This week's episode explores arts-based data analysis and a strategy for teaching it to emerging researchers.
See our extended episode notes at https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/teaching-arts-based-analysis/.
This week's episode shares an open-access article from Teaching & Learning Inquiry and explores arts-based data analysis and a strategy for teaching it to emerging researchers:
Moreno, Rhia, Kate Hobgood Guthrie, and Katie Strickland. 2023. “Incorporating Arts-Based Pedagogy: Moving Beyond Traditional Approaches to Teaching Qualitative Research.” Teaching and Learning Inquiry 11. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.11.15.
This episode was hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of the Center for Engaged Learning and Professor of Professional Writing & Rhetoric. 60-Second SoTL is produced by the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University.
60-Second SoTL
Episode 43 – Teaching Arts-Based Analysis
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Jessie L. Moore:
How could teaching arts-based analysis empower novice researchers to reimagine sense-making in their data analysis? That’s the focus of this week’s 60-second SoTL from Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning. I’m Jessie Moore.
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In “Incorporating arts-based pedagogy: Moving beyond traditional approaches to teaching qualitative research,” published in the open access journal, Teaching & Learning Inquiry, Rhia Moreno, Kat Hobgood Guthrie, and Katie Strickland share their experiences as instructor, student, and guest scholar in a qualitative research course. The course was part of an online educational specialist graduate degree for primary and secondary school educators. The first half of the course focused on data collection, while the second half focused on data analysis and writing. Rhia Moreno, the course instructor, included units on reflexive analysis and thematic analysis prior to introducing students to creative analysis, the focus of this paper.
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Before jumping into the authors’ collaborative narrative about teaching – and practicing – creative analysis, I want to highlight two additional reasons to read this article:
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In the rest of this episode, I’ll focus on the authors’ description of the creative analysis pedagogy and Katie Strickland’s experience with it as an emerging researcher.
As a third round of iterative data analysis, Moreno asked students to engage with creative qualitative data analysis and shared examples of Kate Hobgood Guthrie’s thematic and poetic analyses to help illustrate how the analytical approach can shape data interpretation. Students created either a poetic reflection – a poem, song, rap, or other written reflection beyond the bounds of traditional conventions – or an artistic reflection – a sketching, drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, digital work, and so forth.
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The authors share that Katie Strickland initially created a visual artifact, combining emojis and words, but she subsequently also created a poetic reflection, writing three poems. Katie reflects that initially “creative analysis… felt foreign and too open.” As she translated participant interview responses into poetry, though, she realized she could “work toward honoring the voice of my participant through artistic representation.” Strickland continues, “I was able to deconstruct the meaning behind their words, body language, and practices using poetry to emphasize essential elements of this experience and to evoke the emotions they expressed.”
The authors include two of Katie’s poems in the article.
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Throughout their interwoven reflections, Moreno, Guthrie, and Strickland reiterate that their experiences with creative analysis amplified that there’s “no one way to think about data.” Their examples, though, highlight the potential of creative analysis to honor research participants’ voices, positionalities, and subjectivities, while creating what Guthrie calls a third voice for representing both the researcher and participants. In addition, the pedagogical sequencing they describe offers an innovative way to help emerging SoTL researchers experiment with data analysis strategies beyond the social science strategies often centered in conference and journal criteria.
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To learn more about creative analysis and this arts-based pedagogy, visit our show notes for a link to the open access article and related resources.
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Join us next week for another snapshot of recent scholarship of teaching and learning on 60-second SoTL from Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning. Learn more about the Center at www.CenterForEngagedLearning.org.
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