Arts-based Educational Research and Qualitative Inquiry: Walking the Path

Awarded QRSIG's Honerable Mention for 2021

2020 AESA Critics' Choice Book Award Winner

Arts-Based Educational Research and Qualitative Inquiry introduces novice qualitative researchers, within education and related fields, to arts-based educational research (ABER). Abundant prompts and exercises are provided to help readers apply the concepts and experiment with various applications of the ideas presented.

The authors walk the path with novice researchers offering a variety of approaches to the practice of arts-based methods, while providing a guided overview of ABER, and include pedagogical features in each chapter. Exercises are designed to assist educational researchers who wish to expand their repertoire of methodologies. The authors also weave into the discussion the possibilities and limitations of many types of arts-based methods while introducing readers to the growing methodological literature. By offering a tapestry of ways to engage the novice researcher, the book illustrates that it is not always possible to separate cognitive findings from aesthetic knowing.

This book will help qualitative researchers to expand their methodologies to include arts-based approaches to their projects and by doing so reshape their identities as qualitative researchers. It also offers some evaluative criteria and tool kits for experimenting with various arts and educational research.

Thalia M. Mulvihill is Professor of Higher Education and Assistant Provost at Ball State University. She directed two doctoral programs, and two graduate certificate programs; one in Qualitative Research and the other in University Teaching. She coedits The Teacher Educator, has authored five previous qualitative research books, and is the recipient of numerous outstanding teaching, research, and mentoring awards.

Raji Swaminathan is Professor in the Department of Educational Policy & Community Studies in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has authored three books on qualitative research methods. Her research is in the areas of urban schools, creative pedagogies and school leadership within qualitative research.