“Intra-visuals” – Experimenting with drawing as a way of doing research

• This paper aims to describe how drawing can be a part of a research method in a posthumanist agential realist (Barad, 2007) approach. Drawing was tried as a means for taking into account the intra-action of teachers, children and different kinds of devices in an early childhood education setting. It is one of many methods that can be used in research (Knight, o.a., 2015). In a previous study, a situation in a Swedish preschool was video-recorded: a group of children and teachers discussing photographs displayed on a wall in order to document and evaluate a previous activity. From the video-recording a set of drawings were made which enabled focusing on different aspects of the video-recorded sequence, as well as on the role of the researcher. The drawings were initially a way of (visually) transcribing the video-recording. However, it became obvious that the drawings participated actively in providing further views on the situation. By making different kinds of drawings: including and excluding dialogue, humans, actions and objects, different ways of understanding the video-sequence arose, which enabled concentrating on the in-between of the situation. Instead of focusing on actors or on spoken words, the drawings enabled focusing on actions between the entities. They actively facilitated focusing on flows between entities, rather than on words or entities themselves. The flows produced a narrative in the situation that, instead of evaluating a previous activity, moved away from what had happened and took new turns, developed into a new story. Thus, in preschool, documentation may function productive, producing narratives that might be used as future possibilities rather than as evaluations. The making of the drawings, in itself, also contributed actively: drawing made it possible to engage further with the video recordings. While making the drawings, parts of my body engaged other than those that engaged in typing or reading. As McNiff (2008, s. 33) puts it: “the use of our hands, bodies, and other senses as well as the activation of dormant dimensions of the mind, may offer ways of solving and re-visioning problems that are simply not possible through descriptive and linear language”. In addition, thinking is often considered as located solely in the brain, but thinking and movements might also be seen as connected (Sheets Johnstone, 2011). Thus, in this study, the drawing activities and the drawings were involved in the production of the analysis.ReferencesBarad, K. (2007).   Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter   and meaning. London: Duke University Press.Knight, L.,   McArdle, F., Cumming, T., Bone, J., Li, L., Peterken, C., & Ridgeway, A.   (2015). Intergenerational collaborative drawing: A research method for   researching with/about young children. Australasian Journal of Early   Childhood, 40(4), 21-29.McNiff, S.   (2008). Arts-Based Research. In J. G. Knowles, & A. L. Cole, Handbook   of the Arts in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples,   and Issues (pp. 29-40). Los Angeles: Sage.Sheets Johnstone,   M. (2011). Primacy of Movement. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co.    

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogiskt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogical Work (hsv//eng)

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