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arts -informed Volume 3, #1 November 2003 From The Centre for Arts-informed Research Co-Directors: Ardra Cole; J. Gary Knowles Editor: Sara Promislow In This Issue Short Story An inquiry into symbolic violence and silencing: The good Christian woman Douglas Gosse Poetry Masks/Bare Buff/On a Whim Carl Leggo Essays Poetry, perception and pedagogy: Thinking through art Joan Vinall-Cox Recovering our lost creativity: Where can we look? Martha Viveros Theatre as representation: Using data to inspire a creative work to use as a teaching tool Matthew J. Meyer Theatre I am not as good as I thought I was: A short scene inspired by interview data and written in a “Theatre as Representation” construct Matthew J. Meyer CAIR Notes Cabaret on the cove, May 2003 Lorri Neilsen An update and greetings from the Image and Identity Research Collective Catherine Derry Member Updates, Events 2003-2004, Things to watch for 2004, Arts-informed Theses at OISE/UT and UBC, Books of interest Call for Contributions arts-informed, Publication of the Centre for Arts- informed Research, Guidelines for contributors Greetings from The Centre for Arts-informed Research. We present yet another exciting and inspiring issue of arts-informed, a diversity of artful inquiries and methods, from poetry and fiction, to theatre and the visual arts, “heartfelt” research endeavours, deeply moving and personal, yet universal in their complexity, demonstrating the power of arts-informed research to uncover hidden truths and provide its readers with deep insight into the experiences of others. In addition to our ongoing columns, we have a report on the colourful Cabaret on the Cove that took place in Halifax in May, and an update from the Image and Identity Research Collective. Stay tuned for upcoming events at the centre. The Centre for Arts-informed Research is located within the Department of Adult Education, Community Development and Counseling Psychology at OISE/University of Toronto. We are a community of faculty and graduate students with a shared commitment to exploring, articulating, and supporting ways of bringing together art and social science research. Over the years the Centre has sponsored works-in-progress, discussions, gallery exhibits, performances, seminar talks, and conference presentations. One of our intentions is to provide a context for promoting exciting, innovative, ‘scholartistry’ that forges new shapes of academic discourse. We welcome new ‘scholartists’ to our community. If what we are doing strikes a chord with you and you would like to be involved in some way, contact Ardra Cole: [email protected] Our website is another way of finding out more about The Centre for Arts-informed Research: http://home.oise.utoronto.ca/~aresearch

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arts-informed Volume 3, #1 November 2003

From The Centre for Arts-informed ResearchCo-Directors: Ardra Cole; J. Gary Knowles Editor: Sara Promislow

In This IssueShort StoryAn inquiry into symbolic violence and silencing:The good Christian womanDouglas Gosse

PoetryMasks/Bare Buff/On a WhimCarl Leggo

EssaysPoetry, perception and pedagogy: Thinking through artJoan Vinall-Cox

Recovering our lost creativity: Where can we look?Martha Viveros

Theatre as representation: Using data to inspire a creative work touse as a teaching toolMatthew J. Meyer

TheatreI am not as good as I thought I was: A short scene inspired byinterview data and written in a “Theatre as Representation”constructMatthew J. Meyer

CAIR NotesCabaret on the cove, May 2003 Lorri Neilsen

An update and greetings from the Image and Identity ResearchCollective Catherine Derry

Member Updates, Events 2003-2004, Things to watch for 2004,Arts-informed Theses at OISE/UT and UBC, Books of interest

Call for Contributionsarts-informed, Publication of the Centre for Arts-informed Research, Guidelines for contributors

Greetings from The Centre for Arts-informedResearch. We present yet another exciting andinspiring issue of arts-informed, a diversity of artfulinquiries and methods, from poetry and fiction, totheatre and the visual arts, “heartfelt” researchendeavours, deeply moving and personal, yetuniversal in their complexity, demonstrating thepower of arts-informed research to uncover hiddentruths and provide its readers with deep insight intothe experiences of others. In addition to our ongoingcolumns, we have a report on the colourful Cabaret onthe Cove that took place in Halifax in May, and anupdate from the Image and Identity Research Collective.Stay tuned for upcoming events at the centre.

The Centre for Arts-informed Research islocated within the Department of Adult Education,Community Development and CounselingPsychology at OISE/University of Toronto. We are acommunity of faculty and graduate students with ashared commitment to exploring, articulating, andsupporting ways of bringing together art and socialscience research. Over the years the Centre hassponsored works-in-progress, discussions, galleryexhibits, performances, seminar talks, and conferencepresentations. One of our intentions is to provide acontext for promoting exciting, innovative,‘scholartistry’ that forges new shapes of academicdiscourse. We welcome new ‘scholartists’ to ourcommunity. If what we are doing strikes a chord withyou and you would like to be involved in some way,contact Ardra Cole: [email protected] website is another way of finding out more aboutThe Centre for Arts-informed Research:http://home.oise.utoronto.ca/~aresearch

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An Inquiry into Symbolic Violence and Silencing:The Good Christian WomanDouglas GossePh.D. Candidate (OISE/UT)

My doctoral thesis is entitled Breaking Silences, aninquiry into marginality & resistance, and the creative-researchprocess. Although an autoethnographic novel with ajournal style, inspired by Jean-Paul Sarte's Nausée(1964), it contains several short stories (Gosse, 2003).The Good Christian Woman is one of these. My thesisresearch has queer, poststructuralist underpinnings,and is purposely oppositional. Violence can besymbolic, and manifest in religious, educational,medical, legal, familial, and social institutions andsettings. Violence can take many forms - verbal,physical, and psychological. Silencing, a symbolic andpervasive form of violence that many of usexperience, causes no physical scars, but thepsychological ramifications can be long term andsignificant (Gosse & Gearson, 2002; Gosse, Labrie,Grimard, & Roberge, 2000). I seek to examine whoand what is silenced - when, where, and why? I have used the writer-ethnographer's approach increating this fictionalized short story, borrowing frommoving personal experiences and feelings from myown life history. Writer-research and reader-researcher interpenetrate one another through themedium of the text. Expressing these feelings, anddisruptive moments, is a bridge to breaking patternsof silencing in my life, and towards helping others -readers, enter into my experiences, so that we mighttogether critically broaden our understandings of lifeand culture (Eisenhart, 2001). The musings onreligion are inspired from sermons from theMetropolitan Community Church of Toronto(Hawkes, 2003a, 2003b, 2003c, 2003d), a queerchurch with a history of social activism, of which Iam a member. Although this church has played animportant role in queer studies and politics since the1970s, it remains largely invisible in research (Altman,2002). Part of my further motivation in writing TheGood Christian Woman is to show how discourse isimperfect, and meanings are transitory, fluid, andindividualized. Any belief in universality is illusory. Iembrace paradoxes, and multiple interpretations. Iintend to respond to a need to explore intersectional

identities in education (Parsons & Brown, 2001;Wallace, 2000), along the lines of ethnicity, class,gender, sexual orientation, geographical location,language and culture, and disability, so that we mayproblematise notions of self, group, and community,and give voice to those silenced by essentialist andpositivist academic posturing. In my research, I seekto invoke more questionings, not to provide answers.

* * *

The Good Christian Woman

The smiling woman with the flowered apronsat down at the table. Plates of salad, roast potatoes,steaming fresh vegetables, and peas pudding loomedin front of them. She decorously places several slicesof tender roast beef on her guest’s plate.

“There, all done, dear. Would you please saygrace?”

“My, that smells delicious. Come Lord Jesusbe our guest, and may this food with thy mercy beblessed.” I say.

‘Well, idle hands are the devil’s work,” shesays. “You know, I really took to heart what the gayminister said today. You know, all that about peoplenot caring what you know, until they know that youcare. Like when I volunteered at the soup kitchen lastTuesday night. My, oh my! Now weren’t they in astate, some of them! You know who I mean?”

She rolls her eyes.“I’m not sure.” I say, putting a forkful of the

succulent beef into my mouth.“We’re the way our saviour made us, my poor

grandmother always used to say. But you know, therewere a lot of those people there.”

I look at her.“You know, those men who dress like

women. The transsexuals.”“I see.”

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“Saw them on the talk shows, too. Yah, it’slike what that gay minister says. Don’t love yourneighbour as yourself until you start lovin yourselffirst. Those transsexuals have to stop abusingthemselves before they can help themselves, oranyone else! I mean, think of the shame of it. They allhave mothers and fathers, I suppose. Their parentsmust be just mortified. Imagine! Grown men dressingin women’s clothes. Shocking! I had all I could do tohold my tongue. But we must show compassion,right?”

I nod.“I mean, even the gay minister said it. The

best gift you can give to a needy world is a healthyyou, a balanced you, an engaged you. They reallyshould try to get some counseling. It just isn’t normal,you know. I mean, it’s bad enough having a gayminister and everything, but sometimes he hits thenail on the head. Two men or two women gettinintimate with each other. And some of them inchurch actin like real couples! Tut tut. That’s just gointoo far. But dressin up in women’s clothes?Downright foolish if you ask me. Is it good, dear?”

I nod, mouth full, and manage a smile.“And me a good Christian women. Been goin

to the same church for twenty-one years now. Eversince I moved to Toronto with my first husband.”She paused to eat a mouthful. “And good riddance tobad rubbish, too. He drank, he did. Worked inconstruction. An Italian. They’re usually goodhusbands, but there’s a bad apple in every barrel, ifyou know what I mean? Now, my second husbandwas a much better man. Had a real good job, too, onBay Street. Had a heart attack at age fifty-seven, hedid. Worked himself to death. God rest his soul. Buthe never said a cross word to me, no never. And hetook care of me real good, too. Thank the Lord. Here,have another baked potato.”

“The meal really is something,” I say.“I just love cooking. Everything from scratch

you know. Wait until you see dessert! I baked asurprise!”

“You always bake such wonderful things.”“I keep that church goin, I do. There’s never a

bake sale, or a choir practice, that I don’t bringsomething freshly baked. Even if I’ve been workin allday. Last week I brought two whole blueberry andstrawberry pies. They loved them. Ate ‘em up in notime. I had to walk by those people out by the church,

though. I think they might be practicin the world’soldest trade, if you know what I mean? Marching upand down the street there after dark, in them flashyclothes. I can’t tell which of them’s female, and whichisn’t. I try to park as close to the doors as possible, incase one of ‘em attacks me. You never know with thealcohol and drugs. One of them even asked me forthe time the other day. I almost fainted. I practicallyran into the church. Those poor, tormented souls.It’s like the gay minister said, the best gift you cangive to a needy world is a healthy you, a balanced you,an engaged you. They need to set things straight. Gethelp. Dress proper. Get off the streets. They’re notdoin themselves any good there, now, are they, oranyone else? They’ve got a long ways to go, that forsure and certain. Would you like some more beef?”

“No I’m fine, thank you. It’s really delicious.The best yet.” I say.

“Well, I try to be like wine, and get better as Iage. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind havinthat gay minister, but I don’t agree with everything hesays. Like that gay marriage thing. Marriage’s a holyunion between a man and woman. God created Adamand Eve, not Adam and Steve. It’s just wrong.They’re takin away our rights. Next you’ll be able tomarry farm animals, or pets. Like Ginger here.Imagine if I asked the church to let me marry my cat!There has to be limits. The good Lord knows thattwo men or two women bein together is just wrong.Simple as that. They wouldn’t be dying of that gaydisease, AIDS, if it weren’t a sin. And now they wantto marry. For what? They can’t have children.”

“I know several gay and lesbian couples whohave children.”

“Oh, I don’t mean they don’t have children. Iknow some do. But just that two men can’t have achild together, or two women either. You know. Youneed a ying for a yang, and all that? Some of them,I’m sure, are very good parents. Very good.”

“Do you have any children, Mrs. Wallis?”“Indeed I do. I have a girl. She lives in

Scarborough. Done well for herself. Went to lawschool. Has three children of her own. She stays athome now. Her husband’s a businessman. We don’ttalk much. She’s always too busy drivin the kidsaround. Meetings. Parties. Always up to something.No time for me, except once in a while. I go visit. Wehave a nice time. I like to see the children.

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She’s a bit short, though. Short tempered. Stressedout all the time, she says. I’d like to visit more often.You see in anyone?”

“I’m too young.”“Now, now, forgive a woman for meddling. I

was just curious. Here. Have some more salad.”We eat in silence for some time. It is with

great tenderness that she heaps macaroni and gardensalad on my plate.

“I’ll go make us some tea. I’m so glad you’rehere today to enjoy my cooking. I enjoy the company.There’s nothing better than a good cup of tea, andgood company, I always say.”

I continue eating until she returns with a teatray.

“Like that gay minister says, Sunday’s a day ofrest. We need to recharge our batteries if we wannabe healthy, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Let’sgo sit in the living room and sip our tea.”

I follow her.“I have the dessert already laid out. Surprise!

A double-layered chocolate cake made completelyfrom scratch. Like that gay minister says, discoveryour passion. Now mine is cookin and bakin andcarin for the needy. I do love carin for people. Theless fortunate. The good Lord made us all.Even those gays. And Jesus healed the sick. Ourchurch was always so diverse, what with the Scottishand the Welsh and the Irish, but now we have thegays, and the Blacks, and the Asians. My, some ofthose Blacks are such nice people, aren’t they? And somusical! Now have a great big slice! There!

ReferencesAltman, D. (2002). 30 Years of Gay Liberation in

Australia. Paper presented at the QueerStudies Conference, Out from the Centre,University of Newcastle, Australia, October29-30, 2002

Eisenhart, M. (2001). Educational Ethnography Past ,Present, and Future: Ideas to Think With.Educational Researcher, 30(8), 16-27 (11-18WilsonWeb).

Gosse, D. (2003,). Queering Auto-Ethnography with Arts-Inspired Educational Research - EthnographicMethod or Madness? Paper presented at theOxford Ethnography in EducationConference, England, September 2, 2003

Gosse, D., & Gearson, S. (2002). Garçons Canadiens,Histoires de Silence / Canadian Boys, HiddenStories. National Canadian Broadcast: RadioCanada.

Gosse, D., Labrie, N., Grimard, M., & Roberge, B.(2000). Violence in Discourse of Gay and LesbianFrancophones. Paper presented at the LavenderConference, Washington, DC., September,2000

Hawkes, B. (2003a). Building Bridges. Toronto:Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto.

Hawkes, B. (2003b). Designing your label. Toronto:Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto.

Hawkes, B. (2003c). Healing Waters. Toronto:Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto.

Hawkes, B. (2003d). Three Eternal Truths. Toronto:Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto.

Parsons, C., & Brown, P. (2001). Educating forDiversity: An Invitation to Empathy andAction. Action in Teacher Education, 23(3), 1-4.

Satre, J.-P. (1964). Nausea (L. Alexander, Trans.). NewYork: New Directions PublishingCorporation.

Wallace, B. (2000). A Call for Multicultural Training atGraduate Schools of Education: Educating toEnd Oppression and for Social Justice.Teachers College Record, 102(6), 18.

Note This project is funded by the Social Sciences andHumanities Council of Canada, 2003-2004.

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MASKSCarl LeggoDept. of Language and Literacy EducationUniversity of British Columbia

(for Aaron)

all your life you have worn masks,pretended and presented another:Batman Superman He-Manthe Joker the Hulk the BeastDracula Donatello Dick Tracya buxom woman, even the wife of Bath

only six, you ran to Malmo Elementaryin red rubber boots, bare chest and legs,in Edmonton’s crisp autumn, even,brandishing He-Man’s sword, I have the power

my son, a thousand impersonations:in a wig of burnt gold Phentex wool you wereVincent the Beast and roared fearsome havocon Paracelsus, all enemies, all played by me

you dwell in the world of make-believeand make me believe in worlds conjuredin words, mimetic imaginings for dispellingeach day’s pressing pragmatic busyness

for years we have huddled like phantomsin the dark of Silver City Cinemas,shared popcorn and Pepsi, lingered long amidstincarnate shadows, figures of embodied light

now, you know enough factsabout movies to win Jeopardy:what three films have won all fivemajor categories of Academy Awards?

and you know the grammar of light,the glamorous necromancy spelled in a tangleof angles shots frames effects shadows

and you know how fact and fiction arealways bound in discourse, all worldsimagined, the world’s course, always in words

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in a flashback, I see you flick and flicker,down the stairs with Fred Astaire’s joy,echoes of Archimedes in Athens’ streets:I’ve done it, I’ve done it, I’ve finally written something I don’t understand

your name starts with two a’s,in the beginning of the alphabet,with aardvark, anchored in the earth:a man of words who knowsthe world well beyond words

like I always bought for my fathera new screw driver from Canadian Tire,the tool I knew he needed, you purchased for mea first birthday gift from Shopper’s Drug Mart,pencils and paper, offered with the heartlanguage no Carlton card has ever inscribed:I love having a poet for a dadbecause we play with words

and not so long ago, gushing with viewsabout the movie we had just seen, almostbreathless, you gasped with an acrobat’s grin,I only speak thirty-three per cent of what I say,and now I, too, have almost caught upto my words, at least long enough to say,I love having a poet for a son, always in play,my words lightly resonant in this poem,all always only a fraction of all I say

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BARE BUFFCarl LeggoDept. of Language and Literacy EducationUniversity of British Columbia

at the end of another busy semester, eager to avoidstill another day’s endless torrential torment of e-mail,I drove fast from campus, and parked at Spanish Banks,to breathe the surprise clear blue sky of early December,chilled by English Bay and Coast Mountain shadows,to stroll the beach and hold my spirit close, the waypoets like to, need to, must, a brief sabbath,an inspiriting respite, before returning to the mudand drudge of the associate deans’ unmemorable memosand specious spam promises of gargantuan penises

but soon regretted my poet’s fancy, wished onlyI had stayed with the harping safety of e-mail, sincea thief smashed the car and stole my satchel, notesfor essays and poems, a few books, my favourite fountainpen, my diary, where for months I had written another life,the Walter Mitty dreams I lived in my head and heart,the confused concatenation of Scorpio sun and Pisces moon,the story behind the mask presented daily to the world,the diary where words failed me less often, perhaps becauseI was not writing for peer review publication prizes pride

no diary for public presentation or perusal, a writer’s diary,a place for gathering words like pieces of the world’s puzzle,flotsam washed up on the shore of a desert island, fragmentsof the omnipresent fiction that manufactures more discontentthan consent, and for months I wrote nothing more, only hopedmy diary was in a Smithrite, still dreamed the thief reading itlate at night by candlelight, savouring the voyeur’s romance,and waited for a phone call with a dire message of blackmail,looked for the diary published anonymously in True Confessions,scrutinized the romantic want ads for invitations to rendezvous

till in spring the police found my satchel on a tree stumpin Pacific Spirit Park, notes, books, fountain pen, everythingexcept the diary, and I woke up in Richmond Shopping Centreon a Saturday, naked, like old Adam, without fear, now write onlytruth in my diary and poems, and expect, even hope, others will readmy words, full of desire for the catharsis of confession, the revelryof revelation, the apocalypse of admission, the dalliance of disclosure,like Salome’s head-twisting striptease of a thousand veils, I ambare buff, but like Lady Godiva I can still let down my hair,dreaming the thief dreaming me, Heathcliffe on a blustery bluff

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ON A WHIMCarl LeggoDept. of Language and Literacy EducationUniversity of British Columbia

editors reject my poems with concise comments:

• one editor said, your poems are too whimsical• one editor said, your poems are too narrative• one editor said, your poems are too prosaic• one editor said, your poems are too long• one editor said, your poems need more punctuation• one editor said, your poems are too short• one editor said, your poems are chopped up sentences like soup stock• one editor said, your poems are too postmodern, too confusing• one editor said, your poems falter in the last lines• one editor said, your poems are too plain for the postmodern age• one editor said, your poems about quotidian living are fun, but you need more• one editor said, your poems are plagiarism• one editor said, your poems are traditional and derivative• one editor said, your poems almost made it, but they lack something• one editor said, your poems aren’t for me, don’t send any more

Aesop told a fable:

A father and son took a donkey to market.Some neighbours scoffed,Why don’t you ride the donkey?So, the son rode the donkey, and some neighbours scoffed,What a lazy son, letting his father walk while he rides!So, the father rode the donkey, and some neighbours scoffed,What a lazy father, letting his son walk while he rides!So, both the father and son rode the donkey, and some neighbours scoffed,What lazy oafs, riding that little donkey!So, the father and son carried the donkey, and some neighbours scoffed,What fools, carrying a donkey!

I will go out on a limb, even a whim, and send this poem to an editor, soon, perhaps.

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Poetry, Perception and Pedagogy: Thinking Through ArtJoan Vinall-CoxPh.D. Candidate (OISE/UT)

I am a poet, not because I have published a greatdeal of poetry, but because poetry is the way I think,the way I discover what I need to know. I writepoetry because something has disturbed myequilibrium, and I cannot rest until I reorient myselfby dealing with the disturbance. I focus on thephenomenon that has disrupted me, and I write thewords that rise and reveal themselves. I write andrewrite these words until they satisfy me. I can’texplain using logic, but I know when the poem iscomplete, when I have embraced the experience andestablished my personal agency through creativity. Mypoem is both a child of, and victory over, thedisturbance. As I am passionate about teaching andlearning, some of my poetry is about my schoolexperiences. Often I find, when I reread and reflecton what I have written, that an understanding that Iwasn’t fully conscious of has appeared within thepoem. Long before I heard the term “Arts-BasedInquiry” I was practicing a form of it as part of mypersonal and professional development. I understand poetry as a channel between mysubconscious awareness and my consciousrecognition (Woodman, 1985). My poems show mewhat I am coming to, what is emerging into myconscious perception, what I am beginning to beaware of. Thus, they are deeply personal and veryvaluable to me. They are my private poems, my secretunderstandings. Sometimes I am prepared to sharesome of them. One of my concerns, as I began to study the Arts-Based approach as an effective method of inquiry,was that my art might not be “good” art. However, Iview arts-based poems as phenomenological inquiry,fitting both categories van Manen (1997) describes :“Phenomenology aims at making explicit and seekinguniversal meaning where poetry and literature remainimplicit and particular” (p. 19) Arts-Based Inquiry asphenomenological inquiry aspires to a differentepistemological end than “art for art’s sake”. AsDiamond and Mullen (1999) state, "arts-based inquiryis art pursued for inquiry's sake" (p. 25). The questionof whether Arts-Based works are “good” is irrelevant;what is relevant is what I as researcher (and maybeothers) can learn with and from such poems.

Here then, is a small collection of poems that I thoughtwith and through: I studied Narrative Inquiry with Dr Connelly atOISE in the early nineties. I wrote this‘understanding’ in the form of a poem a few yearslater.

On Narrative

We live in stories: we recognize a pattern

and embrace the trajectory we put ourselves into costumes

so the audience knows our role.

The story composesits makerswho circlearound the patterns,seeking and makingmeanings.

The ending imaginesthe beginning;

the teller is caughtin the tale.

The story expandsthe audience as each, absorbed,grasps, through the story,

the secret they yearn forand fear.

We swallow storiesand become them.

We drink storiesand colour all we see

and feel.

We are a species who story.

After over thirty years as a teacher, I became astudent again, seeking to understand the experience ofbeing a student. This poem flowed out of a class atOISE with Dr. Diamond. In an ethical move, I haveedited out a verse that focussed on the behaviour ofanother student that was the initial disturbanceprovoking this poem.

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Once the verse was gone, as I reread the resultingpoem, I grasped more consciously how I experiencedeeply educative moments.

Student Time

The sun flowing over the cityslanting into the classroom,warming my stretched-out legs -

What do we mean, as memoriessplash over conversation,rocked loose by readings and talk

in this sun-filled space where I feelsafe andican listen and hear

November and February, in my experience, arebleak, difficult times for students and for teachers.One November, after hearing a news report of ablackout caused by a squirrel leaping onto someelectrical transformers, and a stressful day in school, Icreated this poem. Just as a blues singer singing aboutsorrows is heartened by the music she or he makes,writing this poem has helped me find balance in myNovembers.

November in School

In November, everything crashes -files are lost,cars slide into each other,suiciding squirrels shut down generators

and I am late for school.

In November, people weep -assignments fail,teachers and students snarl,work done is less than hoped,

and more,much more, is required.

In November, we fear -even if Christmas ever comes,even if spring only hides behindthe winter we have to endure,

we have lostwhatever we came here to find.

At one point in my teaching career, I had to choosewhether to continue on in an administrative, teacher-development path, or return to my teaching role. Theprocess of writing the following poem both shapedand allowed me to discover my decision. As I wrote, Idiscovered what I felt and thought, and found mychoice was already made.

Choices - Winter ’94

I am richly tattooed with the stories that have made me.I live in the circus while the audience flows past me.I have learned how to see, with eyes less sharp yet more.discerning, what I am facing and how to move.

Sometimes I reach towards what I have always knownonly to findemptiness.

Now, here, I must choose to be a performer or work backstage.Performers often complain, and work long hours;Backstage people seem to get more and to decide, (but others tell them what they mustdecide about.)

I have chosen the energy intersection, the point where the performerand the audience meet to build this timeless moment and the future.

I won’t be able to plan the circusI won’t be able to see where the audience goes

butI will have lived the momentswith them; we will have shared life.

As I teach, I learn. As a teacher, I have learned thatI have to pay attention to my own reactions, andmonitor myself as well as my students. While using awriting pedagogy still somewhat new to me, I worriedabout how much class time I was giving over tostudents reading their writing to one another: ShouldI, with my ‘expert’ knowledge give them more of myfeedback? Were the less “expert” students just sharingignorance?

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Then, during class, a disturbing moment happened; Ididn’t like one of my student’s work, but with avisceral intensity that signalled to me that I needed topay attention to my disproportionate response.

THE WRITING TEACHER'S RESPONSEorWHY AN AUDIENCE OF ONE ISN'T ENOUGH

Soft pastel smilesand a soap opera murk, a story of cancer and births

she presents with prideand I

ask questions:Is this a story you know?How do you want the audience to react?Try writing "I", not "she".

On the reading day, we all read andshe takes her turn,using "I" she gives usthe journal of a woman waitingfor a grandchild's birth

and death by cancer.

Against my will --tears and choked breath,(memories defeat judgment);the others all hear, see.

(I don'tlike her.)

Another day of reading,another melodrama,this time of rape and death.

I sit, arms crossed, legs crossed,closedto the story of her heroine --who refused help,"No, I'm okay,"clung to pain,"I'll never stop hurting,"and claimeda foolish death.

(I can'ttell her;

I want herto know.)

I hate this soft murkand sentimental vision(but yes, this story is better told,and yes, she has learnedthe power of "I" in readers' ears.)

And I am amazed

as witty Simon, complex Caroline,difficult Bart and the otherscrowd aroundher,animated, praising -

And I seeI have much to learnfrom my students

I am more than a teacher; I am a person livingthrough my own life experiences. I am embedded inmy family life, and watch those I love movingthrough their life rhythms. Last year, looking at myparents and my child, I wrote this.

At Fifty I See That…

Courage at eighty is different from at twentyBut both ages carry their future constantly -A fearsome thrust into an unmapped wilderness.

A fearsome thrust carrying life forward blindlyAt eighty requires enough love to endureDespite loss, and endure because of loss to come,And endure because of the sweetness still here, ifCourage persists. And, despite (because?) the compass pointingThrough the wilderness to the edge of the map,Tells a tale seen over and over about endings, despite this,To work through today knowingtoo much, and not enough, about tomorrow.

To carry your future at twenty is to seekThe wilderness because it must be mappedAnd shaped. There are roads to clear and homesTo build, and no one has given you a planFor your wilderness, (just the one they didn’t use in theirs).So you thrust forward, knowing too little and enough,Building blindly wherever you find a clearing, liftingThe log of your childhood so it bridges your fears,Confident that it might not collapse on you.

Courage at eighty is different from at twentyBut both ages carry their future constantly -A fearsome thrust into an unmapped wilderness.

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I have chosen these poems because theydemonstrate how my life shapes, and is shaped by, mypoetry. I chose them because I love what they haveshown me, even when, especially when, it was adifficult lesson. I wrote of my view of narrative and that writinghelped me integrate what I had learned academicallywith what I knew experientially. It enhanced mycoherency. My poem describing the sunny classroomwas a discovery of what an educative experience feltlike for me. It was a phenomenological statementabout learning, as was my poem about howNovember feels in school. Both narrative and “feltexperience” are central, in my opinion, to graspinghow schools and learning work. My poem about thechoice I made to remain with students and not try toplunge into administration allowed me to understandwhy I didn’t follow the promotional path, and what Itruly loved about being in a school. When I wrote about how I responded to a student’swriting, I was coming to terms with a Jungian“shadow” response that I’d caught myself in.According to Jung (1976), “the shadow … representsfirst and foremost the personal unconscious” (p. 147).I was projecting onto this student my unconsciousdislike of my own attraction to sentimentality andmelodrama. My disproportionate response had to dowith what I disliked in myself rather than thestudent’s actual work. By paying attention to mystudents’ responses I came to understand more deeplythe significance of the pedagogy I was espousing,which values learners’ insights, and the learningcommunity as much as teachers’ expertise. I amproud I allowed an “Other” to present her voice,despite how uncomfortable it made me feel. I amgrateful to the students who recognized what Icouldn’t. Both poems, one about staying in the classroom,the other about being in the classroom, weredevelopmental poems moving me towards a rich

fuller consciousness of myself as a person called to bea teacher. My final poem about the courage neededfor both youth and aging is personal, and universal. Itcomes from beyond the classroom, but is part of myongoing attempt to see what it means to be human. What I love about the educative classroom, whetherI am teacher, learner, or, at the best of times, both, is“the energy intersection”, the moment when the lightbulb blazes on, the difficult, pleasurable moment ofinsight and connection, the moment that I can graspin poetry. Poetry is an inquiry tool for me, an exercisein phenomenological consciousness. In poetry, I findthe inchoate meanings rising from my “felt life”.Poetry is inquiry, for me, and the act of writing apoem, an act of research. I learn about stories,students, rhythms, decisions, pedagogical insights, andlife by writing my poetry. I think through my art.

ReferencesDiamond, P., & Carol Mullen (Ed.). (1999). The

Postmodern Educator: Arts-Based Inquiries andTeacher Development. New York: Peter Lang.

Jung, C. G. (1976). The Portable Jung. New (J.Campbell, Ed., R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) York:Penguin Books.

van Manen, M. (1997). Researching Lived Experience:Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy.London, Ontario: The Althouse Press.

Woodman, M. (1985). The Pregnant Virgin: A Process ofPsychological Transformation. Toronto: Inner CityBooks.

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Recovering Our Lost Creativity : Where Can We Look?Martha ViverosPh.D. Student (OISE/UT)

I have worked in the field of adult education forseveral years, and my work has involved teachingdifferent kinds of work-related skills. In the corporateworld, managers often complain about people’s lackof creative responses towards everyday workingchallenges. In daily life as well, it is common to hearpeople say that they are not creative, while so manyother people are. Both my personal and professionalexperience have taught me that helping peoplerecover their creativity involves much more thandoing a few exercises to teach students how to think“out of the box”. While helping adults developproblem solving skills is certainly useful, thedevelopment of creativity is a much deeper process;and also one that can help a person live a morefulfilling life. Allowing our own creativity to blossom has to dowith having a full connection with who we are, aprocess that is not supported by our education systemwhich encourages people to pursue “external” goalsrather than going within. While I am not suggestingthat career or any other goals should be put aside inorder to pursue a spiritual quest, I do think thateducation today, for children and adults alike, shouldadopt an approach that includes the totality of aperson’s being: Mind, body, emotions and spirit.When a person is in touch with all aspects of him orherself, creativity happens in a natural way. My field of academic interest, the connectionbetween creativity and spirituality in education, isrooted in my personal experience. I have a profoundinterest in spirituality, which has led me to performyogic spiritual practices for a decade. A couple ofyears ago, I became interested in the connectionbetween spiritual practice and the unfolding ofcreativity. I started exploring the field with a self-study project based on the connection betweenmeditation and creative expression through visual art.The drawings I produced during that period becamethe basis of an arts-informed masters thesis. Thisarticle contains some of the insights derived from thatexperience.

Creativity has been described as an inner processakin to psychotherapy and spirituality, in that eachprovides a doorway into the inner world and theimagination, where one leaves behind the ordinaryworld and enters a numinous space that resonateswith meaning (Simkinson, 1998). The creativeexperience is more about looking inside, than aboutthinking of creating something according to a specifictrend or other external expectation. In this sense,creative activity is much more about getting to knowoneself deeply, than about producing technicallyimpeccable works of art; it is not so much aboutdoing something, but about “following, or takingdictation” of what the voice of intuition says(Nachmanovitch, 1990). This process requires fineattunement with our inner voice. I started drawing using oil pastels after my morningmeditation. The drawings were made in a completelyspontaneous manner, with an attitude of allowingwhatever would appear on the paper be, as opposedto trying to draw something in particular. After doingexpressive visual art for a few months, I startedlooking for ways in which to interpret the series ofdrawings I was producing. When I looked at them asa sequence, I realized that many of them had acommon topic: The body. The images I producedbecame documents through which I could get intouch with my body’s wisdom, which I had beenunaware of for a long time. The following is theanalysis of one of those images.

The Birth of the “I” Inside the Body

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I am in the kitchen of my house, looking at thisdrawing. It is the body of a woman looking at adrawing of a woman. There is no other image on thepage; it is the body that wants to speak out. It wantsto speak about itself, about its different dimensionsand the dynamics that are going on inside it. This isnot an image of what I think my body is, it did notpass through the filters of the rational mind in itsmaking. It is a drawing made by the body wanting tomake a portrait of itself; it is like a multidimensionalmap that shows the physical, and beyond. The first question I ask about this drawing is whatbody did I draw? There is a physical body on thepage; it is filled with symbols and swirls of energy.When I made this drawing I had not started readingabout the body and its depths of being; it wascompletely spontaneous, that is why I think it is avalid source to learn about the nature of embodiment.The body drew itself without any rational intent; itwas its own movement portraying itself. The first thing I realize about this body is theabsence of the head. The head is traditionally the seatof rationality and analytical thinking. It also containsthe mouth and the tongue, the physical instrumentsfor verbal expression. The fact that these elementsare absent speaks to me about letting in a differentkind of knowing, a different kind of language, thelanguage of the body, which in this case is translatedinto images. The head is also the seat of four of thefive sense organs, sight, smell, hearing and taste. Theabsence of these four organs of perception pointstowards kinesthetic perception, the one that I feel lessfamiliar with. I am not usually aware of aspects likebodily position, weight, or muscular movement asways of knowing. I am much more prone to learningthrough vision, sound, taste and sometimes smell.This, however, has made me feel clumsy many times.For years I had a clear sense of uneasiness about mybody, I felt it was not adequate, and I was afraid of it.The torso was the part I was most afraid of; it felt toouncontrollable, too incomprehensible. My images,and this one in particular, are telling me that I have tofully integrate the torso into my awareness, and this ofcourse encompasses the depth of everything, physicaland nonphysical, included in it. This is not an idealized body, as others have been;the arms are rather thin, the neck is thick, and thehips are accentuated. The absence of limbs ismeaningful. We use the legs to move about, and the

arms to grab objects and carry out different activities.In this body, these aspects seem to be cut off. Thetorso is the part of my body I pay least attention to,and this time it is the only one to appear on paper. I try to understand this drawing by putting my bodyin the same position, lifting my arms in the air andvisualizing its shapes and colors inside my actualbody. I do this because I want to have a bodilysensation of it; I want to hear the wisdom of the bodyin response to this image. The body seems to beclaiming attention through the bright colors. Theposture is solid; it actually resembles a tree, where thetorso is the trunk, and the arms and neck are threebranches. The torso can work as a foundation. Thebody in this picture is not fragile, but strong and aliveinside. It makes me think of stages of growth,seasons. It is a barren tree with no leaves now,however, much is going on inside it. It is like a tree inwinter that is getting ready to blossom in Spring. The spirals in the center and the blue curves on theshoulders represent the spiritual aspect of the body.They are superimposed on the physical body, andthey expand the nature of mere physicality. Theimage could be a threshold body, (Darroch-Lozowski,1999), a door that connects the physical plane tosubtler, nonmaterial levels of being. There is anemphasis on the center of the body through anascending spiral. The spiral occupies the space ofwhat traditional yogic scriptures call the susumna nadi,or the central subtle channel through which kundalini,the primordial energy ascends (Judith, 1996). Themovement of the awakened kundalini representspurification, transformation. This body shows twospirals in different colors, purple and golden. Theymay symbolize the ascendant and descendant currentsof the kundalini energy active inside it. Shakti is thefemale, ascendant, creative aspect of kundalini thatmoves towards freedom (Judith, 1996) Shiva, the maleaspect of this energy, is said to destroy ignorance,attachment and illusion; it is the nature ofconsciousness that impregnates the seeker withawareness (Judith, 1996). There is an interactionbetween the creative female force and the male one,looking for awareness within the body. It is a strugglebetween freedom to create and grounding. For me, creativity requires us to be open and let goof our preconceptions, the whole body has to be alertin order to follow its lead, which surges and dissolves

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in an instant. The body is impregnated withconsciousness, and the forces that we face every dayof our lives have a seat inside it. Their existencewithin the body shows that creativity and awarenesshave a bodily component, they do not happenexclusively at a brain level. Once more, I try to imaginarily superimpose thisimage on my body. I sense conflict in the area of thethroat. The energy does not flow easily, it feelsconstrained, as if it did not have an outlet. In theyogic scriptures, the path of the kundalini energy goesfrom the muladhara chakra, located at the base of thespine, to the sahasrara chakra, the chakra at the top ofthe head (Purnananda, 2003). It is not going past thethroat; there is a lot of emphasis on this area. Thereis a flower on the throat. It is purple. Surprisingly,when I go to the Sat Chakra Narupana (Purnananda,2003), a 500 year old Indian text that describes thechakra system, and read a description of vissudhachakra, or throat chakra, it is described as purple. Thethroat chakra is associated with self-expression, withthe use of our own voice, therefore, it is connectedwith creativity (Judith 1996). Purple is a colorassociated with spiritual knowledge, therefore, thispart of the image speaks about the expression ofspirit, the center of the creative process. What part ofme knew this? I did not acquire this knowledge in aconscious way before. Discovering this makes methink that artistic creativity may not be aboutexpressing a subjectivity that does not exist anywhereelse, but about connecting with dimensions of realitythat are not visible to the physical eye and retrievingthat perception on paper in order to expand ourunderstanding of who we really are. By means of these drawings, I learn how to use theimagination as a way of knowing. Every time Iimaginarily superimpose this body on my body I findsomething different. There is certain stiffness to it. Itwould be difficult to be in this body. It is as if thesurge of inner energy were constrained by this rigidity.The body won’t change its shape in order to give wayto a new energy, to a fresh beginning. Although theenergy has lots of strength, the rigidity of the physicalbody may not be able to contain it. Revisiting the art I produced at this time helps mereconnect with bodily sensations as well. As I lookcarefully at the drawing I come across an eye, it is inthe throat, near the intersection between the neck and

the face, like an eye of bodily perception. I amimpressed by its depth; it looks like an ancient eye,an eye of wisdom, the spectator, the eye that knows itall, and patiently witnesses from within. In the solarplexus, or the upper abdominal area, which in theancient Indian tradition is connected to our force ofwill or personal power, there is another eye. It is afeminine eye, it’s nostalgic; it speaks of pain andlonging. Every time I see an eye, I think of the “I”.Could it be that it is a representation of the embodiedeye, the eye of wisdom in the throat, the eye of feelingin the solar plexus? Could these eyes refer to thecapacity of vision or witnessing of the body?Interestingly enough, the eye in the throat looksmasculine, the one on the torso is clearly feminine.Could it be that the female and the male side of meare dissociated? Maybe the image is only indicatingthe play that goes on between these two aspects inevery body, as well as in the entire universe. Still in the kitchen of my house, while cooking somerice for dinner, I think about the power of art to helpus heal inside, and expand our vision. Through mydrawings I have learned that creativity lies deeplywithin our being, in our body. The world of imagescan bring us to the point where we can hear its voice,and therefore become empowered through our ownauthenticity and consistence in being.

ReferencesDarroch-Lozowski, Vivian. (1999) The Uncoded World:

A Poetic Semiosis of the Wandered. New York:Peter Lang.

Judith, Anodea. (1996). Eastern Body, Western Mind.Psychology and the Chakra System. Berkely:Celestial Arts.

Miller, John (Ed.). (2002). Nurturing our Wholeness:Perspectives on Spirituality in Education. Brandon,VT: Foundation for Educational Renewal.

Nachmanovitch, Stephen (1990). Free Play. New York:Penguin Putnam, Inc.

Purananda, Swami.(2003) SatChakra-Nirupana(Arthur Avalon, Trans.) In Realization.Retrieved on March 30, 2003 fromhttp://.realization.org/page/namedoc0/scn/scn_i.htm. (Original work written in the 16th century).

Simpkinson, Anne & Charles H. Simpkinson (Eds.) (1998).Soul Work: A Field Guide for Spiritual Seekers. NewYork: Harper Collins.

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Theatre as Representation:Using Data to Inspire a Creative Work to Use as a Teaching ToolMatthew J. Meyer, PhDSchool of Education, St Francis Xavier UniversityAntigonish. Nova Scotia

THEATRE AS REPRESENTATION is a researchmethodology that leads to the creation of a dramatic work.This dramatic work’s raison d’être is to be viewed in a livepresentational format in non-threatening manner and toserve as a provocation vehicle for each viewer to question,compare and contrast his or her beliefs, protocols and thelike as viewed with the contents of the dramatic work. As aresearch vehicle, THEATRE AS REPRESENTATIONfalls into the qualitative research genre within the post-positivist paradigm. (Meyer, 1998)

For a number of years, I have been creatingdramatic/theatrical scenarios to use as provocationvehicles for both pre-service and in-service teachersand administrators in their quest of understanding thereality of schooling. The purpose of this short articleis to explain briefly the steps involved in taking dataderived from interviews and formulating a path, so tospeak, to the creation of a dramatic piece. This pursuithas been fairly consistent in terms of research andapplication (Meyer, 2001a, 2001b, Meyer &Macmillan, 2003)1. The design paradigm consists of the following fivesequential steps:

THEATRE VEHICLE GENERAL SUBJECTfl

INTERVIEWSfl

ANALYSIS: DEVELOPMENT OF THEMES ANDMOTIFS

flWORKING SCENARIO WITH CHARACTERS

flACTUAL TEXT OF PIECE

After interview data has been coded, analyzed andfindings have been derived, there is a clear messagethat the data can formalize into a clear thematicstatement for scenario creation.

A thematic statement is defined as: One or more qualifiedcause and effect relationships of specific abstract ideas as shown ordemonstrated by one or more corresponding plot or action sequences.

Within this definition, causality is the vehicle to clarifyabstract ideas. Abstract ideas are ideas or conceptsthat have no physical properties such as height,weight, depth and volume. The abstract idea must begeneral enough to allow some latitude in the causalparameters. The “qualified” in the theme definition are someexplicit descriptive terms to bring the abstract ideaout from under the ‘general’ indefinite definitionalhaze. For example, the idea of “love.” There are manytypes of love: for one’s parents, love towardssomeone in a sensual manner, love for a political orsocietal cause, and love for a pet passion. In athematic context, the abstract must be qualified orspecific. The abstract idea of self-sacrificial love forone’s child would be an example of this application.The following are thematic statements from somewell-known works:

THE SEA (Bond,2000/1973): Exaggeration orextremism of the idea of conspiracy, or the roleof protector is shown by the fabrication of a self-fulfilling prophesy.

DANCE OF DEATH (Strindberg (1981/1900):Love inevitably turns into pure hatred whichbecomes the basis of a love/hate relationship asshown by a husband and wife who are destinedto an increasing struggle of eternal torment.

By putting a research finding into a casualstatement, the researcher, scenario writer, now has aclear cause and effect foundation to fabricatecharacters and an action line that will exemplify thefinding. Packard (1987) explains that dramatic actionmust be expressed in “three words: actions, visuals,and stakes” (pp. 13-14)

1. Drama is action. Action is someone’s wantingsomething. Action is the strong objective thatsomeone has in a beat or scene or act of a play.

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2. Character is action. Character is someone’swanting something. Character is his or her majorobjective in the play.3. Actions and characters should both be expressedthrough vivid onstage visuals. A visual is any physicalobject that becomes the embodiment of somemajor action.4. Actions and characters run into obstacles. Dramaticconflict begins when someone wants somethingbut there is an obstacle (a strong resistance, astone wall impediment, or some other character’saction) that gets in the way of what this characterwants. Then the character will either have toovercome the obstacle, or the character will notbe able to overcome the obstacle and so he willhave to try and approach it from some otherdirection.5. The greatness of any action depends on how much is atstake. The greater these stakes, the greater theaction will be – and the smaller the stakes, thesmaller the action will be. If the stakes aren’t allthat much then a character won’t care very muchabout his action, and then the audience won’tcare either.

It is within these Packard guidelines that theresearcher/writer must establish what is to be gainedand what is to be lost by each character by theconclusion of the scenario. This win/lose result isusually in terms of political ground, power andcontrol over others, or an institutional enhancementor reduction in status. There is no established format to creating ascenario. Bearing this mind, however, I suggest thefollowing guidelines that I have found most useful.1. In point form create a summary of actions of the

proposed conflict both in terms of abstract ideasand in terms of the actions (or story-line) that willbring those abstract ideas to life. The abstractideas and actions could be done simultaneously,side by side in columns with a “as shown by”phrase in between the two columns.

2. Formulate a thematic statement.3. Create a central character that would be the

vehicle to illustrate the abstract idea.4. Create one or more characters that would react

favorably and or not favorably with the ideas ofthe main character.

5. Establish a working ending so you know towardswhere the piece must build.

6. Thinking backwards from the ending, create aplot or story line (in point form) that would setup the actions that would lead to the ending. Askthe question, what came before this point? Andbefore that the same question until you arrive at astarting point to the scenario.

7. From this working starting point, create a shortstory – not a script – to describe the actions

8. After this short story, select a new starting pointto the scenario and fill in the dialog. Rememberdialog is always written in the first person.

9. Read with voices (where possible) out loud andrevise.

10. Repeat 9.11. Repeat 10.

This suggested protocol is only that - a suggestion.Creating scenarios is not the same as data analysis oracademic writing. The difference between the two isalmost spiritual. Data analysis generally attempts toexplain phenomenon after the fact of the research.Dramatic writing is designed to provoke thoughtfrom the outset. Scenario writers (researchers or not)cannot assume that the viewers of the scenario will beaware of the foundations of the scenario. Clarity andtruthfulness to the abstract ideas derived from thedata is one of the only pure and clean validity thescenario writer can depend on.

With this in mind, the scenario writer shouldkeep the following in mind.1. Story-line: Keep the time frame real, short and

tight.2. Think in real time (running, content).3. Dialogue is written in the first person- be aware

of tense agreement.4. In dialogue one must be aware of direction, cause

and effect, and logic.5. Your scenario does not have to begin at the

beginning of precipitating event. It is many timeseasier to begin towards the midway or towardssome type of resolution of the event.

6. Characters: Have 1 or 2 central charactersmaximum. Have 2-4 characters that can react andfence with the central character.

7- Ending: It is not necessary to have a clearresolution to the scenario or its story line. Adirection towards resolution may suffice.

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The above stated points are only guidelines. Everyresearcher/writer has a style that is unique to him orher. This remarkableness should not be compromisedfor the sake of following a recipe. These are only asuggestions and guideposts. However, writingscenarios and reporting research data are not thesame. Reporting and analyzing data findings instillspossibilities and interpretations of possible newdirections. Because drama and theatrical presentationshave a life of their own that is interpreted differentlywith each reading or presentation, different nuancesof understanding (of both viewers and presenters)are inevitable. This constant interpretive voyageserves to provoke both reader and viewer participantsto create personal constructs of the data images. Theparticipants simultaneously feel and interpret the datafindings. Each participant may perhaps agree, disagreeor bend their opinion or stand on the presented issue.They certainly will not be passive.

ReferencesBond, E. (2000). The Sea. Woodstock: Dramatic

Publishing. (Original work published in 1973)Meyer, M.J., and Macmillan, R.B.(2003). Enlivening

data: using theatre to communicateeducational research. Arts and LearningResearch Journal, Winter, 19, (1), 55-73.

Meyer, M.J., (2001a). Reflective leadership training inpractice using theatre as representationInternational Journal of Leadership in Education, 4,(2), 149-169.

Meyer, M.J., (2001b) Illustrating issues of power andcontrol: the use of a dramatic scenarioadministration training in EducationalManagement and Administration, 29(4), 449-465.

Meyer, M.J., (1998). Transitional wars: a study of power,control and conflict in executive succession: theatre asrepresentation. Unpublished DoctoralDissertation, Montreal: McGill University.

Packard, Wm. (1987). The Art of the Playwright. NewYork: Paragon.

Strindberg, A. (1981). The Dance of Death (Carlson, H.,Trans.) New York: Signet. Original work published in 1900)

Notes1 Interested readers can study the history andfoundations of TAR in these articles.

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I’m not as good as I thought I was: A short scene inspired by interview data,and written in a ‘Theatre as Representation’ constructMatthew J. Meyer, PhDSchool of Education, St. Francis Xavier University

The following is a scene I wrote, entitled, I’m Not asgood as I thought I was. It is based on research data thatwas collected in the spring of 2002 in a study that wasconducted for the Nova Scotia Teachers Union toascertain the impact of government funding cutbackson inclusion (Macmillan, Meyer, Edmunds, Edmunds& Feltmate, 2002). After the initial surveyquestionnaire was distributed to all teachers in theprovince, the researchers conducted a focus groupinterview in each of the province’s English speakingschool boards. An unexpected finding arose fromseveral interviews. Many teachers, with the now newdemands of inclusion, felt a great sense of guilt in notbeing able to fulfill all their expectations. Inspired bythis phenomenon, I wrote a short start up story. Thescenario was written thereafter. This scenario isdesigned for the “Foundations” graduate level coursein Educational Administration. The abstract ideasfocus on leadership, decision making, teacherresponsibility and teacher guilt.

Start up story It was 5:30 p.m. Dwayne Macdonald sat in his car in theschool parking lot. He stared out into the empty space. In the14 years Dwayne Macdonald taught secondary Englishlanguage arts, he had never been in such a conundrum. For hisfirst 10 years teaching at East Bay High School, Dwayne hada fairly easy time teaching grades 10 and 12. Even with all thecurricular changes in goals, objectives, and outcomes, teachingwas fairly straightforward. Students were streamed into theirability groups. The slower learners had teaching assistants toassist in their learning. Dwayne also coached the boys’basketball team. In the last 5 years, with the implementation of the province’sinclusion policy, school life changed. There was much more workto be done. Dwayne believed that with both his teacher seniorityand commitment to basketball, his principal would continue togive him the high end English classes where there were fewlearning challenged students. However, with the change inadministration, semestering and the influx of learningchallenged students, Dwayne was now forced to deal with

students and lesson planning that he had never beforeexperienced. Worse yet, he was lost in terms of dealing with themore ‘nurturing’ aspect of classroom teaching. He consideredhimself “old school” with everyone stationed in their place.Expectations were clearly set, assessments and grading wasclear-cut, and slower students could be coerced into keeping upand being forced out of classes. But with inclusion, everything changed. It was not so muchthe mixed abilities within the class that irked Dwayne, it wasthe difficulty he had with the creating of all the alternateprograms for the learning disabled and behaviorally challenged.For virtually the first time in his career he could no longer usehis standard lesson plans. But worse, all the required time towork with these special students, was interfering with hisinvolvement in the school’s basketball program. Nicole Belmont, the school coordinator of Special StudentServices had problems with Dwayne. For her, this was not onlya pedagogical problem; it was a political problem. Dwayne’sprofile as the winningest basketball coach in Eastbay’s historyhad earned him a certain “place” within the school powerhierarchy. The principal always supported sports coaches to theexclusion of everyone. Dwayne had been fighting the guidancedepartment and the schedule makers to exempt him fromdealing with special needs students by giving him only the high-end academic streamed English classes. The principal hadendorsed this. But it had caused havoc for everyone else-especially within the English department. Nobody in thedepartment was willing to be sacrificed in arguing with thePrincipal. Regardless, Dwayne still had some special needsstudents in his classes. He could not deal with them.

Charac t e r s :Nicole Belmont, Special Services program directorDwayne Macdonald, English Language Arts teacherJohn Harly, PrincipalPeter Engle, Vice Principal

Scene: Lunch-time. Dwayne Macdonald, English LanguageArts teacher and basketball coach has reluctantly agreed tomeet with the Special Services program director Nicole Belmont.At rise Nicole is at her desk on the phone.

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NIC: Yes, I know Mrs. Smith…We are attempting toget all the testing…Yes,(sees Dwayne- she signals him toenter the office and sit down, he does so but clearly not in a verygood mood). Yes, yes, yes- I’ll contact you immediatelyafter we receive the results. We will discuss them withall teachers and then we will make an appointmentwith you and your husband to discuss our next steps.Yes, yes you’re welcome. (She hangs up phone). Myapologies Dwayne, I didn’t intend to keep….

DWAYNE: (somewhat irritated at waiting) Yes, yes, weare all busy. I’m already late for a coach’s meeting. Isaw the Principal down the hall. He’ll be here in a fewminutes with the Vice Principal. My time is veryvaluable, let’s get this over with.

NIC: That’s fine. We are concerned that threestudents in your grade 12 English class, are not goingto pass the term.

DWAYNE: Yes you must mean Joan Bills, PeterForbs, and Valerie Eder. Well, it’s quite simple really.They don’t have the ability or talent for this level ofexpectation. Their reading level is way below level andI can only keep the class back so much.

NIC: What does that have to do with anything? Ourinclusion policy is quite clear here. You must createIPP [Individual Personal Program] programs for eachof these students.

DWAYNE: I know what my responsibility is Nicole.But even with extra preparation and time, thesestudents do not belong in this level class. Regardlessof what you believe their abilities are in actuality.

NIC: That is not the issue. Their abilities are whatthey are. They are entitled, by law, to the same‘constructive’ attitude from their teachers.

DWAYNE: Are you accusing me of something?

NIC: No, I am not accusing you of anything. All I amsuggesting is that you expand your view of thesestudents so they can be more successful in your class.

DWAYNE: Successful? How do you want to definesuccessful? With all these mixed ability -groupings theconcept of fairness has been thrown away. You know

damn well that we have basically destroyed anycredence of academic credibility with this creation of“fair play”. “Make sure they pass,” the school boardorders us…I’ve had it with all this low-balling. Youtell me to expand my view. What if my view is rightand your view is wrong?

NIC: (after a pause) Whether you agree or not, the factof the matter is that you must expand yourpedagogical knowledge base and teaching practice. It’sthe law.

DWAYNE: So what are you going to do, arrest me?

NIC: Come on now Dwayne, let’s not get ridiculous.

DWAYNE: No! I’m getting so sick of all thisbleeding heart garbage that’s going around. You keeptelling me to open up and be fair. Well, is it fair whenwe have to keep watering down our academicstandards because of “being fair”? What good isinclusion if our basic minimum standards areconstantly compromised? You tell me to open up mypedagogy. Well, I have grade 12 students with a grade7 reading level, and I’m ordered to promote them.How can you be fair? You think the kids don’t knowit? You’re not in the classroom. They’re moreembarrassed than you realize, or worse - want torealize.

NIC: Dwayne, I’m not here to argue with you. And Ido understand the challenge. However, this is whatwe have to do- like it or not- we have to modify ourprograms…

(Enter Principal John Harly and Vice PrincipalPeter Engle, taking seats)

HAR: Sorry we’re late- lunch traffic. OK let’s get thismeeting going here, Dwayne, since you called thismeeting why don’t you begin.

DWAYNE: Thank you John. I asked for this meetingbecause Nicole has transferred two additional specialneeds students into my academic grade 12 Englishclass which increases my enrollment to 31. This initself is not the issue.

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ENG: Then what is the issue?

DWAYNE: The issue is that I now have 5 specialneeds students to work with and their parents will bedemanding very extensive IPP’s that will over-challenge the completion of the course. This is Grade12. These students have never been in an academicEnglish Language Arts course. They cannot handlethe pressure or the workload.

ENG: These students successfully completed theirGrade 11 program. They qualify for the course so wecannot keep them out.

DWAYNE: We can’t keep them out? They haven’tpassed one quiz or handed one assignment in on timebetween them and it’s the fifth week of school.

HAR: Have you set up their IPP programs yet withNicole?

DWAYNE: No. Nicole had a very heated discussionwith the parents. The parents and the students did notwant an IPP program because they all felt that itwould single them out and that they would feellabeled.

HAR: Will they pass your course without the IPP?

DWAYNE: They will not pass the courses with sixIPP’s.

NIC: Let’s not get too carried away here Dwayne.You have basically scared them away from creatingthe IPP. They are afraid to talk to you.

DWAYNE: That is not my problem. I am a toughteacher. I have high standards. The students who takemy classes know that, accept that, and work with that.Listen, I feel for these poor students, but they areoutclassed here. Put them down into a lower level.

ENG: That is true. But they are entitled to take thesecourses, especially if they want to qualify foruniversity entry. Couldn’t you modify therequirements a bit. You know stretch it a little?

NIC: No, no stretching. Listen, let’s create the IPP’S,and set up a curricular criteria and schedule ofassignments and…

DWAYNE: No! That is not fair to the other studentsin the class. By recognizing another set of standardsin lieu of the existing standards destroys all credibility.It’s not fair for the other students who are haulingbricks to get their grades.

HAR: This is not a question of equality, it is thelegislation of equity. The law reads that students mustbe given the opportunity to fully participate. If thismeans redesigning the curriculum to make it work forthe students, then so be it. There is nothing else wecan do. I’m sorry Dwayne. We can discuss this furtherinto the semester if you wish (rise to exit). Dwayne,why don’t you work with Nicole and come up with agroup IPP or something- Thanks for your time

(Harly and Engle exit)

NIC: (after a second or two). Dwayne, when do you wantto meet with me?

DWAYNE: I don’t want to meet with you. I have notime. We have the Liebowitz Invitational Tournamentcoming up in two weeks, and we have to travel twodays each way.

NIC: Well, would you like me to get somethingstarted?

DWAYNE: No. It’s my responsibility- I’ll figuresomething out…Maybe I’ll run it by you afterward.

NIC: That’s what I’m paid to do.

DWAYNE: That’s so easy to say. I know I’ve beenlucky to get the best classes until now. But the realpoint here is that I feel guilty.

NIC: (Surprised) Guilty? You guilty?

DWAYNE: Don’t be patronizing. Yes, guilty. Youbelieve I’m a spoiled jock because of my success as acoach. To some degree, that’s right. But the plain factis that I have to spend so much time reinventing the

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wheel with these IPP’s and doing all the follow upwork, there is simply not enough time in the day forteaching and basketball practice. Regardless of howyou view my teaching practice, I still have pride in mywork. I hate to see my teaching in question- not byyou, but by my students. You think I like seeingmarks that are inconsistent and all over the map? Ofcourse not.

NIC: Dwayne, I never meant to attack your teachingstyle….

DWAYNE: No, you didn’t. Maybe it’s me coming togrips with this. I know you have a job to do Nicole,and I don’t want to get in your way here, but thiswhole thing is immoral to begin with. How can you

be fair when the system itself cannot permit a fairshake to begin with. Yeah, maybe at one time wecould handle one special needs student or so in theclass with a max number of 25 or 26 kids. But nowwe have 35 with five and six special needs kids. That’ssix lesson plans per class. It’s driving us all crazy.

Blackout-End of scene

ReferenceMacmillan, R. B., Meyer, M.J., Edmunds, A.,

Edmunds, G., Feltmate, C. (2002). A Surveyof the impact of government funding cuts on inclusion:report to the NSTU. Halifax: Nova ScotiaTeachers’ Union.

CAIR Notes

Cabaret on the Cove, May 2003Lorri Neilsen

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Such a night! CAIR members and guests gathered at Nova Scotia's oldest summer dance hall during CSSE thisspring for song, dance, performance, readings, live music, and a celebration of arts-informed work (well, play,actually) by “scholartists” from across the country.

DJ Lash LaRue spun records while we atemussels and snacks, enjoyed the cash bar, caughtup with one another's lives, and prepared for theshow.

The Fish and Tackle Playback troupe, led by Kate Wilkinson, performed 'fluids' and 'stills' to the poetry of bothRebecca Luce-Kapler and Lorri Neilsen Glenn. Lara Martina brought her visual art to display on the wooden plankwalls of the club. Several members bought publications from the book table. We heard readings from Lara, DorothyLichtblau, Mary Jane Copps, Stephen Kimber, Ardra Cole, Maura McIntyre, and music from Michelle Forrest andAnne Cheverie (who closed the show with — what else — "Farewell to Nova Scotia").

Dorothy Lichtblau

Mary Jane Copps Stephen Kimber

Maura McIntyre & Ardra Cole

As the emcee, I think it's safe to say that two performances, however, stood out for us all. Who can forget CelesteSnowber, who peeled carrots and potatoes in bare feet and an apron, and sailed across the room to the swell ofCanto Della Terra by Bocelli?

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Or Claudia Mitchell and Sandra Weber who, in great conference-going style,entertained us with a skit about bags (academic bags— canvas bags, bags fromall corners of the conference world) and the taxing work of finding the room inwhich you are scheduled to present.

Thanks to all the participants, to Suzanne Thomas and other volunteers for help with set-up and book table, to DJLash LaRue for music, and to all the hardy folks, including the Fish and Tackle Troupe, who came out from the cityto find the Shore Club in Hubbards, and helped to create the kind of gathering we need more of in the academy.Congratulations all.

Note: Photos by Allan Neilsen

An update and greetings from the Image and Identity Research CollectiveCatherine Derry

The Image and Identity Research Collective (IIRC) isan informal group of researchers that evolved from aproject initiated by Sandra Weber from theDepartment of Education at Concordia University(Montreal), and Claudia Mitchell from the Faculty ofEducation at McGill University (Montreal). Thecollaborators of IIRC share an interest in developinginterdisciplinary, image-based research methodologiesas well as exploring artistic forms of representationfor the Humanities and Social Sciences.!!In ourindividual and collective projects, we variously usevideo, film, art installations, photography,performance, and fictional or poetic practice toresearch questions relating to gender, age, body,popular culture, and/or identity.!!Many of ourprojects involve critical self-study and collectiveinquiry. In addition to the small group of foundingresearchers from Concordia and McGill Universities,

IIRC's collaborators include faculty and graduatestudents from other universities as well asindependent artists and researchers.!!Members of thecollective use our website to post their work and to"house" bibliographies and other resources that areuseful for image-based research. The different kinds of projects which fall within thework of the research collective include:*The uses of photography in memory work for self-study*The use of literary forms and live performance toraise critical questions or to represent research andtheory*The exploration of self and identity through artisticinstallations/productions*The production and use of documentary/artisticvideo for theorizing and reporting research

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Some new books and chapters to watch for (in press):

Sandra Weber and Claudia Mitchell (Eds.)Not just Any Dress: Narratives of memory, bodyand identity (spring 2004, Peter Lang).This edited volume draws together a number ofnarrative essays in which dress –– the dress –– becomesthe organizing feature for looking at body and identityin women’s lives within a birth-to-death framework inNorth America and Western society. Many of thechapters explore the idea of “not just any dress” inrelation to a particular rite of passage in which thedress has traditionally been used as a social markerand symbol, laden, before it is ever bought or made,with heavy layers of historical and cultural meaning.Beyond the semiotic, tactile, and visual aspects of thedresses themselves, the chapters delve into whatdresses reveal about fundamental aspects of humanexperience: Identity, embodiment, relationship, andmortality. Featured are several chapters written byIIRC members and members of the Centre for Arts-Informed Research. A launch is planned at the AERAin San Diego in April.

Kathleen O’Reilly-Scanlon, Claudia Mitchell andSandra Weber (Eds.)Just Who Do We Think We Are? Methodologiesfor Self–Study in Teacher Education(Summer 2004, Routledge Falmer).This edited book, written by teachers and teachereducators in North America, Australia and the UK,highlights methodological developments in self-studythat have been occurring over the last decade andoffers a wide range of examples of self-studies inteacher education. Each chapter addresses, in adifferent way, issues of method and methodology.Some chapters are written by IIRC members.

Sandra Weber and Claudia MitchellUsing visual and artistic modes of representationfor self-study. A chapter in: J. Loughran, M.Hamilton, V. LaBoskey, & T. Russell (Eds.),International Handbook of Self-Study of Teaching andTeacher Education Practices. (Kluwer Press)This lengthy chapter provides an extensive overviewof potential uses of photography, performance, video,and multi-media as modes of representation in self-study.

A New Research Project:

Digital Girls: From Play to Policy: Sandra Weberand Claudia Mitchell are teaming up with DavidBuckingham and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh, embarkingon a three year SHRCC-funded international study ofyoung girls’ leisure time use of computers includingtheir informal non-school internet play. Included inthis project will be a website for girls designed withinput from girls from Canada, Britain and SouthAfrica.

Other News:IIRC will be hosting a Salon in Montreal inNovember. This will be an opportunity for groupmembers to meet and share their research ideas inperson.

Claudia Mitchell (IIRC Co-founder) has relocated tothe University of Natal in South Africa. This moveallows Mitchell to further her research on aninternational level, and build on the importantdevelopment work she has done, including projectson HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, school policyissues, and literacy.

The members of IIRC extend our warmest greetings to the members of the Centre for Arts-Informed Researchwhose work inspires us. Keep it up! And do visit our website later this Fall to see our new postings(www.iirc.mcgill.ca)

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Member Update

Monica Prendergast , interdisciplinary Ph.D. student in theatre and curriculum studies, University of Victoria,received the 2003 Distinguished Thesis Award from the American Alliance for Theatre andEducation for her Master's study: "'Imaginative complicity': Audience education in professional theatre" (2001). A paper onthe arts-based methods used in the study has been published in the International Journal of Education and the Arts.

Suzanne Thomas, Ph.D. taught a graduate sessional course this summer, Seeing and visualizing through art, at MountSt. Vincent University's off site campus in St. John's, Newfoundland. Working together with secondary schoolstudents, teachers, and visual artists, her postdoctoral research explores the notion of schools-in-community andexamines the impact of displacement and relocation of rural and coastal schools within Newfoundland andLabrador.

Joan Vinall-Cox, Ph.D. candidate at OISE/UT, is working on her thesis “The writing teacher and the technology ofmeaning-making”, an arts-based autoethnographic narrative inquiry of her experience of learning to write using theonline computer as her writing tool, learning to teach students how to write using the online computer, and learningto teach using the online computer as a teaching tool.

Gary Knowles (OISE/UT) and Carl Leggo (UBC) are on sabbatical this year.

Events 2003-2004September 18, 2003 Maura McIntyre, RESPECTA reader's theatre about people who care for people innursing homes.Two performances of "RESPECT" took place at the mainCBC building in Toronto as part of the 'Coffee Break' of theAlzheimer's Society of Canada--a grass roots awareness andfundraising event that occurs annually in offices, subwaysand public buildings across Canada. These readings werealso scheduled to coincide with World Alzheimer's Day inorder to connect with others and to provide a space forpeople to pause and consider what it means to live withdementia, and Alzheimer's disease in particular. "RESPECT"is based on Maura McIntyre’s SSHRC funded research inCity of Toronto Homes for the Aged. The research isspecifically about staff-- who they are as people, and whatthey can teach us about dementia and Alzheimer's diseaseand the place and people of nursing homes. Maura createdthe ten voices of "RESPECT" as composites frominterviews and time spent with staff in City of TorontoHomes for the Aged. These voices were meant to be heard,and understood by a diverse general public audience. Thepublic performance of "RESPECT" provided a space torecognize and honour the people who care for people livingwith dementia and to consider the realities and possibilitiesof nursing home life.

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The Centre for Arts-informed Research Seminar Series:In a series of informal lunch hour presentations, ‘scholartists’ share completed works of ‘scholartistry’, providing aglimpse of the triumphs and tribulations of engaging in research without precedents, and inspiration to novice andexperienced ‘scholartisits’ alike. Seminar Room 7-162, 12:00-1:30pm

November 13, 2003 Ardra Cole & Maura McIntyre, Research as aesthetic contemplation: The role of theaudience in research interpretationUsing slides, reader’s theatre and guided imagery related to “The Alzheimer’s Project” Ardra and Maura explore therole of audience engagement in arts-informed research. Ardra and Maura introduce the notion of research asaesthetic experience and meaning making as aesthetic contemplation. They focus on the importance of creatingspaces where different qualities of audience engagement are possible.

January 15, 2004 Suzanne Thomas

February 12, 2004 Sheila Stewart

March 11, 2004 Natalie Zur Nedden

April 1, 2004 Sharon Sbrocchi

The Centre for Arts-informed Research Works-in-progress Series:In a series of informal afternoons artful inquirers share the process and progress of research, providing a forum forinformal, supportive, and informative exchanges to sustain inquirers at various stages of the arts-informed researchprocess. 7th floor South Panoramic Lounge, 4:00-5:30 pm

October 30, 2003 Sara Promislow, Collaging your way through research: A workshopThis workshop provided participants with an opportunity to experiment with an exciting research method andcreate their own collage. Collage as an alternative method of data analysis and research representation provides atangible form to previously elusive thoughts and experiences through which deeper understanding and insight canemerge. As an alternative form of representation, collage has a powerful evocative quality, opening audiences to anempathic understanding of one’s research, and a door to reflection, interpretation and transformation. Inspired byLynn Butler-Kisber’s collage work with colleagues and students, collage has become an integral part of Sara’sresearch process and representation, and she was eager to share it with others.

November 27, 2003 Douglas Gosse

January 29, 2004 Kelly Young

February 26, 2004 Dorothy Lichtblau

March 25, 2004 Alison Neilson

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Things to Look Forward to 2004Look out for more information about the Book Launch and Celebration of: Provoked by Art: Theorizing Arts-informedInquiry, the second book of the Arts Informed Inquiry Series; Edited by Ardra L. Cole, Lorri Neilsen, J. GaryKnowles, & Teresa Luciani; Published by Backalong Books and The Centre for Arts-informed Research.

In March there will be a follow-up to the collage work-shop, providing opportunity for those who attended theworkshop, and would like to continue exploring collage as a research method, and for those who missed theworkshop, and would like to experiment with collage.

Arts-informed Theses at OISE/UT Library

de Freitas, Liz (2003). Decentering research intentionality: Fiction as a vehicle for embodied reflexive inquiry.

Grant, Christina (2003). Relational learning in jazz.

Lakin-Dainow, Neema (2003). Teachers leaving leaching: Stories of departure.

Roy, Carole (2003). The raging grannies: Meddlesome crones, humour, daring, and education.

Thomas, Suzanne (2003). Of earth and flesh and bones and breath: Landscapes of embodiment and moments of re-enactment.

van Halen-Faber, Christine (2003) Seeing through apples: An exploration with the ethics and aesthetics of a teacher-educator and researcher’s arts-based beginnings.

Please check our website for additional titles: http://home.oise.utoronto.ca/~aresearch

Arts-informed Theses at UBC

Chapman, Valerie-Lee (2001). The body's tale: A counter history. Schooling space and imperial subjectivities.

Crook, Marion (2001). Moving the mountain: The story of one student's struggle to graduate from high school.

Dunlop, Rishma (1999). Boundary Bay: a novel as educational research.

Fels, Lynn (1999). In the wind clothes dance on a line: Performative inquiry—A (re)search methodology: possibilities and absences within a space-moment of imagining a universe.

Hurren, Wanda Jean (1998). Line dancing: An atlas of geography curriculum and poetic possibilities.

Laroche, Lyubov (2000). "You were a star once, weren't you?": Nonlinear steps into the re-enchantment of science education.

Linds, Warren (2001). A journey in metaxis: Been, being, becoming, imag(in)ing drama facilitation.

Norman, Renee (1999). House of mirrors: Performing autobiograph(icall)y in language/education.

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Penberg, David (1998). Abecedarian: A multimedia education story.

Rasberry, Gary William (1997). Imagining the curious time of researching pedagogy.

Renner, Peter Grein (2001). Vulnerable to possibilities: A journey of self-knowing through personal narrative.

Scott, Jeanette Elynn MacArthur (1996). Following unnamed rivers and ruminating on teaching as vocation.

Vellani, Al-Munir (2002). Pirbhai's blessings: A narrative quest towards a pedagogy of virtues.

Books of Interest

Lorri Neilsen (Lorri Neilsen Glenn), Professor of Education, Mount Saint VincentUniversity, launched her first book of poetry, all the perfect disguises (Broken Jaw Press)this spring, both at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and at the Khyber Arts Centre inHalifax. The collection, 2003 winner of the Poet's Corner Award, includes many narrativeand ethnographic poems. Reviewer George Elliott Clarke calls the collection "aphilosophical investigation in personal, closely-felt details of genealogy, womanhood,history, and language itself. There is plenty here to stir and surprise…(her) lyrics aremarked by a delicate, painterly feel for the right verbs and images…welcome NeilsenGlenn as a fearless, fearsome voice."

Arts Informed Inquiry SeriesBackalong Books and The Centre for Arts-informed Research

The Art of Writing InquiryLorri Neilsen, Ardra L. Cole, &J. Gary Knowles (Eds.)ISBN 1-894132-06-8. List Price CDN $34.95

Upcoming Winter 2004Provoked by Art: Theorizing Arts-informed InquiryEdited by Ardra L. Cole, Lorri Neilsen, J. Gary Knowles, & TeresaLucianiISBN: 1-894132-08-4. List price: CDN$28.95

Contributors:Deborah Barndt, Ardra Cole, Roewen Crowe, Liz de Freitas, Rishma Dunlop, Robin Ewing, Ross Gray,Nancy Davis Halifax, Sylvia Hamilton, Erika Hasebe-Ludt, Rita Irwin, J. Gary Knowles, Carl LeggoTeresa Luciani, Monica Mak, Maura McIntyre, Claudia Mitchell, Nicki Newton, Allan Neilsen, Lorri NeilsenKaren Schaller, David Smith, Stephanie Springgay, Suzanne Thomas, Sandra Weber, Shannon Walsh, Kelly Young

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To order books from the Arts Informed Inquiry Series send a cheque or money order to:

Backalong BooksBox 33066 RPOQuinpool CentreHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3L 4T6Fax: (902) 228-2276www.backalongbooks.comBooks are also available for purchase atThe Centre for Arts-informed Research eventsand can be ordered through the Centre’s website:http://home.oise.utoronto.ca/~aresearch

arts-informed 3(1): Call for Contributions

The Center for Arts-informed Research is inviting contributions for its publication arts-informed which is likelyto evolve into an on-line journal. This publication is a space for ‘scholartists’, who are exploring and articulatingways of bringing together art and social science research, to write about their experiences; share their creative work;and participate in an ongoing dialogue among researchers who are committed to expanding the boundaries ofacademic discourse. We welcome submissions of ‘scholartistry’, essays, reflections, poetry, short stories, bookreviews, artwork, etc. Descriptions if works in progress are encouraged.Length and Format: Contributions should not exceed 2,000 words. The format for citations, endnotes andreference should conform to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Latest Edition).To facilitate online publishing, endnotes are used instead of footnotes. All submissions should be saved in RichText Format (RTF).Images: We would like to receive images in digital form. Images should be saved in JPG format. Only copies orphotos of original images or art should be sent to us. Copyright laws must be respected. Be sure to includeidentifying information on each item submitted. We reserve the right to select which, if any, graphics are included inthe article.

In addition we continue to update our regular columns:Member updates: If you have news to share please send your updates (limited to 60 words).Arts-informed theses at OISE library and other institutes: Please send your thesis title and the year it wascompleted, with (an optional) brief description of your work (limited to 60 words).Books/Articles of interest: If you would like to recommend a book related to arts-informed inquiry, please sendthe reference (APA style), with a short description (limited to 60 words).

Please direct all submissions to Sara Promislow, arts-informed editor at: [email protected] indicate “arts-informed” as subject.

Deadlines for Submissions:Vol. 3(2) February 16, 2004Vol. 3(3) May 7, 2004Vol. 4(1) August 31, 2004

All material is copyright © 2003 by The Centre for Arts-informed Research. Individual contributions:Copyright of individual authors. All rights reserved.