1. Essential Question How can a combination of methodologies, auto-ethnography and arts-based research for example, support students interests?
2. Auto-ethnography Single case-study Arts-based research Representation described “as a multidimensional and heterogeneous terrain, a collage or patchwork quilt assembled over time out of fragments.” Mitchell (1994) cited in Sullivan (2005) p. 197 Thesis-in-progress by MP
3. Data: Entry from treatment file Mental Status Exam: MP presents as sitting in a fetal position on an office chair. She is very quiet, talks when spoken to in taciturn answers.” (PPfile, 4/14/2004, p. 1) Description of Symptoms: MP presents with excessive preoccupation with her body size, extreme fear of gaining weight, self-induced vomiting in order to lose weight, and rigidity of thinking and behavior. MP shows a generalized pattern of attention-seeking and emotionally dramatic behavior associated with affective liability, excessive concern with her appearance, difficulty tolerating frustration, and the need for immediate gratification. There is severe impairment in self-care skills manifested in risk-taking behavior that endangers her and a greater than average need for supervision.” (PPfile, 4/14/2004, p. 1)
4. Data: Painting and Interview with Staff “JL: For you, I think [drawing] was your sanity. It was the thing that grounded you. It was the thing that was constant. I think that you felt like a lot of things were out of control at that point, including yourself, so it was the one thing that was physically tangible for you to see and do and go back to, it was always the same…A lot of it was not consistent at that point, even what was going on in your head. So… you had something to focus on outside…that was probably what grounded you a bit.” (Interview, JL, p. 5)
5. Data: Drawing and Interview with Doctor “DF: But I felt, the other thing I saw increasing was the anger. I did see the anger increasing which, personally, I feel is very common with kids with.. all of these things they just go together. When the cutting started you saw more anger and I think all of that just went together. So I can imagine you sitting here and I remember you know, talking about your cutting. I don't remember how much of it you were willing to show me but I remember at some point it was very evident and probably was not something you could hide. “
6. Data: Painting and Journal Entry “I just got done slicing up my arm just a bit ago. I really get a kick out of that, especially today. It was a good day too. I just couldn't put down the knife. There's a couple of cuts that you can see right in to.” (J. 1, p. 22)
7. Data- Photo of scars and journal entry “I think I have a control issue. That's why in the past me and my Mom had problems. Also my whole eating disorder thing and maybe even my suicide attempts have something to do with control.” (J. 2, p. 13)
9. Issues: “ I am struggling to deconstruct and reorganize the old data comprised of monsters and myths in juxtaposition with [now]. The very same data, when organized in a different system, is capable of informing with entirely new meaning.” Rolling (2010) p.4
10. Methodologies: Arts-based Research Sullivan (2005) talks of a cognitive coalition of ongoing dialogue between, within and around the self, artworks, viewers and settings, where each is used to create new understandings…[and that] this meaning-making…captures the movement and purposeful searching of the artistic mind. (p.190) Body-Mapping/Body Bibliography. “Visual and written life-size embodied portrait illustrating aspects of an individual's life.” Morawski and Irwin (2008) p. 316 Embodiment defined as an ”awareness of the crucial and complex role of the body in making and experiencing art.” Chaplin (2005) A/r/tography. Artist, researcher and teacher as the frame through which art practice is explored. Irwin et al, (2008)
11. Questions raised: What is the relationship of the work produced in the studio of one’s childhood to arts-based research or a/r/tography? In what ways should MP’s work be positioned within the research on adolescent drawing for example or within the tradition in visual art of depicting mental illness? Given the experimental nature of this project, how could it be presented in a way that reflects it’s many dimensions?
12. References: Ellis, C. & Bochner, A. (Eds). (2002). Ethnographically speaking: Auto-ethnography, literature and aesthetics. CA: Altamira Press Morawski, C. M. & Irwin, S. (2008). The art of embodiment: auto-ethnographic portraits of two women's surgical traumas.International Journal of Education through Art, 2(3), 315-23. Rolling, J.H. (2010) Cinderella Story: A scholarly sketchbook about race, identity, Barack Obama, the human spirit and other stuff that matters. MD: Altamira Press Sullivan, G. (2005) Art practice as research: Inquiry in the visual arts. CA: Sage Publications, Inc. http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=291
