"Me and my students' smartphones in the classroom": A case study using arts-based methods

Abstract

There is a new area flourishing within qualitative research based on methods using all forms of art: music, theatre, visual arts, and literature. In this paper we present an overview of the basic features of arts-based research; emphasizing on their meaning on education research, on the freedom of expression given to the participants in the research, and on the method the researcher applies to evaluate the collected data. We then present an arts-based research case study where the research questions relate to teachers’ reactions to the use of smartphones by students in the classroom. In this case study, teachers, especially those working on secondary education, are invited to portray their thoughts, emotions, and images that respond to these questions by painting them on a paper using markers. The findings show that the majority of the teachers are negative about the children using their smartphone in the classroom, along with evidence for teachers’ emotional response and how to confront the phenomenon.

Gaming in multicultural classrooms with refugee and migrant children: Exploring the potential of culturally tailored serious games as spaces for second language acquisition

“…For the collection of the qualitative data in this case study, 25-minute semi-structured interviews were conducted, which followed all academic research ethics, and were anonymous and voluntary. The interviews included the arts-based method of drawing, as an alternative to investigate the research problem, reaching data that would otherwise remain silent via a verbal-only interview (Vakali & Brailas, 2018). Before the interview, a short video was sent to the participants as an orientation tool concerning what SGs are.…”

Rhizomes, nomads, and complexity: A new relational pedagogy for the era of networks, social media and artificial intelligence

“…(p. 72) According to Prigogine, we were facing a critical tipping point. Modern humans have already acquired cybernetic cognitive extensions in the form of "always carrying with me" smartphones (Brailas & Tsekeris, 2014;Vakali & Brailas, 2018). If we combine the cybernetic-enhanced biological self with the networked society and the development of ubiquitous artificial intelligent actors, would it be possible for this unprecedented combination to trigger the emergence of a complex techno-social distributed intelligence?…”

Using Drawings in Qualitative Interviews: An Introduction to the Practice

“…Horstman et al (2008) investigated how children diagnosed with cancer perceived the hospital care they were receiving: "Using the picture as a centerpiece, the researcher then conducted a semistructured interview that was aimed at the child generating a response rather than confirming a supplied response" (p. 1005). Vakali and Brailas (2018) investigated teachers' attitudes towards the use of smartphones by students in their classroom: "There was only one brief introduction to the subject and the time given to the participants was pretty short, around 10 minutes, to ensure the drawings would be as spontaneous as possible" (p. 43). McGrath, Mullarkey, and Reavey (2019) explored the value of participatory mapping, a visual technique quite close to drawing, in qualitative psychological research on affect and emotion: "Participants were asked to locate emotions experienced in the house with different colored stickers, each representing a different emotion" (p. 6).…”