Program evaluation is a form of systematic inquiry designed to meet the needs of those who are working on or who are responsible for a program. One challenge faced by the field of evaluation is responding to the increasing complexity of social programing and diverse informational needs. Methodological innovation is a trait of the field of program evaluation that provides opportunity for responding to challenge faced by the field. Evaluation orientations that rely on qualitative methodologies, which seek to describe, to understand or to interpret complex phenomena are potential sites for arts-informed inquiry. Arts-informed inquiry draws from creative strategies in the arts, where art is produced for the sake of inquiry. Accordingly, through this research I adopt dual roles of evaluator and researcher, to gather empirical evidence about the power of integrating arts-informed inquiry into frameworks for evaluation. In this research, I document how arts-informed inquiry draws from artistic processes to broaden perceptions, make meaningful contributions, and expand evaluator skills. Specifically, the potential for arts-informed inquiry in evaluation is investigated by conducting an evaluation of one program, in one school district. Analysis of this two-phase process occurred by applying a heuristic of three groupings of key concepts within the field of evaluation: methods, values and use. In doing so, I provide a detailed description of the potential for arts-informed inquiry within one program evaluation. This study provides a transparent account of the inquiry process to document the implications for undertaking arts-informed inquiry in program evaluation. In addition, there are theoretical implications for the field of evaluation when they consider the process and representations shaped by inclusion of arts-informed inquiry. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2013-06-28 21:49:48.1

Utilizing autoethnographic reflections in the forms of lyric, collage, and personal narrative, this inquiry shows how one teacher developed resiliency. That teacher is me. My early teaching experiences in an Ontario high school provide a qualitative focus of an inner, emotional journey to regaining strength and rediscovering passion after a period of burn-out. Tracing the passage from idealism to defeatism to resilience through metaphors, this arts-informed inquiry represents the inner life of a young woman and teacher.

Utilizing autoethnographic reflections in the forms of lyric, collage, and personal narrative, this inquiry shows how one teacher developed resiliency. That teacher is me. My early teaching experiences in an Ontario high school provide a qualitative focus of an inner, emotional journey to regaining strength and rediscovering passion after a period of burn-out. Tracing the passage from idealism to defeatism to resilience through metaphors, this arts-informed inquiry represents the inner life of a young woman and teacher.

At the outset, I dis-claim any knowledge or understanding what-so-ever, which is a peculiar stance to take for a nurse educator immersed in the language of “expertise,” “best practices,” and “champion” healthcare offerings. I do not dis-claim knowledge to absolve my professional accountability, nor do I absolve myself of being responsible for my text, rather I apprehend this journey of sentience and incarnation as an infant experiencing and learning the world in which it finds itself. It is only through a naïve, furtive play that I am able to proceed, through the difficulties and paradoxical tensions of constructed identities, without complete paralysis. As I play and ponder my way through multiple methodologies, a representational form emerges between repetitious moments of contemplation, remembering lived experiences, and reflecting on philosophical discourses. The difficulty or tension lies in the provocation of identities, as nurse, educator, and mother, among many other stances and formulations. Each identified discourse compels me to challenge the gaps in my knowledge in new ways. As I explore, I unravel the forms of text that are various incarnations of narrative reflection. The choices I make are about inquiring through concept, form and identification, which I both uniquely challenge as an individual and hold in common by being socially and historically situated. Each transition, contemplation and provocation is hopeful and volatile. I am always attuned to how it is that I live the spaces between each, unknowing my “self” as my otherness, letting go the ideal/real and becoming the (/) through a relational pedagogy.

At the outset, I dis-claim any knowledge or understanding what-so-ever, which is a peculiar stance to take for a nurse educator immersed in the language of “expertise,” “best practices,” and “champion” healthcare offerings. I do not dis-claim knowledge to absolve my professional accountability, nor do I absolve myself of being responsible for my text, rather I apprehend this journey of sentience and incarnation as an infant experiencing and learning the world in which it finds itself. It is only through a naïve, furtive play that I am able to proceed, through the difficulties and paradoxical tensions of constructed identities, without complete paralysis. As I play and ponder my way through multiple methodologies, a representational form emerges between repetitious moments of contemplation, remembering lived experiences, and reflecting on philosophical discourses. The difficulty or tension lies in the provocation of identities, as nurse, educator, and mother, among many other stances and formulations. Each identified discourse compels me to challenge the gaps in my knowledge in new ways. As I explore, I unravel the forms of text that are various incarnations of narrative reflection. The choices I make are about inquiring through concept, form and identification, which I both uniquely challenge as an individual and hold in common by being socially and historically situated. Each transition, contemplation and provocation is hopeful and volatile. I am always attuned to how it is that I live the spaces between each, unknowing my “self” as my otherness, letting go the ideal/real and becoming the (/) through a relational pedagogy.

At the outset, I dis-claim any knowledge or understanding what-so-ever, which is a peculiar stance to take for a nurse educator immersed in the language of “expertise,” “best practices,” and “champion” healthcare offerings. I do not dis-claim knowledge to absolve my professional accountability, nor do I absolve myself of being responsible for my text, rather I apprehend this journey of sentience and incarnation as an infant experiencing and learning the world in which it finds itself. It is only through a naïve, furtive play that I am able to proceed, through the difficulties and paradoxical tensions of constructed identities, without complete paralysis. As I play and ponder my way through multiple methodologies, a representational form emerges between repetitious moments of contemplation, remembering lived experiences, and reflecting on philosophical discourses. The difficulty or tension lies in the provocation of identities, as nurse, educator, and mother, among many other stances and formulations. Each identified discourse compels me to challenge the gaps in my knowledge in new ways. As I explore, I unravel the forms of text that are various incarnations of narrative reflection. The choices I make are about inquiring through concept, form and identification, which I both uniquely challenge as an individual and hold in common by being socially and historically situated. Each transition, contemplation and provocation is hopeful and volatile. I am always attuned to how it is that I live the spaces between each, unknowing my “self” as my otherness, letting go the ideal/real and becoming the (/) through a relational pedagogy. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

There is very little theoretical literature about theatrical improvisation as it connects to ideas and practices of relating and specifically to ideas and practices of social work relating. This thesis involves efforts to theorize moments of relating – of being with others – in improvisation. A group of hospital social workers and a group of PhD social work research students participated in the study. The participants took part in improvisational workshops designed specifically for the study, as well as one-on-one and group interviews. This thesis explores what was created between research participants in improvisational workshops: the response-ability to and for others; an experience of grappling with the desire for control; and an embodied apprehension of interdependence. The study demonstrates an embodied and uncomfortable experience of the dominance of individualism in our relating. The study also demonstrates ways in which the art of theatrical improvisation can allow us to take up the transformative promises of social constructionism in social work relating. The thesis aims to make living space for central social constructionist concepts such as mutual constitution and interdependence – to explore and consider what happens when we fully recognize and carry these out in our practices of relating. Providing a different way into these central social constructionist concepts, this study contributes to arts-informed research, teaching and practice. More specifically, the research shows how the art of improvisation can provide transformative possibilities for social work pedagogy and the social work classroom. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis involves efforts to theorize moments of relating – of being with others – in improvisation. A group of hospital social workers and a group of PhD social work research students participated in the study. The participants took part in improvisational workshops designed specifically for the study, as well as one-on-one and group interviews. This thesis explores what was created between research participants in improvisational workshops: the response-ability to and for others; an experience of grappling with the desire for control; and an embodied apprehension of interdependence. The study demonstrates an embodied and uncomfortable experience of the dominance of individualism in our relating and provides an analysis of engagement in improvisation as an alternative to a framework of independence in social work. The study contributes potential for arts-informed research, teaching, and practice, as well as social work pedagogy as it demonstrates ways in which the art of improvisation can allow us to take up the transformative promises of social constructionism in social work relating.

Abstract The act of knowing is a critical determinant of what is known, yet there are limits and potential violence inherent in all ways of knowing. Social workers have an ethical responsibility to understand our means of knowing and our knowledge claims – both shape the work we do. Conspicuously under-represented as creators of/commentators on how they are represented, people with intellectual disabilities have had little/no control over what or how they are known. These ethical and epistemological concerns were the focus of this arts-informed qualitative study. The purpose was an interrogative encounter with one way of knowing – how public photographic imagery of people with intellectual disabilities influences knowledge about them. It was concerned, however, to come to this knowledge through an inquiry into how labelled people would, themselves, interpret and respond to these representations, and how they might use photography to trouble disabling images and non-disabled (social work) knowing. Theoretically framed by a critical disability lens, the work was influenced, too, by Derrida’s essay on photography, “The Right of Inspection”. The other regarding aspect of the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, his concern with our ethical responsibility to the alterity of the Other, most powerfully informs the work. Four adults with intellectual disabilities accepted the invitation to participate in this project. First, they critically engaged with a selection of public photographic images. In a unique methodological turn, they then transformed the images to reflect their critique. Interpretive analysis of the critiques and transformations identified four thematic ideas. Participants’ critiques were insightful and profound; transformations provocative and disruptive. Challenging dominant assumptions – and demanding non-disabled others re-think intellectual disability and people so labeled – the critiques and transformations also respond to the social/political/ideological/psychological ramifications of photographic imagery on the lived experience of intellectual disability. Through the work, participants confront non-disabled responses to public photographs and to labeled people, challenging non-disabled others to question their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. The work also raises questions about research and people with intellectual disabilities: the possibilities for voice and empowerment through inclusive research strategies and visual methodologies, and the transformative potential of dialogic encounters between people with and without intellectual disabilities.

This thesis is based on a life history study of two women involved in activism for social change. Broadly guided by life history methodology and feminist and constructivist postmodern theories and approaches, this inter-disciplinary research explores experiences and stories in the lives of these women that evoke the transformative journeys of womens long-term commitments to social change activism, and that portray ways in which personal and social transformation interweave. The stories illuminate how individual courses of action both resonate with and diverge from meta-narratives of social movements, and how they reflect and resist the contexts in which those courses evolve. Reflection on the process of constructing the stories reveals the effects on the participants and the researcher of the inter-subjective realm from which life history arises. The studys practical purpose relating activism, transformative education and postmodernism also leads to experimentation with creative texts that at once provide educational tools and invite participation in the interpretive process. Overall the thesis melds more traditional approaches with more unconventional ones. The study is both provocative and supportive of those working for social change through transformative education and activism.

Abstract The act of knowing is a critical determinant of what is known, yet there are limits and potential violence inherent in all ways of knowing. Social workers have an ethical responsibility to understand our means of knowing and our knowledge claims – both shape the work we do. Conspicuously under-represented as creators of/commentators on how they are represented, people with intellectual disabilities have had little/no control over what or how they are known. These ethical and epistemological concerns were the focus of this arts-informed qualitative study. The purpose was an interrogative encounter with one way of knowing – how public photographic imagery of people with intellectual disabilities influences knowledge about them. It was concerned, however, to come to this knowledge through an inquiry into how labelled people would, themselves, interpret and respond to these representations, and how they might use photography to trouble disabling images and non-disabled (social work) knowing. Theoretically framed by a critical disability lens, the work was influenced, too, by Derrida’s essay on photography, “The Right of Inspection”. The other regarding aspect of the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, his concern with our ethical responsibility to the alterity of the Other, most powerfully informs the work. Four adults with intellectual disabilities accepted the invitation to participate in this project. First, they critically engaged with a selection of public photographic images. In a unique methodological turn, they then transformed the images to reflect their critique. Interpretive analysis of the critiques and transformations identified four thematic ideas. Participants’ critiques were insightful and profound; transformations provocative and disruptive. Challenging dominant assumptions – and demanding non-disabled others re-think intellectual disability and people so labeled – the critiques and transformations also respond to the social/political/ideological/psychological ramifications of photographic imagery on the lived experience of intellectual disability. Through the work, participants confront non-disabled responses to public photographs and to labeled people, challenging non-disabled others to question their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. The work also raises questions about research and people with intellectual disabilities: the possibilities for voice and empowerment through inclusive research strategies and visual methodologies, and the transformative potential of dialogic encounters between people with and without intellectual disabilities.