Arts-Based Engagement Ethnography: An Approach for Making Research Engaging and Knowledge Transferable When Working With Harder-to-Reach Communities

Abstract

In social science research, epistemological assumptions regarding what constitutes valid research fall into two main areas of inquiryqualitative and quantitative. Within a qualitative paradigm, eliciting a close and often intimate exploration of phenomenon from a text-based or verbal approach is privileged, and in a quantitative paradigm, obtaining a systematic, large population survey or questionnaire approach is prioritized. Although the two are not mutually exclusive, with the development of each, the visual and the kinesthetic aspects have both largely been lost. This article proposes an arts-based engagement ethnography (ABEE) as a means of reclaiming these visual and kinesthetic aspects in order to engage in culturally sensitive research with underrepresented communities. To this end, this article outlines some of the limitations of current research and explores how cultural probes (a set of simple items given to participants to help them document their experiences) can be used to enter qualitative research from a different epistemological vantage point. Moreover, this article discusses the use of qualitative interviews and focus groups in ABEE and the manner in which this methodology allows for unique knowledge mobilization possibilities. It highlights how these are built into the research design, and how this is an important part of the approach's ability to engage harder-to-reach communities.

School Bullying Through Graphic Vignettes: Developing a New Arts-Based Method to Study a Sensitive Topic

“…Artsbased methods can actually help overcome resistance that is prevalent in traditional research, involving vulnerable and marginalized populations. For example, Goopy and Kassan (2019) argue that traditional language-centric research places power in the hands of the researcher, preventing harder-to-reach communities from voicing their genuine opinions and concerns. Roger and Blomgren (2019) stress that traditional research and academic literature might appear as an inaccessible fortress to nonacademic people, leading to intimidation, skepticism, and understandable unwillingness to volunteer one's time and efforts needed for participation.…”

Research is…making the emotional dimensions of academics’ research visible

“…The postcard format was chosen as a novel and efficient option in order to generate a "juxtaposition of words and images" that might produce new meanings (Leavy 2015, p. 235). The format has a long tradition in arts-related approaches as it provides ways to engage hard to access participants differently through a 'cultural probe' and encourages knowledge exchange that blurs the boundaries of those involved in the project (Byrne et al 2018;Goopy and Kassan 2019). Participants were required to seek written consent from any people present in photographs they took and, for publication, we ensured that online sources used for any images were from public picture image banks that allowed unrestricted or attributed use (Butler-Kisber 2010).…”

Visual Arts-Based Research Methods in Social Science Research

“…Arts-based research is qualitative research with the aim of understanding social phenomena and peoples' thoughts and experiences about them in a deep and nuanced way (Cole & Knowles, 2008;Goopy & Kassan, 2019;Leavy, 2018). Visual materials used in visual arts-based research are thought to provide researchers with a more holistic understanding of social matters than mere verbal research methods (Goopy & Kassan, 2019;van der Vaart, van Hoven, & Huigen, 2018;Wang et al, 2017).…”

“…"Arts-based research is committed to acknowledge the multiple dimensions that constitute and form the human conditionphysical, emotional, spiritual, social, culturaland the myriad of ways of engaging in the worldoral, literal, visual, embodied. That is, to connect the work of the academy with the life and lives of communities through research that is accessible, evocative, embodied, empathic, and provocative." (Cole & Knowles, 2008, 60) Toward the end of the 20 th century, social science research started to show increasing interest in the use of visual materials in order to diversify understanding of human experiences and social phenomena (Goopy & Kassan, 2019;Weber, 2008). However, it was only at the beginning of this century that arts-based methodologies began to gain a greater foothold in social science research and established their position in qualitative social science research (McNiff, 2018).…”

“…These turns have been labeled, for example, "material turn" (Dale, 2005), "visual turn" (Clark & Morris, 2017), "sensory turn" (Jay, 2011), and "emotional turn" (Koivunen, 2010;O'Sullivan, 2001). The common denominator for these turns is that they do not consider intellectual knowledge and verbal communication as the only modes of knowledge and communication relevant in terms of scientific research (see, e.g., Cole & Knowles, 2008;Goopy & Kassan, 2019;Wang et al, 2017).…”