Exploring Arts-Based Collaborative Inquiry as a Participatory Framework for Cultivating Equitable Learning Systems

• In Event: AERA Virtual Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Exploring Dynamic Uses of Arts-Based Inquiry

Abstract

This paper builds on previous scholarship exploring the relationship between arts-based research and the action-oriented practice and methodological framework of collaborative inquiry (CI). These complementary ways into participatory inquiry rest on an extended epistemology emphasizing affective experiential knowing and expressive practical knowing in whole person learning processes (Heron & Reason, 1997; Heron, 1992). Examining theoretical and empirical CI literature illustrates how the embeddedness of arts-based methods within the CI framework helps cultivate skills, like empathy, necessary for authentic collaboration, democratic participation, and shared decision-making. This paper argues that the “potential of [arts-based methods/collaborative inquiry] for ethical relationships and social change” (Liamputtong & Rumbold, 2008, p. 3) have much to contribute to efforts for imagining and creating more equitable educational systems.

Author

• Shannon Perry, University of Georgia - Athens