The politics of collaboration: Developing research praxis through artful inquiry (original) (raw)

2018, Art Inquiry Research Group Symposium

Educational research over the years has argued for the importance of developing teacher praxis to improve practitioner performance in the classroom (e.g., Imbert & Ardonio, 1985; Justice & Tenore, 2018). Drawing from this research, we consider how similar ideas may be applied to developing ‘researcher praxis’, that is identifying ways of being (epistemological), ways of knowing (ontological) and ways of doing (methodological) researchers apply to their practice. This presentation outlines the methods and findings of a broader research project into the politics of collaboration (Chan & Clarke, 2014) and its impact on researcher identity in the realm of higher education research. In this presentation, three researchers discuss an artful inquiry they each undertook as a means of re-negotiating their understanding of the concept of “collaboration”, a focal point shared in their research practice. Each researcher created their own inquiry to explore the concept: one visual (painting), one tactile (creating a board game) and one gustatory (baking cupcakes). Situated within an arts-based educational research framework (Barone, 2008), narrative analysis (Wells, 2011) served to uncover conceptual overlap among the three researchers. Findings reveal that engaging in interactive negotiation, rotational leadership for the purpose of dismantling hierarchy, relational aspects, unpredictability, trust, and bringing the self to the group are key facets of collaboration for this group of researchers. The aim of this presentation is to outline one potential method for artful inquiry into key research concepts and practices among academics for the purpose of fostering researcher praxis.