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This paper explains a collaborative self-study research project that included an evolving arts-based inquiry (ABI) approach. The combined experiences of a visual artist/art educator and a drama educator, informed the design and use of ABI strategies to investigate practices of Australian teacher educator-researchers. These strategies are shared along with results from interviews that reveal the dynamics and value of this particular model of ABI within a larger research project.

ABI was included in the methodology of collaborative self-study. It involved listening to participants’ arts-based and written responses then basing the next provocations on these outcomes. This gave ownership to the group members and reinforced the community of practice foci.

ABI challenged academic identities and practices. It allowed for more enjoyment in the workplace, for reflection and reflective practice to develop. It provided opportunities for shifting perspectives and perceiving teaching practice differently, inspiring more creativity in teaching. It also improved relationships with co-workers and held the group together.

The authors share this research to recommend others a way to collaborate within group research projects.

The authors found it vital to have a co-ABI facilitator from within the group to collaborate with, in order to develop the most appropriate ABI provocations within an emerging research project.

This model of research can generate honest and in-depth insights for participants (members of a community of practice) as to how and why they do the work (practices) they do.

The study’s use of ABI offers an original perspective in the use of this methodology.

Purpose – The purpose of the chapter is to introduce visual methods and, more specifically, arts-based forms of visual methods, as an innovative and emerging research approach within the study of sport and physical culture. The chapter examines the use of art and aesthetics as research data and as a representation issue. It draws upon the case of a research-based arts exhibition to represent and communicate research on bodies.

Design/methodology/approach – The chapter details an international collaborative research project exploring the impact of health policies and their imperatives on schools in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The research formed the focus of an arts-based exhibition involving artists’ interpretations of the authors’ research findings. The chapter addresses salient epistemological and ontological issues of ‘representation’ and ‘interpretation’ in visual methods.

Findings – The chapter reveals how the use of arts-based approaches to research do not simply ‘represent’ research, but are constructive in the generation of new insights and forms of knowledge.

Research limitations/implications – The challenges of using arts-based and visual approaches to research are highlighted, particularly in terms of issues of knowledge interpretation. The ways in which these methods allow for lines of sight into life that written texts do not are highlighted.

Originality/value – The chapter provides an introduction to the use of arts-based visual methods in sport and physical culture research. Rather than focusing on visual methods solely as an approach to the collection of data, the chapter extends the discussion around visual methodology to include its use as a form of interpretation that generates and translates knowledge from a new perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the dynamics of submitting arts-based research in a climate that is dominated, in the UK, by the social sciences.

It begins by taking a view on arts-based research, considering mainly Eisner and Dewey but exploring the possibilities of other forms such as baroque research. It goes on to look at some examples of arts-based research that has been carried out, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The authors conclude by saying that interdisciplinary research, while being encouraged by research councils, is also made more difficult by these same research councils’ funding structures.

The authors consider that this has an effect on defining what educational research is and could be. The authors argue that this is important not only in relation to the range of disciplinary perspectives that can be drawn upon within educational settings, for example, the need to engage with disciplines such as English, History, Philosophy, Music and Fine Art, but also in relation to methodological understandings of how research should be conducted within educational settings.

The research studies are arts based but with an original educational orientation.

Research problems focused on sustainability, such as changes to procurement practices, are new which necessitate new approaches to research methods. The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of an arts‐based inquiry technique to supplement a mixed‐methods approach.

This paper presents an application of arts‐based inquiry techniques as part of the qualitative analysis regime to communicate the approaches adopted by Australian organisations introducing sustainable procurement utilising the medium of collage.

Arts‐based inquiry is found to offer organisational research several complementary features. It engages multiple audiences in different “ways of seeing” and engaging with research.

Arts‐based techniques demonstrated in this paper offer sustainability and other researchers a complementary method of inquiry, to communicate change in society by opening the discourse between art, transdisciplinarity and sustainability, and to engage with multiple audiences in the process of change.

Drawing on findings from the project ‘Walking around with our cameras’ (2014–16), this chapter explores educative and methodological implications of arts-based research. The project on which this chapter is based was conducted in Bilbao (Spain) by two local organizations: Sala Rekalde, a contemporary art gallery; the Institute of Human Rights of Deusto University, a local artist and a group of migrant women. Analysis of this project offers insights into the ways that artistic practices afforded unique opportunities for migrant women to reconstruct and represent their migratory experiences. This chapter sheds light on the ways that participatory arts-based research can move across disciplines and enhance effective achievement on collaborative projects that work to give voice to the voiceless.

There is an urgent need in terms of changing world conditions to move beyond the dualist paradigm that has traditionally informed design research, education and practice. Rather than attempt to reduce uncertainty, novelty and complexity as is the conventional approach, an argument is presented in this article that seeks to exploit these qualities through a reconceptualisation of design in creative as well as systematic, rigorous and ethical terms. Arts‐based research, which ‘brings together the systematic and rigorous qualities of inquiry with the creative and imaginative qualities of the arts’, is presented as being central to this reconceptualisation. This is exemplified in the application of art‐informed inquiry in a research unit for graduating tertiary‐level interior design students. The application is described in this article and is shown to rely substantially on the image and its capacity to open up and reveal new possibilities and meaning.

This 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.

The 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.

Findings 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.

These 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.

The purpose this paper is to consider festivals as sites for inquiry and learning.

The research employed a pluralistic approach to the inquiry drawing on critical African-centred pedagogy, participatory action research, and performance as research inquiry. These arts-based research methods allowed insights to be gained in ways that were congruent to the arts and participants who enacted them. In total, 12 young people and six elders of diverse African heritage as well as two artists were participants in the research.

The research revealed that the festival as a research methodology was both dialogic and performative and a rich site for the exploration of identity negotiation. Through these arts-based approaches the aesthetic elements often missed by traditional social science methods were highlighted as key in exploring acculturation socialistaion experiences and deconstructing exclusionist discourses emanating from the dominant culture.

The research affirmed the power of multi-modal approaches to research and the importance of evocative discourses in identity exploration and development.

This research is the first known attempt to theorise an arts-based festival as a research approach in reference to enculturation and cultural memory.

This study explores the experiences of five high school–aged youth involved in creative writing and poetry slam performances operated by a nonprofit organization in the city of Houston, Texas. Seeking to understand how poetry may have helped the youth in this study, Multiple Literacies Theory (MLT) (Masny & Cole, 2007) is used as an interpretive tool in this paper. In addition, the literary writing style of bildungsroman, or writing that reflects on one's worldview and personhood through lived experiences, is discussed as part and parcel to the poet's process because of the personal narratives used in their poetry. Narrative inquiry methodology was used in this longitudinal study because it allowed fluid ways of analyzing emergent sociocultural issues faced by the participants, who identified as Black, LGBTIQ, Asian American and also indicated intersectional, marginalized life experiences. It is hoped that this study will outline some of the benefits of art-based education and bildungsroman for marginalized learners, as well as inspire further research into art-based pedagogies and assessments, which may better reflect multiple literacies.