In what ways did, or could, arts-based research shape our understanding of ‘truth’? How could creative methodologies expand traditional research paradigms? This online workshop invited researchers at all career stages to critically explore the premises and assumptions of arts-based research and its implications for how we conceived truth in educational and academic contexts.
In this online workshop, Dr Lucy Rycroft-Smith (Researcher, University of Cambridge) and Joe Howlett-Reeves (Secondary music teacher and composer) discussed the wider issues of ‘truth’ and arts-based research alongside their experiences of a study conducted together to investigate educational knowledge brokering through composing songs with and about research. We offered these ideas as a contribution to the field of arts-based research by considering, through the context of our study, its relationship to ‘truth’ in educational research.
This event aimed to explore the premises and assumptions of arts-based research, examining how it shaped different conceptions of ‘truth’ in educational and academic contexts, while providing researchers with opportunities to reflect on its implications for their own work. In particular, we explored the idea of writing songs about and with research, and what we (a researcher and a teacher-composer) found in terms of how arts-based research could help to reveal complexities around, mediate relationships with, and support investigations of ‘truth’. We hoped participants would come away with a deeper understanding of these issues, as well as further questions and critical responses to take forward.
Draft Programme:
17:00±è³¾ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Introduction; Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan, University of
               Nottingham; Lucy Barker, Northumbria University; Rebecca
               Berkley, University of Reading
17:05pm      Between ‘truth’ and art: transforming research into song ; Lucy Rycroft-Smith,
               University of Cambridge
17:25pm        What challenges are there in the process of composing a “truthful” song? ;
               Joe Howlett-Reeves, St. James Catholic High School
17:45pm       Q&A
17:55pm       Closing Remarks; Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan, Lucy Barker,
               Rebecca Berkley
18:00pm       Close of Event
Researcher at University of Cambridge
Lucy Rycroft-Smith is a writer, researcher, speaker and designer in mathematics education, with particular expertise as a creative knowledge broker. She has a PhD from the University of Cambridge in knowledge brokering – investigating ways in...
St. James Catholic High School
Joe Howlett-Reeves is a music teacher and Head of Year 10 at St James Catholic High School. He has a BMus in Music (Composition) from Trinity Laban Conservatoire in Music and Dance and is a freelance pianist, singer, and composer. He is also a...
Professor at University of Nottingham
Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan is Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham. She specialises in professional learning, self-reflexive scholarship and arts-based educational research. Her recent book, Poetic Inquiry for the Social and Human...
Assistant Professor at Northumbria University, Newcastle
Lucy Barker is an Associate Professor in Initial Teacher Education at Northumbria University, Newcastle. Her arts-based research work is informed and deepened by her theoretical framework which draws on a combination of thinkers from the fields...
Associate Professor in Music Education at University of Reading
Rebecca Berkley is an Associate Professor in Music Education at the University of Reading. Her areas of interest are classroom musicianship, choral education, musical leadership and musical cognition. She is the co-director of the Postgraduate...