Research and Healing: Art as Methodology for Understanding Marginalized Students' Experiences

• In Event: Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: Research and Healing: Art as Methodology for Understanding Marginalized Students' Experiences

Proposal

This study is an exploration of arts-based methods as an alternative to typical data collection methods when studying the experiences of marginalized students. The goal of the research is to understand how student artmaking can become a participant-based, healing approach to understanding difficult topics.
Drawing on critical pedagogical frameworks, this research uses independent artmaking as a data collection method. Feminist scholars have found that younger participants may feel less pressured by the researcher’s interpretation of their responses when data is collected through creative means rather than a typical interview or known observation (Greenier & Moodie, 2021). This format may also be of benefit to the participant, both in the process being a fun activity and the process helping to visualize and detail thoughts that may be hard to vocalize (Zhuo, 2024). In my initial study, I aimed to understand the forms of violence faced by transgender teenagers in public schools in the United States by accepting art entries, in the medium of their choosing, to be completed independently and submitted virtually, with the option to provide a written statement providing context to the work. A pamphlet showcasing the students’ artwork (with their consent) was created that included resources for transgender youth and distributed to a local LGBTQ+ equity center.
My initial findings denote strong potential for artmaking as a narrative inquiry. While the initial research found some limitations in maintaining participant anonymity from the researcher as a means of safety, this collection method was effective in creating comfort for participants who may have otherwise felt endangered by contributing. The art submitted presented a clear point of view of students’ diverse experiences of violences faced in school as a result of their transgender identities, and the information gained through the artwork gave much more insight into the pain experienced by these students than by any written data collected.
Though this study began as a focus on the experiences of transgender youth in particular, this study contributes to the growing interest in holistic research methodologies within the field of education at large. This form of data collection could be particularly useful in the field of education in conflict, understanding active conflict’s effects on students’ learning and wellbeing without further traumatizing participants. Furthermore, this can be applied in situations where students cannot or wish not to speak of triggering events. Through artwork, marginalized students who’ve experienced systemic discrimination, violence, or other traumas, can better express feelings and events that are difficult to verbalize. It also has value in healing, giving students the opportunity to create meaningful representations of harmful events. This work hopes to push the tides of research to change how we define data and expand who gets to share their stories - and how.

References
Greenier, V., & Moodie, I. (2021). Photo-narrative frames: Using visuals with narrative research in applied linguistics. System, 102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2021.102597
Zhuo, M. (2024). "I feel my inner child out: Zine-making as a data collection tool in narrative inquiry. Research Methods and Applied Linguistics, 3(3), 100-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2024.100131.

Author

• Hanna Petursson, College of Education, University of Maryland, College Park