Introduction: Knowledge in the Making: Drawing and Writing as Research Techniques

Abstract

ArgumentDrawing and writing number among the most widespread scientific practices of representation. Neither photography, graphic recording apparatuses, typewriters, nor digital word-and imageprocessing ever completely replaced drawing and writing by hand. The interaction of hand, paper, and pen indeed involves much more than simply recording or visualizing what was previously thought, observed, or imagined. Both writing and drawing have the power to translate concepts and observations into two-dimensional, manageable, reproducible objects. They help to develop research questions and they open up an interaction between the gathering of phenomena and the formation of theses. Related to the manifold studies of representational activities in the sciences and the humanities, this topical issue tries to refine our understanding of the capacities of drawing and writing as research techniques; i.e. as productive epistemic practices. In particular the contributions address three aspects: the material conditions and configurations of the "scene of drawing and writing," the involved procedures of production, and the languages of inscription.

Curating blood: how students’ and researchers’ drawings bring potential phenomena to light

“…2. Models (of one kind or another) are epistemic devices (Barberousse, 2013;Gelfert, 2011;Knuuttila, 2011) guiding but also shaping the ways in which science brings new phenomenon about (Hoffmann & Whittmann, 2013), so that in contemporary science practice modelling is also inseparable from 'objectivity' (Daston & Galison, 2007) and model-making is therefore one of the most encompassing bioscience teaching methods (Gilbert, Boulter, & Elmer, 2000;Manthey & Brewe, 2013). 3.…”

“…Among the sciences, biology makes most frequent and most varied use of images (Elkins, 2007), and while the technologies of bioscience image-making have changed dramatically since the enlightenment, drawing has never been entirely replaced as a relevant research tool (Hoffmann & Whittmann, 2013;Whittmann, 2013). Thus as Quillin and Thomas (2015) explain: 'It is difficult to imagine teaching, learning, or doing biology without the use of visual representations' (Quillin & Thomas, 2015, p. 1).…”

Why and how teachers make use of drawing activities in early childhood science education

“…On one hand, one can argue that the teacher supports children to 'learn to draw' in line with specific conventions for the sciences (cf. Hoffman & Wittman, 2013). One could also argue that she supports them to 'draw to learn' since she provides children with a repertoire of representational tools, such as drawing techniques to illustrate expansion, that children can use to make meaning of the science topic at hand.…”

“…Drawing is often put forward as an integral part of science practice. Throughout the history of science, drawing has been used to document concrete science content, spanning from small organisms to astronomical objects, as well as to visualise 'the invisible' (Hoffman & Wittman, 2013). In early childhood education (ECE), it is common that children draw as a part of their science lesson, partly because drawing serves as a substitute, or precursor, for writing.…”

Historians' Epistemic Practices: Interviewing Academic Experts

“…The questions were designed on the basis of the AIR model (Chinn, Buckland, & Samarapungavan, 2011;Chinn et al, 2014;Chinn & Rinehart, 2016) and other research on epistemic cognition (Samarapungavan & Westby, 2006), historians (Paul, 2011;Puurtinen, Nivala, & Virta, 2015), and science studies (Daston, 2004;Hoffmann & Wittmann, 2013) The interviews were transcribed, and are currently being analyzed through a qualitative thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2014) focusing initially on epistemic processes. Our analyses aim not only to develop themes from the data, but also to provide a detailed categorization of the coded units (i.e., their reliable epistemic processes).…”