The Creative Analytic Paradigm: Raising the Insignificant Details of Experience to Significance

The background to the proposal is my PhD thesis which is focused on developing an approach to educational research. The thesis title is ‘Developing a creative analytic paradigm in relation to the early-years physical learning environment’. As the boundaries of qualitative research become stretched by the development of new forms of research, the binary categorisation of quantitative/qualitative is less intuitively appealing and may actually mask potential value. The creative analytic paradigm (CAP) is being developed as a superordinate category of research identifiable as a form of generative social research, in contrast to quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research. The proposal therefore is well positioned as part of a post-qualitative research discourse.
The methodology is centred on the concept of evocative objects used to generate clusters of ideas referred to as satellite topics. The CAP conceives educational research as a contemplative dispositional concept. Data arises in a serendipitous way through focused experience rather than as a planned process of systematic data collection and analysis. The methodology emphasises the quality of the relationship with the evocative object. As interrogation can be a sign of relationship breakdown so mutual valuing can be a sign of flourishing. The CAP is focused on the quality of experience. The intended outcome within a professional practice context is conversational learning rather than propositional knowledge.
As a basic category of research there are potentially several versions of the creative analytic paradigm, including compilation of a conceptual canvas of satellite topics and use of multimedia as part of an exploratory journey to engage participants in a reflective process. The creative analytic paradigm supports raising the insignificant details of experience to significance e.g. noticing a child with a toy car, a pictorial timetable, a partition screen. Analysis is understood as an additive process, referred to as generative divergent analysis (GDA), of overlaying meanings while ‘turning towards’ the evocative object as well as by ‘turning away’ to broader themes. The presentation will illustrate this analytical process.
Opportunities for developing associations within a collaborative virtual environment are provided by the use of virtual tour software in conjunction with an interactive online space for collaborative reflection. Although this collaborative use of virtual tour software is in an early stage of development, the presentation will include a prototypical framework based on images and video clips from early-years settings and a MySql database approach to support collaborative reflection.