Disrupting the picture: Reflections on choices, resistance and consequences in a pre-study

Abstract

Reflecting on the implementation of a pre-study may be decisive for the design of a following main study. This text consists of a reflective process where the researcher’s different choices are examined and problematised. The reflections take place within the framework of a pre-study and in relation to the aim of that study. They also take place in and through the written language, i.e. in the process where “the language turns back on itself to see the work it does in constituting the world” at the same time as “the subject/researcher sees … the object of her … gaze and the means by which the object is being constituted” (Davies et al., 2004:360). By doing this, different consequences can be discussed in relation to gender, the art subject and methods as well as the academic context and become understandable. The text may thus be regarded as an investigative and critical text with the ambition to understand and create meaning, both on an overarching and an individual level, about what the researcher has experienced. The reflections chiefly concern the gathering of material, choices of methods and the resistance that occurred in these two areas. The choices of methods refer to selected as well as forgotten methods and how this forgetfulness includes pictures’ elusive information in an academic context. The writing process brings the researcher’s situated knowledge to the fore.

Key Words:

• research methods
• gender
• art education
• emotion
• teacher education