Creative Research Methods 2e. Kara, Helen
Watts-Jones for excellent administrative support; and Phylicia Ulibarri-Eglite for marketing. I’d also like to thank the world’s best copy-editor Judith Oppenheimer, who once again has saved me from several bloopers. I’m grateful to Emma Wright, aka @editorialgirl, for designing my website and blog (www.helenkara.com / www.helenkara.blog) and helping a great deal with my promotional work.
These few words seem like utterly inadequate recompense for the time, care and expertise all these people have put into my work, but I hope that the knowledge that I am really very grateful for their contributions will go some way towards rewarding their generosity. Also, I hope that when they see – and perhaps even read – the book, they will feel that their input has been well used and their effort worthwhile.
This book is designed to help by giving you an overview of, and insight into, the huge range of creative research methods available to researchers. The book will also help contemporary researchers who may be facing research questions which cannot be answered, or cannot be answered fully, using conventional research methods. Please note: I am not suggesting that the more ‘creative’ a research project, the better the results will be. It is important to know and understand conventional research methods, such as questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and randomised controlled trials. It is also important to be familiar with good research practice, as the use of creative methods does not supersede the basic principles of good research. If you are new to research, there are a number of well-written and helpful books and other resources covering conventional methods and good practice, several of which are referenced in this book.
I am suggesting that research is an inherently creative activity at all stages of the process. We talk about ‘doing’ research; perhaps a more appropriate verb would be ‘making’ research. I would also argue that the more methodological tools a researcher is able to use, the more effectively they are likely to be able to address the kinds of research questions that arise today.
This book gives a broad overview of creative research methods, with lots of examples of their use in practice. Many of these examples are summarised in boxes throughout the text. However, I chose to cover as many methods as possible in brief, rather than a few in detail. Therefore, if you are considering using one or more of the methods outlined here, I would strongly recommend that you seek out the original reference(s) for more information.
If you want a good understanding of creative research methods in practice, you may need to read the whole book. But it has been carefully structured and indexed to offer maximum help if you want ideas or inspiration for a particular stage or element of your research work. The following overview of the book’s contents will explain what you can find and where.
Overview of contents
Chapter 1 begins by considering good practice in research. Then a brief history of creativity in research is followed by an initial outline of creative research methods and Indigenous research methods. It discusses what we know about ‘creativity’ and how this operates in research. Informal, formal and evaluation research are outlined, and researchers’ private uses of creative methods are briefly explored.
Chapter 2 begins with a brief review of the recent history of research. Then it introduces arts-based research, embodied research, multi-modal research and research using technology, in practice. It also introduces autoethnography, which can include all four approaches.
Chapter 3 outlines the transformative ethical frameworks of participatory, community-based, feminist, emancipatory, queer and asset-based research. It offers a critique of transformative research frameworks. Then it gives more details about Indigenous research methods, considers decolonising methods, and ends with a brief discussion of ontology and epistemology.
Chapter 4 begins with a discussion of Euro-Western theories of ethics. The chapter considers the system of research governance and ways of managing ethical dilemmas in creative research. Then the chapter covers ethics in arts-based research, embodied research, multi-modal research, research using technology, and transformative research frameworks. Last but not least, the chapter covers the well-being of researchers.
Chapter 5 covers creative thinking and creative reading. It explores some options for using literature and theory creatively, and discusses creativity in cross-disciplinary work. It also looks at ways of assessing the quality of quantitative and qualitative research, and considers the roles for imagination and empathy in research, as well as the use of reflexivity.
Chapter 6 reviews some arts-based and embodied methods of gathering data, and their ethical aspects. These include the use of reflexive data, writing, diaries and journals, interviews and focus groups, transformative data gathering, drawing, mapping, mobile methods, vignettes, time and theatre.
Chapter 7 reviews some technology-based and multi-modal approaches to data gathering, and their ethical aspects. These include the use of documents, video, smartphones, online and other secondary data, and technology for interviews, and multi-modal data gathering.
Chapter 8 reviews some arts-based and embodied methods of analysing data, and their ethical aspects. The chapter also considers data preparation and coding, and the relative merits of quantitative versus qualitative data analysis. The methods reviewed include arts-based data analysis, embodied data analysis, analysis of talk, and data analysis within transformative frameworks.
Chapter 9 reviews some technology-based and multi-modal approaches to data analysis, and their ethical aspects. These approaches include analysing secondary data, documentary data and video data. They also include multi-modal analysis and data integration.
Chapter 10 is about arts-based and embodied research reporting and their ethical aspects. The chapter covers writing for research, embodied research and the skills of receiving and giving feedback on your writing. There is a discussion of the gaps and overlaps between fact and fiction, then journals and poetic writing are reviewed.
Chapter 11 is about technology-based and multi-modal research reporting and their ethical aspects. The chapter covers social media, collaborative reporting, using technology in research reporting, multi-modal reporting and how to write better for research.
Chapter 12 is about arts-based and embodied methods of presenting research findings, and their ethical aspects. This includes arts-based presentation; diagrams, infographics and maps; and embodied presentation at conferences and meetings.
Chapter 13 is about technology-based and multi-modal methods of presenting research findings and their ethical aspects. This includes presentation using technology, graphs and charts, and multi-modal presentation.
Chapter 14 covers research into practice, beginning with a discussion of the ethical aspects of creative dissemination and implementation. Then the chapter looks at dissemination through the online and mainstream media. Arts-based dissemination, multi-modal dissemination, and dissemination in transformative research are all covered. The final sections are on implementation, knowledge exchange, and impact.
Further resources to support this book are available on the companion website, which can be accessed at https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-research-methods/companion-website