Creative Dialogue: A Process for Research Supervision in Higher Education

Abstract

Arts-based research is an approach to post-positivist and post-modern research that has gained much traction in Australian universities and institutes of higher education. It is a tradition that aims to generate and represent knowing through arts-based modalities, and emphasises expression of the unexpected, multi-focussed, sensual, ambiguous and indirect aspects of experience. What is less common is the integration of this approach into teaching and learning in the context of higher degree research supervision. This article describes a multi-modal creative dialogue between a doctoral candidate and her supervisor that demonstrates how the arts can enhance understanding of the underpinning paradigms that inform a doctoral thesis.

Keywords

• arts-based
• intersubjectivity
• multimodality
• postgraduate supervision
• lived experiencing