'I Contain Multitudes': The Challenges of Self-Representation in Arts-Based Educational Research

International Journal of Education & the Arts. 1310 South 6th Street, Champaign, IL 61820. Tel: 402-472-9958; Fax: 402-472-2837; Web site: http://www.ijea.org

Y

17

Art; Educational Research; Research Methodology; Autobiographies; Poetry; Altruism; Ethnography; Case Studies; Reflection

1529-8094

In this special issue, each author addresses how ABER work connects with and/or directly addresses society's need/s and the public good as perceived by the researcher. As there are many construals of the "public good" and the relation to art-making and the arts to this "public good," each author will conceptualize her/his vision of the "public good" and its relationship to ABER. This essay by Monica M. Prendergast consists of two sections followed by a brief conclusion. In Section One, she considers the role of self-study--also called reflective practice, autobiography, autoethnography and life writing--in educational research in relation to how autobiography, memoir or self-portraiture plays a role in the artworld (Danto, 1964). Prendergast does this by placing a range of ABER practices on a continuum from more to less interested in self-study as a focus or component of a study. Section Two offers an autobiographical/autoethnographical poem Prendergast wrote as part of a previously published collaborative essay (Prendergast, Lymburner, Grauer, Irwin, Leggo & Gouzouasis, 2008). Prendergast pulls the poem out of its prior context to reflect on as an example of ABER self-study that might also be seen as doing the work of contributing to the betterment of understanding how education works...or fails to work. The conclusion invites readers to consider how a critical perspective on these issues may assist arts-based educational researchers in side-stepping charges that might potentially be directed at the ABER community of elitism, solipsism, and navel-gazing from within a larger North American culture arguably addicted to confession, self-revelation, narcissism, and voyeurism.

ERIC

37

2015

EJ1050514