Creative Expression as a Way of Knowing in Diabetes Adult Health Education

Abstract

This action research study explores the meaning-making process using forms of creative expression for eight women with insulin-dependent diabetes. The study is theoretically informed by arts-based ways of knowing and aspects of feminist poststructuralism, and explains the process of creativity used in the action research process. The findings center on the role of the created images and (a) the layered processes of meaning around those images as imaginal, individual, and social, (b) the images as embedded in other life contexts, and (c) how creative expression deconstructs and complements medical knowledge. Focusing on the construction of knowledge and the process of creative expression, the article highlights the importance of attending to creative expression as a way of knowing in adult and health education.