Sensing

In this blog post I share the method used and the insight gained through my first workshop for this Action Research project.

Between this blog post and my subsequent one, I intend to respond to learning outcome 3 : Design, implement, and review research methods and instruments appropriate to your question.

This workshop happened on Oct 9th 2024. This was exactly two weeks after we took the students into the woods for the first time.

The aims of this session was to:

• Create an informal space of contemplation and listening where students felt able to reflect on and share in their own words – and in their own way – what they had experienced during their day in the forest.
• Remove the focus on using only words and use images and image making as a communication device
• Explore how myself as the ‘facilitator’ of this session could become a more equal participant, allowing the participants to establish and lead any conversational enquiries 

It felt to me like an exercise in sensing at the very start of this project. Sensing whether my research question was resonant with the students’ experience. Sensing the way in which my students understood and connected to the context of the trees as our collaborators. 

What we did : 1 hr 15 mins : 11 participants 

1. I advertised the workshop as a chance to reflect on and share learnings after the day spent in the woods
2. The workshop was scheduled at a time when students where timetabled to be at LCC, but not timetabled into a specific class 
3. All participants completed a shared consent form so they had the context on the purpose and process of this research
4. Participants sat round a table together, they were given paper and mark-making materials 
5. I asked “sit in your own world for as long as you need, and create a visual which might describe your reflections, feelings or learnings from your day in the woods”
6. Participants then chose to share and speak about our work for the final 30 mins 

Why this method
I use the loose term workshop above to describe my method here, while borrowing from the components of focus group structure (Green and Hart 1999: 21), I am interested in more artistic, intuitive and earthy methods for learning together. I was curious about the unspoken languages between us, as Belzile & Öberg describe – few researchers using focus groups pay attention to the interactions and insights between participants (Belzile & Öberg, 2012). This might be described as a qualitative art-based action research approach (Jokela & Huhmarniemi, 2018), working with images, silences, sounds, and senses to describe insight (Leavy, 2009). There is inherent subjectivity in these creative research and analysis processes (Pirkko Anttila 2006), and this was intentional for me as I am also exploring how we work with students around intuitive and gut-based practices.

These methods are “Intuitive, confusing, and based on tacit knowledges” (Belzile & Öberg, 2012, p 14), we make work from the feelings in our bodies, we grow organically, learn through trial and error and respond in real time. A deeply creative state. And like the woods, this felt cyclical. 

My sensing analysis of this workshop has been done without further participation by my participants. I used my own body as the sense-maker and percolator, as Helen Kara describes as embodied analysis (Kara, 2015). And is also described in Thanem and Knights (2019) work on Embodied Research Methods.

1. I wrote down all the direct quotes as I heard them in real time. Being careful not to paraphrase or reword. But as I was using pen and paper writing and listening simultaneously, there is a risk that the words used could have been altered or affected by my translation of them.
2. After the workshop I reviewed all the visual work alongside the quotes and languages used. I places everything out on the floor for this process (Thanem & Knights, 2019)
3. I then identified any languages that felt loaded / powerful, alongside any languages that felt connected. There is a risk here that as participants shared their stories together they built on each others words, therefore connected languages might be about ‘group think’ over individual expression. There is also a subjectivity to what I deem as ‘loaded / powerful’ language.
4. I also attempted to explore and analyse the ways in which the drawings were made, and the representations within these drawings. I acknowledge the inherent subjectivity within this embodied process.

Silence
Pace
Time to think
Letting ideas run through the mind
The start of a relationship is one of curiosity, love, attention, care

Atmosphere
The students remarked on the silence they could access during their time in the woods. Their need to fill space with noise dissipated. This workshops was not conducted in the open air, but there was a noticeable quietness to the workshop itself. Everyone in some way found a way to speak together in the circle towards the end, but this was not enforced and voices were gentle. The students interested in this session (and draw to the woods) might also identify with being students more open to reflection, quietness and introversion.

I aimed to avoid ‘leading’ the session, but felt caught in the role in the end. Everything I represent in that space suggests I ‘lead’. This reminded me to consider the role of the quiet facilitator. I wondered whether my total silence would be enabled something more organic to flow, something less facilitated and influenced by my voice (Cain, 2013).

Permission
Play
Entwinement
Tactility
Challenging power
Coexistence

Materiality & Memory
I bought charcoal and watercolour paints into the workshop to bring in the tactility of natural materials. One made from fire and the other water. I was curious to see how these mark-making tools would influence the students work. Most participants chose the watercolours and created detailed and more literal versions of their thoughts

One participant dominated their work with charcoal which created an abstract interpretation. That was also my approach. We got messy hands. Eight participants chose literal representation using watercolours to create detail and clear narrative. The use of brushed and watercolour suggested to me a desire for control over the image, and the presence of detail.

What became clear was that story / nostalgia / identity were big themes from the work created. Many students were transported to their pasts while in those woods. And their urge was to retell this through their narrative image making.

Vulnerability
Love
Loss

Care
Out if 11 participants, 7 responded with a memory drawing from their childhoods. This indicates to me the significance these outdoor natural environments play in reflective practices. It also suggests these spaces hold significance for students, in ways that teachers can not predict or presume.

In my research question I talk about a desire to bring the body and the emotions back into the classroom, and with this comes responsibilities and questions of ethics. I hold no desire to exploit people’s emotions for the purposes of this research, equally I need to understand my own experience within the context of emotional work (Kumar & Cavallaro 2017). The participants with me in this workshop shared stories and experiences that unravelled personal narratives of grief, loss and childhoods. We were in a very brightly lit room at LCC, but I felt an intimacy in the spoken and unspoken language between us.

The lead researcher has a responsibility here not to be extractive and exploitative of people’s stories for their own gain. I have subsequently made created a code of care for this Action Research supported by the techniques listed in the Specialist Research Ethics Guidance Paper from the University of Sheffield (2018). 

• Set an appropriate working pace, and collaboratively agree end point for the sessions to limit the periods of exposure to any emotional conversations  
• Quick check-ins with participants after the workshop which focus on making sense of and normalising our reactions to upsetting or traumatic experiences. 
• Always sign-post to the UAL’s Counselling Service as a reminder to students that their emotional health matters and support is always available without judgement
• Remove any names or identifying information from notes and quotes, and keep the art work with care and confidentially until the research project comes to an end

The outputs from the students here also lead me to consider the role of the Participatory Action Research (Lenette, 2024) in the next phase of this research work. Keen to explore methodologies that help disrupt the power imbalances between educators and students.

Ethics. Taking care as a way of living.
In extension to the above, when considering the ethical framework for this Action Research project, I felt the guidance of educators like Robin Well Kimmerer. As per their teachings on pluriversality and entwinement, I understand ethics to be a practice of Care, the imperfect labour of everyday life. Sarah Banks uses the term ‘ethics work’ and ‘everyday ethics’, a more descriptive account of ethics that refers to: the effort people put into seeing ethically salient aspects of situations; developing themselves as good practitioners; working out the right course of action and justifying who they are and what they have done (Banks, 2016).

When we think of this heightened awareness, openness to change, learning as we go, we can see a close link between working ethically and thinking creatively (Kara, 2015).

All consent forms and Ethics documentation will be stored securely in this folder until the end of the PGCert.

References

• Banks, S. (2016). Everyday ethics in professional life: social work as ethics work. Ethics and Social Welfare, [online] 10(1), pp.35–52. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2015.1126623.
• Belzile, J. A., & Öberg, G. (2012). Where to begin? Grappling with how to use participant interaction in focus group design. Qualitative Research, 12(4), 459–472. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794111433089.
• Cain, S. (2013). Quiet: The Power of introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. London Etc.: Penguin Books.
• Kara, H. (2015). Creative research methods in the social sciences: a practical guide. Bristol: Policy Press.
• Kumar, S. and Cavallaro, L. (2017). Researcher Self-Care in Emotionally Demanding Research: A Proposed Conceptual Framework. Qualitative Health Research, 28(4), pp.648–658. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732317746377.
• Lenette (2024) PAR (Video).mp4
• Thanem, T., and Knights, D. (2019). Embodied research methods. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
• Vicuña, C. (1973). Saborami. Chainlinks.