Re-imagining research with children through an engagement with contemporary art

Abstract

This article explores how an engagement with a contemporary art film can foster a different attitude in relation to research with children through the following question: How might an engagement with a contemporary art film inform/disrupt/provoke how we do research with children, and what new ways of thinking about children might it invite? Informed by post-qualitative research in education, this article explores how a different attitude to visual research opens the possibility for re-thinking concepts of voice and agency. Through a discussion of the role of visuals in the field of anthropology as well as education, this article engages with the film Pódworka by the American contemporary artist, Sharon Lockhart.