This thesis examines the processes and outcomes of a composer-teacher's practice in the context of a New Zealand secondary school. The research was undertaken by the composer-teacher/researcher as a case study that integrates an investigation of the context with four action research music composition projects developed as a creative response to that context. Chapters One to Three comprise the background theory. Chapter One provides an introduction and overview of the research; Chapter Two explains and justifies the research methods. Chapter Three peels away and examines five layers of the secondary school context identified as significant in shaping the perceptions of the participants: approaching the context in a multi-layered way enabled coherent synthesis and appraisal of the relevant literature. Chapters Four to Seven comprise the four action research music composition projects. Each action research project focuses on a music score composed by the composer-teacher/researcher for a specific group of students at Macleans College, Auckland. The composition, production, and performance processes are investigated from the perspectives of all the participants. Each music project comprises a four part progression - plan (composition process), data (music score), data analysis (recordings of performances, surveys, and interviews with all participants) and reflection (feedback, and feedforward into the next project). Each phase of the research generated significant outcomes, such as the four original music scores. Chapter Eight summarizes the themes, issues, and patterns that emerged, and makes recommendations for further research. A model of co-constructive practice emerges from this research: teacher and students co-construct artistic worlds through performance. The model is not new (it is common practice, adopted by generations of musician-teachers) but is rarely acknowledged and currently un-researched. This research demonstrates the validity of the practice from both musical, and teaching and learning perspectives, and examines the strengths and limitations of the model. At its best, the creative processes co-constructed by a teacher with her students are shown to provide a crucible within which intense and creative learning experiences occur. Students of all levels of ability are shown to gain confidence in this context, and subsequently develop skills with apparent ease. The co-constructive model is limited in that it cannot meet the musical needs of all students: co-construction should be considered as one model of practice, appropriate for use in association with many others. This research provides 'virtual access' to a particular world of performance practice, revealing the secondary school context as a realm of authentic and valid musical practice.

M. Tech. (Department of Visual Arts and Design: Fine Art, Faculty of Human Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / This study explores two artistic methods of enquiry in order to firstly better understand the lived experience and its contributions on the formation of sexuality and secondly, to explore how a method can dissect and interrogate a theoretical discourse such as Queer theory. The project takes a twofold approach. In the Practice-led Research (PLR) section, which constitutes the first part, I attempt to utilize PLR as a means of exploring the lived experience along with the artistic contributions PLR might have on the ideation process and identity construction I made use of journal writings as a means for data generation and artistic exploration. The second part of this study, utilizing Research-led Practice (RLP), I attempt to dissect and interrogate Queer theory and the ideation process involved with RLP. I analyse Queer theory as a starting point for my artistic productions and explore and compared the two approaches to one another with regards to the ideation process and the construction of the self. The main aim of this study was to use the strategies of PLR and RLP to interrogate the process of ideation generation. The study set out to achieve three objectives. Firstly, it compares and contrasts the research methods suggested by PLR and RLP, as both operate from different points of ideation. Secondly it compares and contrasts the type of insights (philosophical ideations) around homosexuality and Queer theory that arose from using the two different methods. Lastly it tentatively/speculatively assesses which of the two approaches worked for me both as an artist (the making/ideation process) and as a gay man (the personal philosophical ideation process). In chapter one I discuss the background to the study and where it is situated within academia. In chapter two I discuss the two methodologies namely PLR and RLP and how I made use of them in the artmaking process. In chapter three I discuss the findings of working with PLR. In chapter four I engage with the theoretical discourse of Queer theory. In chapter five I discuss RLP and how Queer theory influenced the artmaking process. In chapter six I conclude with the findings. This study allowed me to channel my lived experience as a valid method of inquiry along with PLR. I discovered that a gay identity is based on personal experiences and shaped by the body. My second body of work (RLP) allowed me to investigate and interrogate Queer theory and I found that a Queer identity sits within a continuum. Working with these two methodological approaches allowed me to expand and grow as both an artist and gay man. Tentatively I conclude that PLR worked effectively for me to achieve this growth, whereas the RLP approach I found somewhat confining. Yet, the RLP approach ‘forced’ me to reconsider my preconceptions and the conclusions I had reached using the PLR approach.

The dissertation primarily involves an exploration of art-like research possibilities via symbolic constructivism, concerning research into a therapeutic process from the position of a beginning therapist. Symbolic constructivism within the broader framework of artistic inquiry forms the methodological paradigm. Symbolic constructivism is regarded as a social constructionist research method, and entails using art-like formats in creating a symbol representing the issue being researched. Fiction writing is thereby used in creating a story as a co-constructed symbol, exploring what happened during a therapy process involving issues regarding trauma and dissociation that I undertook with a female client. The client acts as co-researcher in co-writing and editing the story's content, style and tone. The study also represents my reality in terms of understanding theoretical constructs from epistemologically diverse paradigms, therapeutic processes, doing research and writing a dissertation as it is punctuated at a specific moment in time. As a subtext the dissertation may also be described as a narrative about becoming - becoming a therapist, being a person, and the interface between these two (amongst other) selves. In the dissertation, I therefore hope to present a process-oriented account of personal therapeutic development as well. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Psychology / unrestricted