Fostering Living Inquiry Through A/r/tography: A/r/tographic Findings on Participatory Artistic Quilt Making for Peace Building

• In Event: Roundtable Session 57
  In Roundtable Session: Making Meaning Together: Unraveling the Research Value of Thinking Through Art Making

Abstract

What does it mean to be an artist, researcher, and teacher (a/r/tographer) in a study on participatory artistic quiltmaking for peacebuilding? What “data” is generated by inviting participants to be a/r/tographers engaged in quiltmaking for peacebuilding? Data includes a/r/tographic findings from an exploratory qualitative study that used a/r/tography as a research methodology, participatory artistic quiltmaking (on inclusion and exclusion), and ethnographic methods (observations, semi-structured interviews) to explore the role of participatory artistic quiltmaking in peacebuilding among youth aged 8-12 in a classroom in Vancouver. The primary research question was “What makes participatory artistic quiltmaking an effective vehicle for grade 4, 5, 6, and 7 students to engage in peacebuilding?” The study used Bickmore’s (2004) three forms of of conflict management--peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding--to examine the ideological manifestations of peace education in the school.
A/r/tography as a form of arts-based educational research, allows research to transgress the “…limitations and oppressive features of traditional scientific research, opening spaces for experimentation of alternative approaches that weave in aesthetic sensibilities and post-positivistic forms of expression” (Butterwick & Dawson, 2002, p. 243). It “enhance[s] understanding of the human condition through alternative (to conventional) process and representational forms of inquiry, and ...reach[es] multiple audiences by making research more accessible” (Knowles & Cole, 2008, p. 59).

Author

• Roselynn Eileen Marie Verwoord, The University of British Columbia