Making Space for Creativity, Exploring Creativity in Praxis: An Arts-Based Autoethnography
Date
2023-12
Authors
Thomas, Zachary
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
In this arts-based autoethnography (Chang, 2016; Forest, 2009; Keifer-Boyd, 2011), I use an autoethnographic exploration of my own process in creating an artistic work representing my doctoral journey as a means to explore the pedagogical and personal power of creativity. I supplement this through the autoethnographic analysis of several artifacts collected along my doctoral journey, namely journals I built for my doctoral cohort, sketchbooks I made for participants in a doctoral course I took on creativity, drawings I made of my doctoral cohort’s hands, and notes I took during my doctoral program coursework.
Through this study, my intent is to push the limits of how we conceptualize learning and the knowledge-making process, as well as how we represent that knowledge.
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“What I mean, take it easy, but take it!”
Pete Seeger
“Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility.”
William Godwin
Description
Keywords
creativity, autoethnography, arts-based research, education, school improvement, painting, creative classroom, imagination, literacy, communication, art, painting
Citation
Thomas, Z. (2023). Making space for creativity, exploring creativity in praxis: An arts-based autoethnography (Unpublished dissertation). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.