Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples, and Issues

"This work′s quality, diversity, and breadth of coverage make it a valuable resource for collections concerned with qualitative research in a broad range of disciplines. Highly recommended." ―G.R. Walden, CHOICE

The Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Inquiry: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples, and Issues represents an unfolding and expanding orientation to qualitative social science research that draws inspiration, concepts, processes, and representational forms from the arts. In this defining work, J. Gary Knowles and Ardra L. Cole bring together the top scholars in qualitative methods to provide a comprehensive overview of the past, present, and future of arts-based research. This Handbook provides an accessible and stimulating collection of theoretical arguments and illustrative examples that delineate the role of the arts in qualitative social science research.


Key Features

• Defines and explores the role of the arts in qualitative social science research: The Handbook presents an analysis of classic and emerging methodologies and approaches that employs the arts in the qualitative research process.
• Brings together a unique group of scholars: Offering diverse perspectives, contributors to this volume represent a wide range of disciplines including the humanities, media and communication, anthropology, sociology, psychology, women′s studies, education, social work, nursing, and health and medicine.
• Offers comprehensive coverage of the genres employed by qualitative researchers: Scholars use multiple ways to advance knowledge including literary forms, performance, visual art, various types of media, narrative, folk art, and more.
• Articulates challenges inherent in alternative methodologies: This volume discusses the issues and challenges faced when employing art in research including ethical issues, academic merit issues, and even funding issues.

Intended Audience
This is an essential resource for any scholar interested in qualitative research, as well as a critical resource for all academic and public libraries.

Ardra L. Cole is a Professor of Creative Inquiry and Adult Learning within the Program of Adult Education and Community Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. She is also a Co-directors of the Centre for Arts-informed Research (CAIR) in the Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology. 

Ardra has published extensively on life history, reflexive, and arts-informed research as well as in the area of teacher education and development. Her co-authored books include: Through Preservice Teachers’ Eyes: Exploring Field Experiences through Narrative and Inquiry (Macmillan); Researching Teaching: Exploring Teacher Development through Reflexive Inquiry (Allyn & Bacon); The Heart of the Matter: Teacher Educators and Teacher Education Reform (Caddo Gap Press); and Lives in Context: The Art of Life History Research (AltaMira Press). They are co-editors of The Arts-informed Inquiry Series (Series Editor, J. Gary Knowles) which includes: The Art of Writing Inquiry (2001); Provoked by Art (2004); The Art of Visual Inquiry (2007); and Creating Scholartistry (2007) (Backalong Books and CAIR),

Ardra has helped many graduate students complete arts-informed doctoral and Master′s degree theses. Graduates furnished work embodying poetic, fictional, performative, and visual arts inquiry processes and forms in addressing educational and social issues. Ardra, along with others, created several installations portraying life in the academy (Living in Paradox) that were installed in numerous professional / research conferences and institutions.

Ardra has published extensively in conventional and non-conventional academic prose and in alternative, scholarly, non-print media throughout her career as a teacher educator and qualitative research methodologist. Ardra’s ongoing research (with Maura McIntyre) on care and caregiving and Alzheimer’s disease involves multi-media installation–Living and Dying with Dignity: The Alzheimer’s Project, performance–Love Stories about Caregiving and Alzheimer’s Disease, and the World Wide Web–Putting Care on the Map (www.oise.utoronto.ca/research/mappingcare). Her current writing projects include a series of research-based novellas about the teacher education professoriate, But I Want to make a Difference and Of Dogs and Dissertations: Notes on Writing and Life. As she moves through life in the company of dogs, Ardra continues to learn about the meaning of love, loyalty, and living in the moment.