Constructing knowledge about teaching and learning qualitative methods through reflections on collages of students' potential research topics
ENTeaching and learning qualitative research involves engagement with diverse research methods and procedures. In this chapter, we present collage-making as a pedagogical strategy to facilitate doctoral students’ exploration of their research topics. The ideas of arts-based teaching and learning, social constructivism, and knowledge construction through reflection guided our ways of engaging students in social interaction to foster their understanding about research and their own topics of interest. Six first year doctoral students prepared collages to illustrate their research topics, presented and discussed them with professors and peers and reflected on the processes of creating and thinking about their research with the collages. Through a description of these activities, we demonstrate how collage can be used to explore and recognise student prior knowledge and new understandings, to encourage openness to different perspectives, to unlock new ways of thinking, and to look at the research topic from a different angle. We end the chapter with insights into how collage helped our students become better acquainted with the methodological diversity of qualitative research and make more informed decisions regarding their own research. Keywords: collage, arts-based practice, research topic, teaching qualitative research, learning qualitative research.
