Arts-based educational research spans a wide variety of methods and practices which draw upon creative approaches to the generation, analysis and representation of research data and findings. LLED has been traditionally a hub for this kind of research and inquiry, with faculty and graduate students contributing to the development of methodologies, often involving interdisciplinary collaborations using multimodal and multimedia practices. Some of these areas of foci include: Poetic Inquiry, Literary Analysis, Narrative Inquiry, A/R/Tography, Research Based Theatre, Textual literacies, Digital Arts-Based Research, Ecopoetics, Environmental Humanities, Storytelling, Intersectionality, and Performative Inquiry.

A unifying principle of this research area is that rather than strive for “objectivity” and generalizability in research outcomes, arts-based approaches invite scholars to reassess the power hierarchies among researchers, artists, participants, and learners, drawing on relational models of collaboration and co-creation. Arts-based methods also afford opportunities for how lifeworlds are constructed not solely by factual or empirical accounts, but also by engaging in creative processes across a variety of epistemologies and ontologies. In addition, arts-based research highlights intersubjective understanding and the heightened role of aesthetics in interpretation and telling the story of data.

Masters of Children’s Literature
UBC iSchool