Arts-Based Educational Research in Action in Vocational Education

This paper argues that there are different ways of understanding and representing the human condition and that all forms of understanding have a frame of reference that enables or constrains the way we think, how we express what we think and what we have learned from experience. Arts Based Educational Research (ABER) is rooted in the potential of the evocative power of aesthetic experience to heighten human vitality (Dewey, 1934, 2005) in ways which have the capacity to enhance not only the practice of education but also the conduct and representation of educational research. This paper presents findings from a qualitative, empirical study which explores teachers’ experiences of engaging in University-supported, practitioner-research programme of continuous professional development for teachers of vocational education, informed by key ideas and concepts in the theoretical framework underpinning ABER. Barone and Eisner (2012) draw attention to how ABER is essentially evocative. They argue that utilising the evocative expressive properties of an artistic, aesthetic medium is one of the primary ways in which arts-based research contributes to human understanding. Through the presentation of extracts from a series of 10 case studies accompanied by evaluative commentaries and critical discussion, this paper offers an thematic analysis of teachers’ accounts as they attempt to improve their practice in vocational education contexts through direct engagement in ABER. Emerging evidence from a preliminary analysis of the narrative accounts of the experiences of teachers of vocational education as they learn how to be (savoir être), systematic, credible and trustworthy practitioner-researchers, suggests that, using the expressive properties of an artistic medium is one of the primary ways in which ABER can contribute to the improvement of educational practice including the conduct and representation of educational research