Review of Arts-based education research and qualitative inquiry: Walking the path Wang, Y. (2021, January 20). Review of Arts-based educational research and qualitative inquiry: Walking the path by T. M. Mulvihill & R. Swaminathan. Education Review, 28.http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/er.v28.3009 January 20, 2021 ISSN 1094-5296 Mulvihill, T. M., & Swaminathan, R. (2020). Arts-based educational research and qualitative inquiry: Walking the path. Routledge. Pp. 198 ISBN: 978-1-1383-0949-4 Reviewed by Yixuan Wang University of Georgia United States In recent years, scholars in social science have been engaging art as a new methodology, pedagogy, and epistemology in qualitative research to expand the field of education and other social scientific fields (Cahnmann-Taylor & Siegesmund, 2018; Fitzpatrick & Fitzpatrick, 2020). Arts-based Educational Research and Qualitative Inquiry, written by Mulvihill and Swaminathan, is both an introduction and a guidebook for novice qualitative researchers of arts-based research. Arts-based research (ABR) as a way of aesthetic knowing offers a new mode of inquiry that breaks barriers and expands beyond textual discourse of traditional qualitative research and writing. Adopting arts- based education research (ABER) can “extend researchers’ repertoires of methodologies” (p. 2) and allows novice researchers to “develop their artistic senses and skills and release their researcher imagination through creative arts” (p. 13). By involving arts in research, researchers perceive, teach, practice, and present differently with more aesthetic understanding. Education Review 2 The volume is a comprehensive introduction to arts-based research, including theories, methodologies of different artistic genres, summaries of works from prominent scholars, and practice exercises in each chapter. Throughout the book, the authors explain and discuss how to implement, approach, and use different genres of art in different stages of research (i.e., planning, designing, analyzing data, and displaying qualitative research). Different art genres are divided into three main categories: visual inquiry (e.g., photography and collage), narrative inquiry (e.g., storytelling and graphic novels), and performative inquiry (e.g., dance and drama). With the technology advantage that researchers currently have thanks to mobile devices (e.g., camera and cell phone), adopting visual practices offers more possibilities when collecting, interpreting, and presenting data in research. Unlike traditional ways of presenting transcriptions in data analysis and display, visual and audio data accompanied with textual transcription as multimodal data enables researchers to consider other factors such as eye contact, gestures, and tones that are impossible to be collected all together or analyzed decades ago. As researchers seek to push limits and further creativity as well as reflexivity, performance also enables both researchers and audiences to pay attention to “those complex aspects of human experiences that might otherwise be overlooked or simplified” (p. 39). Narrative as a traditional and important textual element can be found in many stages of research, combined with visual and performative practices (e.g., playwrighting and photographic storytelling). Besides many common art genres that readers might have known or heard of, the authors also include genres such as podcasts and “walking,” which readers may not otherwise associate with artistic practices. Walking, for example, is a methodology that entails mapping, performance, reflection, and spatial thinking. Alexander Horowitz’s On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes (2013) introduces this method. In the book, 11 experts in different fields, such as geology, urban planning, and animal behavior, are invited to have a walk with Horowitz around the same block. The point is that these 11 experts notice different things and hold different views due to their professional training in different disciplines. Walking as a method in educational and arts- based research “helps us understand that ways of seeing and perspectives are integral to our artistic ways of seeing the world and understanding it” (p. 143). This point also applies to other kinds of artistic practices. Art brings teachers and researchers different perspectives to expand our views in teaching, research, and the integral understanding of the world and field. Although arts-based research has attracted much attention and yielded many ground- breaking works, scholars who are compelled to enter the world of arts-based research from all fields usually concern their eligibility to conduct such work when they do not have backgrounds or professional training in art. The question “Who can make art?” inevitably intimidates researchers and ceases scholars’ enthusiasm and pursuit on this path in their beginning attempts. However, as two established qualitative scholars in education, the authors point out that ABER does not only belong to the field of professional art. Researchers from different disciplines of social sciences also share their experiences and opinions on this topic in the book. Some art scholars such as Lucero (2018), agree, and explicitly state that the professional art training and backgrounds should not be required in art-based research. In Chapter 2, the authors discuss studio pedagogy, which is widely used for training architects, and explain how this pedagogy sheds light in preparing early-career qualitative researchers in education. Along with Donald Schön, the authors reject the process of learning as a linear process. Instead, with Schön, they regard studio pedagogy as an Review of Arts-based educational research and qualitative inquiry 3 active solution for preparing researchers, because the project-based nature of studio learning promotes problem solving and solution exploration. With this pedagogy, arts- based approaches could be used in qualitative researcher training to prepare researchers to develop necessary skills and ethical awareness in project-based learning. Being, knowing, and doing the work, like artists, enrich social science researchers’ understanding and “deepens our ability to productively, ethically, and holistically navigate through the world” (Cahnmann-Taylor & Siegesmund, 2018, p. 2). Sousanis’ (2015) dissertation, which was completely written as a comic book, offers an example of how educational researchers may use drawing to make complicated academic endeavors accessible to both the academic and the public. Through his own work, Sousanis demonstrates that drawing “is essential, and it points to arts-based way of working not as separate activities reserved for artists, but fundamental literacies that everyone can bring to bear on their own thinking and ways of working” (2018, p. 198). To help readers better understand ABER, the authors include multiple exercises in each chapter to walk readers through many artistic practices that could be used in future research projects. For novice researchers, these exercises can be finished either with peers or alone, mostly in daily settings. However, not all artistic approaches are addressed with the same attention. For some artistic approaches, such as poetry, the authors only give brief descriptions without referring to certain scholars or studies. Hence, if readers have further interest in ABER on specific modalities, it may be necessary to find other published sources or consult the original studies listed in this book. Nonetheless, this volume demonstrates that the contribution of ABR in education is manifold. Researchers who will continue teaching and researching “can use art-based practices to enhance the experience of students and introduce multimodal learning styles and increased accessibility to all students” (p. 11). To develop aesthetic ways of thinking, learning, and teaching is not only meaningful for researchers who will pursue a career in higher education, but also for teachers who would like to embrace multimodality, flexibility, and openness in their own classrooms. References Cahnmann-Taylor, M., & Siegesmund, R. (2018). Arts-based research in education: Inquiry and pedagogy across diverse contexts (2nd ed.). Routledge. Fitzpatrick, E., & Fitzpatrick K. (2020). Poetry, method and education research: Doing critical, decolonizing and political inquiry. Routledge. Lucero, J. (2018). For art’s sake, stop making art. In M. Cahnmann-Taylor & R. Siegesmund (Eds.). Art-based research in education: Inquiry and pedagogy across diverse contexts (2nd ed., pp. 200-208). Routledge. Sousanis, N. (2015). Unflattening. Harvard University Press. Sousanis, M. (2018). Thinking in comics: An emerging process. In M. Cahnmann-Taylor & R. Siegesmund (Eds.). Art-based research in education: Inquiry and pedagogy across diverse dontexts (2nd ed.., pp. 150-199). Routledge. About the Reviewer Yixuan Wang is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Language and Literacy Education with an emphasis in TESOL and World Language Education at the University of Georgia. Education Review 4 Her research interests include arts-based educational research, multilingual and multicultural education, bilingual creative writing, heritage language education, and language teacher education. Education Review/Reseñas Educativas/Resenhas Educativas is supported by the Scholarly Communications Group at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University. Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review. Readers are free to copy, display, distribute, and adapt this article, as long as the work is attributed to the author(s) and Education Review, the changes are identified, and the same license applies to the derivative work. More details of this Creative Commons license are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Disclaimer: The views or opinions presented in book reviews are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of Education Review. 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