5 Creative thinking
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Helen Kara
Abstract
Creative thinking is particularly useful at the start of a project, when all things are possible. It is helpful to think through your project as creatively as you can at the outset, including thinking creatively about methods (Mason 2018: 23), which this book is designed to help you to do. But creative thinking is needed throughout, such as when ethical dilemmas arise, or when unforeseen difficulties occur. This chapter will show you why creative thinking is important, and will give you some ideas for ways to improve your abilities in this vital research skill. Creative thinking also results from research-related experience and reflection. UK researcher Alastair Roy initially took a conventional ethnographic approach to research with marginalised young men in Manchester, using participant observation at an organisation providing services to those young men. One of the young men inspired him to incorporate city walks, guided by participants, as an interview method. This in turn led him to re-designate his participants as ‘tour guides’ (Hughes and Roy 2014: 10). Conversely, through experience and reflection, Jackson (2017: 825) re-designated herself and her colleagues from researchers to ‘visitors’ in their investigations of interactive digital art. To some, these may seem trivial exercises in terminology. However, given that there is a strong relationship between language and thought (Zlatev and Blomberg 2015),
I would argue that they are useful exercises in creative thinking.
Some novice researchers think that ethical considerations are irrelevant until you get into data gathering. However, there are ethical questions to answer from the moment you have an idea for a research project.
Abstract
Creative thinking is particularly useful at the start of a project, when all things are possible. It is helpful to think through your project as creatively as you can at the outset, including thinking creatively about methods (Mason 2018: 23), which this book is designed to help you to do. But creative thinking is needed throughout, such as when ethical dilemmas arise, or when unforeseen difficulties occur. This chapter will show you why creative thinking is important, and will give you some ideas for ways to improve your abilities in this vital research skill. Creative thinking also results from research-related experience and reflection. UK researcher Alastair Roy initially took a conventional ethnographic approach to research with marginalised young men in Manchester, using participant observation at an organisation providing services to those young men. One of the young men inspired him to incorporate city walks, guided by participants, as an interview method. This in turn led him to re-designate his participants as ‘tour guides’ (Hughes and Roy 2014: 10). Conversely, through experience and reflection, Jackson (2017: 825) re-designated herself and her colleagues from researchers to ‘visitors’ in their investigations of interactive digital art. To some, these may seem trivial exercises in terminology. However, given that there is a strong relationship between language and thought (Zlatev and Blomberg 2015),
I would argue that they are useful exercises in creative thinking.
Some novice researchers think that ethical considerations are irrelevant until you get into data gathering. However, there are ethical questions to answer from the moment you have an idea for a research project.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of boxes, figures and tables xi
- Notes on the author xv
- Foreword xvi
- Debts of gratitude xvii
- How this book can help 1
- Introducing creative research 5
- Creative research methods in practice 23
- Transformative research frameworks and Indigenous research 45
- Creative research methods and ethics 61
- Creative thinking 77
- Arts-based and embodied data gathering 101
- Technology-based and multi-modal data gathering 119
- Arts-based and embodied data analysis 135
- Technology-based and multi-modal data analysis 149
- Arts-based and embodied research reporting 163
- Technology-based and multi-modal research reporting 177
- Arts-based and embodied presentation 187
- Technology-based and multi-modal presentation 199
- From research into practice 215
- Conclusion 235
- Further reading 239
- References 241
- Index 285
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of boxes, figures and tables xi
- Notes on the author xv
- Foreword xvi
- Debts of gratitude xvii
- How this book can help 1
- Introducing creative research 5
- Creative research methods in practice 23
- Transformative research frameworks and Indigenous research 45
- Creative research methods and ethics 61
- Creative thinking 77
- Arts-based and embodied data gathering 101
- Technology-based and multi-modal data gathering 119
- Arts-based and embodied data analysis 135
- Technology-based and multi-modal data analysis 149
- Arts-based and embodied research reporting 163
- Technology-based and multi-modal research reporting 177
- Arts-based and embodied presentation 187
- Technology-based and multi-modal presentation 199
- From research into practice 215
- Conclusion 235
- Further reading 239
- References 241
- Index 285
