I am an artist: identities, ethics and organised disorder in real-world research in the primary classroom

The focus of this session will be to examine the ethical and methodological issues which arose during a research project conducted in two Scottish primary schools, concerning children’s thoughts and perspectives regarding the visual arts and their self-identity. Arts-informed methods and narrative inquiry were employed and the session will explore the tension between the theory and the practice when conducting research in such a setting. It will highlight the barriers to participatory research that emerged, the role of adults in relation to those barriers and the need for universities and schools to work more closely together as a result.