Incorporating Indigenous Methods Into Arts-Based Research

• In Event: Updating Eisner: Incorporating Indigenous and Digital Inquiry Into Arts-Based Educational Research

Abstract

The second presentation will be by (a) a former doctoral student who wanted to study Indigenous leadership for her dissertation and (b) a member of the Indigenous cultural group that, after a two-year process to gain access, became the group studied. One of the cultural group’s stipulations was that the doctoral student needed to use Indigenous methodology.

The presenters will begin by noting that, on the surface, at least, Indigenous methods are quite compatible with arts-based inquiry. They will quote, for example, from Christian’s (1988) discussion of theorizing:

"People of color have always theorized, but in forms quite different than the Western form of abstract logic. And I am inclined to say that our theorizing…is often in narrative forms, in the stories we create, in riddles and proverbs, in the play with language, because dynamic rather than fixed ideas seem more to our liking…. My folk, in other words, have always been a race for theory—though more in the form of the hieroglyph, a written figure that is both sensual and abstract, both beautiful and communicative." (p. 68)

These two presenters will then discuss what using an Indigenous methodology in the former doctoral student’s dissertation study meant. They will note, for example, that using Indigenous methods entailed erasing (or at least greatly minimizing) the line between the researcher and the researched.

There was also an expectation that talking circles would be the major approach to generating data. In a talking circle, participants sit quite literally in a circle and take turns saying whatever they want to talk about for as long as they want without interruption.

The presenters will acknowledge that, at first glance, Indigenous methodology looks quite different than Eisner’s notion of artistic inquiry. There is no connoisseur at the center of the research process, for instance, but, rather, all participants in a talking circle are assumed to have expertise about their life experiences. In the current era, this populist version of connoisseurship may be much more defensible than Eisner’s more elitist notion.

Also, one might ask, “Where is the expressive, poetic language that Eisner (citing Langer (1977, c1956)) indicates gives ‘form to feeling’ in the descriptions found in educational criticism and arts-based research.” As it turned out, this was less of a problem than one might assume. The personal stories told in talking circles often gave talking circle discourse a literary quality, and even when participants discussed relatively abstract concepts like leadership, their discourse often seemed a bit poetic:

"I am, in fact, no more than a speck of dust in my relationships to all things around me…. So, when I awake in the morning, I give thanks to all of my relatives, and to the fact that I am loaned another day to serve my people….Yes, I am loaned this day, and, therefore, in my leadership practice, I must remember that my leadership actions today impact seven generations ahead, and those of my Ancestors impact me and bring me to where I am today." (Citation Redacted)

Authors

• Julia L. Buchanan, National University

• Patricia Makokis