Fiction as a Research Practice and Pedagogical Tool

• In Event: What Shall We Name the Baby? Identifying the Art in Research and Research in the Arts

Abstract

1. Purpose
The purpose of this presentation is to review the advantages of using fiction as a research practice and pedagogical tool. The advantages include: extending public scholarship, reaching diverse audiences, accessing hard-to-get-at dimensions of social life, unsettling stereotypes, subverting dominant ideologies through a pleasurable reading experience, promoting self-reflection and critical consciousness, building resonance, and supporting a critical theoretical underpinning.
2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Arts-based research and arts-based educational research has grown steadily over the past several decades (Bagley & Cancienne, 2002; Barone & Eisner, 2012; Knowles & Cole, 2002; Leavy, 2009; Rollings, 2013). One area in which we have most recently seen growth is fiction as a research practice (Barone & Eisner, 2012; Leavy, 2013). Simultaneously, research-informed fiction is increasingly recognized as an effective pedagogical tool (Irvine, 2007; Leavy, 2013).
3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
After a brief presentation on the general advantages of fiction as a research practice I will expand on two areas. First, I will review the ability of this research methodology to portray the complexity of lived experience by discussing verisimilitude, capturing details and narrative point of view as a teaching tool. Second, I will expand on how this methodology promotes empathy and reflection including both self and social reflection as well as disrupting stereotypes.

The presentation will conclude with a discussion of research-informed fiction as a pedagogical tool in the teaching of other substantive material, and how professors and teachers can engage students in reflection and discussion through research-based fiction. I will draw parallels between the use of fiction in learning and as a research methodology, in order to strengthen participants’ understanding of fiction as a research practice.
4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
In order to illustrate the above points I will offer several examples published fiction-based research (from peer reviewed journals and academic publishers), including drawing on my own academic novels.
5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
This presentation will suggest, based on a review of the relevant literature as well as published examples, that fiction can be used as an effective research methodology in certain kinds of research projects, that are align with the strengths of the methods. Further, the presentation will suggest that research-based fiction can be used as an effective pedagogical tool in the teaching of a range of course content. Examples will be used as evidence.
6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
This presentation will teach attendees about fiction as a research practice and pedagogical tool, thereby contributing to their overall knowledge of arts-based research practice.

Author

• Patricia Leavy, Self-employed