Creative Methodologies in HE and FE Settings
Researchers
Alex Kendall (ELSS), in collaboration with Helen Perkins of Solihull College.
Background
This Higher Education Academy funded project explored the value of using creative methods for research into professional learning in educational settings.
The project aimed to re-think starting points for research in professional education by putting practitioners’ stories at the centre of teaching about research processes. Taking Early Years as a context for the work, the project drew on auto-ethnographic, investigative approaches to pedagogy.
Method of research
Two workshops were held at Solihull College which encouraged practitioners to approach reflective practice in a more creative way, for example, participants were asked to create ‘identity boxes’ to help them think about their journey as an academic (one of them is pictured).
Findings and application
The research found that students who used more creative methods in their research into professional learning experienced a more innovative and creative curriculum. Development of research skills, such as writing development are organically embedded in the process as the production of early personal narratives liberates new researchers from impersonal writing, enabling them to build confidence as they find their academic voice. At the same time through sharing of the texts, artefacts and they produce, students as novice researchers are introduced to the complex processes and dynamics of peer review in the social sciences.
There has since been a dynamic exchange of knowledge and experience between disciplines and Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) institutions.