Painting Data and Visualizing Voice: Rural Educators’ Narratives of Newcomer English Learner Support

• In Event: Arts-Based Approaches for Expanding Methodological Terrain

Abstract

This paper explores the use of Arts-Based Narrative Inquiry (ABNI) in a qualitative case study examining how rural educators including a principal, ESOL-endorsed ELA teacher, bilingual paraeducator, and school counselor support newcomer English Learners (ELs) academically and socio-emotionally. Grounded in my cultural and artistic background, the study integrates mixed media art and non-fiction storytelling as tools for data analysis and representation. Methodological insights reveal how arts-based approaches enhance reflexivity, honor participant voice, and surface the emotional dimensions of educators’ work. This paper contributes to expanding qualitative methodologies by demonstrating the potential of creative, culturally rooted research in multilingual, underrepresented contexts, and urges researchers to adopt multimodal methods that embrace complexity, center lived experience, and challenge dominant norms of representation.

Author

• Riya Chakraborty, University of Florida