Arts research: Innovative practices - A 'snapshot' from New Zealand

Abstract

Arts Research: Innovative Practices, a postgraduate course introduced at The University of Auckland in 2012, is attractive to students from across the arts disciplines and educational sectors wishing to engage in arts-based educational research. The course entices students to critically explore emerging visions and theoretical concepts that broaden research practices in the arts through approaches such as narrative, autobiography, performative ethnography, reader's theatre, poetic inquiry, and a/r/tography. Emphasis is placed on the 'visual' as a powerful research tool. In this paper, an example of a Master of Education (MEd) thesis by Meng-Jiun Penny Lin (2015) offers a 'snapshot' of insights into how research in more than one arts discipline can be creatively conceptualised, conducted and reported in innovative ways. This cross-disciplinary postgraduate study provides an inventive model for others embarking on arts research.