researCh and the seLfscience education need not be so theatrical but still be effective. But to downplay
the significance of theatricality would be to deny their self- identities within Theatre
in Education. giddens and Jones’s method of working is clearly dependent on the
relationship between them, as noted earlier.
Data collection: gemmell shows that the method of data collection was influenced
by his own personal responses, and how those responses have been shaped by time and
place. Fifty years ago he would possibly have been using a camera, and a hundred and
fifty years ago, a sketch book. giddens’ memory work draws on her embodiment: her
visceral reactions are part of the evidence and she uses her body to help her remember
clearly. she says, ‘as i close my eyes i can still sense her.’
Analysis: in all three examples the research is presented and discussed within the
context of change, of the researchers’ changing identities through reflection and artistic
interventions.
Presentation, dissemination: all the examples are ongoing, and, as yet, presentation
and dissemination has been largely through academic conferences and seminars.
The last example, from giddens and Jones, is the most complete, and will shortly be
published as a chapter in an edited collection (giddens and Jones, 2010).
troubling issues for arts- based, practice- based researcherssome researchers, especially those who model themselves on scientists such as
experimental physicists or chemists, often criticize personal involvement in research.
This is because they believe that such research is inevitably partial. as detailed in
Borgdorff (2009a and Chapter 3), this has become something to which arts- based,
practice- based researchers need to pay attention. partial is an interesting word, with
three distinct, though related, meanings in the Merriam- Webster Online Dictionary, all
of which are used in criticism of the involvement of self in arts- based, practice- based
research:
- of or relating to a part rather than the whole : not general or total (a partial
solution); - inclined to favour one party more than the other: biased;
- markedly fond of someone or something – used with to (partial to pizza).
as i shall argue in this section, these criticisms derive from too narrow a view of
knowledge and of ways in which it relates to research.
The first definition of ‘partial’ is used to criticize the context specificity of much
arts- based, context- based research. Research which is focused on arts practices must
be context- specific, because the context is dependent on specific arts and practices
carried out by researchers whose selves are involved in creating and maintaining that
context. This is sometimes cast as an issue of ‘generalizability and transferability’, as
discussed below.
The close involvement of the self is also criticized when research presents judgements
about a human situation. it may be argued that participation in the research context
means that judgement cannot be dispassionate so the research cannot be trusted to be
other than one person’s idiosyncratic view, coloured by one’s preconceptions and self