Revealing the Photo Book as an Arts-based Educational Research Tool

This chapter is about a journey through research to define and articulate my teaching philosophy and practice – Immersive Art Pedagogy. Inspired by a/r/tography, my pedagogy emerged and continues to evolve through my work in schools and universities. I am a practical academic, someone who "spans the somewhat ethereal world of academia as a scholar and the pragmatic world of practice" (Walker, 2010, p. 1) with what Posner (2009, p. 17) calls a "pracademic sensibility that traverses the academic-practitioner divide". As a pracademic, I respond with equal force to the physical, emotional and contextual stimuli in my field of operation and seek to disclose and amplify the creative freedom that exists in this space. The desire to expose the creative core of my pedagogy largely determined the method and form of my PhD which comprised an arts-based project presented as a photo book, and an exegesis. The photo book was central to my PhD as a curatorial revelation; it presents the created artwork/research alongside reflective/reflexive commentary. This hybrid structure builds creative analysis with forward making possibilities. The following chapter features excerpts from the photo book that (re)make and (re)produce self into discourse from the inside/outside worlds of the artist/researcher/teacher. The excerpts are layered with observations and extracts from the exegesis that reflect on the photo book discourse, and discussion of the photo book’s methodological value and form.