Are We Asking the Wrong Questions in Arts-Based Research?

Abstract

Arts-based researchers distinguish themselves from other qualitative researchers on the grounds that they use artistic processes and practices in their inquiries and in the communication of their research outcomes. Like artists, they operate out of a particular community of practice, with its own distinctive history of emergence, set of responsibilities, and criteria for evaluation. Given the epistemological roots of arts-based research, it is argued in this article that arts-based researchers cannot ignore the processes and practices of artists as they continue to develop and theorize a counter-hegemonic research discourse and practice to the logical rational scientific one so embedded in educational inquiry. Attending critically to artists’ practices, as this article demonstrates, raises many and difficult questions about doing research in, with, and through the arts. Given that arts-based research is a long-term project, these questions need to be addressed for what they might mean for the practice of arts-based research.