Having fun seriously matters: A visual arts-based narrative of methodological inventiveness

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore of what methodological inventiveness has made possible for me as a self-reflexive researcher. As South African educational researchers, we need to consider how a better understanding of our own experiences, identities and subjectivities correspond with a context of change and transformation. Within this understanding it is useful to think of methodological inventiveness as a form of post qualitative inquiry, which embraces the possibilities of different educational methodologies to open up and resists pre-determined and formulaic ways of doing and knowing. Through a playful engagement with the children’s book ‘Zog’ I create an arts-based narrative to show how my journey of becoming an educational researcher unfolds. I use playfulness and joy to show how methodological inventiveness makes it possible for me, as a self-reflexive researcher, to engage with fluid and complex identities and contextual realities.