ethical research practices. In the final section, we discuss the value of integrating ABRM in refugee mental health research that embeds similar creative processes in their methodological repertoire.

Conducting collage elicitation research online: what happens when we remove the scissors and glue?

PurposeThis autoethnographic article presents the adaptation of collage—an arts-based method traditionally used in face-to-face settings—into an online research tool. It emphasizes the increased relevance of such a transition in the wake of the digital shift and the Covid-19 pandemic. The work aims to reveal how digital collages can facilitate in-depth participant responses in a time when conventional research settings are inaccessible.Design/methodology/approachThe article incorporates autoethnographic vignettes, which are identified in italics, that offer insights into my personal reflections on the transition and adaptation to an online mode. Firstly, I review how collage can be a valuable tool to include in focus groups and for elicitation during semi-structured interviews. Secondly, I review the challenges I experienced when conducting focus groups online to create the collages. Thirdly, I explore, in more detail, three examples of collages that reflect the diverse ranges that were produced and the insightful discussions that emerged from the participants describing the visual elements of their collages. Finally, the reflective nature of my autoethnographic vignettes provides an insight into the world of the researcher during this turbulent time.FindingsFindings show that collage, whether physical or digital, remains an effective tool for eliciting nuanced understandings from participants. The research contributes to the arts-based research narrative by showcasing how the digital adaptation of collage methods can yield profound insights into participants' perspectives, therefore enriching the data beyond what traditional interviews could unveil.Originality/valueThese observations can provide support for other researchers who are contemplating the adoption of online arts-based research methods. Understanding how traditionally face-to-face arts-based research methods can be adapted for the digitally evolving landscape is important for shaping the future of online research.

Understanding lived experiences and perceptions of resilience in black and South Asian Muslim children living in East London: a qualitative study protocol

IntroductionIt is important to promote resilience in preadolescence; however, there is limited research on children’s understandings and experiences of resilience. Quantitative approaches may not capture dynamic and context-specific aspects of...

Unmasking brain injury: Arts-based methods of communicating emotional experiences of ABI

Unmasking brain injury: Arts-based methods of communicating emotional experiences of ABI