Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemNo Preview AvailableThe art of intersubjectivity(University of Melbourne, 2004)
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ItemHow Can We Teach/Learn Emotion Words and Complex Abstract Meanings? – A Relational A/r/tographic Conversation In-between Images and Words( 2022)This a/r/tographic doctoral research is a pedagogical, cultural, methodological, and theoretical dialogue between a written exegesis and an a/r/t exhibition. Together, this 50/50 dynamic responds to this research, serving as a contiguous outcome. As an Iranian a/r/tographer I invite the viewer/reader to follow and engage with multimodal discussions by moving in-between the two inter-connected spaces of words and visuals. In this rhizomatic research, I explore the dynamics in-between images and words in communicating the complexities of meaning that are affected by our experiences and, in turn, continuously affect our understandings. I ask, How and to what extent can a/r/tography as a living inquiry contribute to the learning of complex abstract concepts such as emotion words and inter-personal/cultural meanings? Through entangled artmaking/writing, this a/r/tographic inquiry calls attention to uncertainty, process, and knowledge in the making. It introduces Persian miniatures as culturally specific artworks to stimulate learning with the unfamiliar. The entanglement within this arts-based educational research, addresses the overlooked or less discussed gaps which often result from commonly practiced, linear, established, or result-focused systems. Therefore, it offers a chance to interrupt the expected and negotiate meanings through affect. The thesis forms two parts: a written exegesis and creative component. The creative component comprises narrative colour-pencil/B&W illustrations on paper, acrylic painted/collaged paper mache sculptures, prints, and images on foam boards and acetate sheets. The creative outcomes of the research were presented and captured through a physical exhibition held at The University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education, prior to completion, on 1 April 2022. This completion exhibition provided a space of reflection which led to the curation of a final virtual a/r/t exhibition. To create a living and accessible collection/exhibition, all creative works have been photographed, scanned (JPG files), or processed as 3D models and assigned an individual digital object identifier (DOI). These artworks are stored in an online open access repository, called Figshare, and within the Pedestal 3D digital data management platform. As a collective, these digitised artworks were housed and then recorded to an immersive virtual space inside Mozilla Hubs which constitutes the a/r/t exhibition contributing to 50 percent of this doctoral research.
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ItemDrawing with dots: understanding primary school children's engagement with dot drawing as they make sense of scientific phenomena( 2019)This thesis presents an interpretative, phenomenological-ontological account of the ways in which a group of Australian primary/elementary school children of different ages, worked with dot drawing representations of a number of everyday phenomena in their science lessons, and how their use of the dot developed with time. The subjective, imaginative and creative aspects of each child’s dot drawings were explored, seeking insight into their early perceptual engagement with the basic idea of the particle nature of matter and its development. It was found all children could draw a dot and were able to discuss meanings in terms of dot distribution and density. In previous research, based on Dewey’s aesthetic theory and Merleau-Ponty’s embodiment, it emerged that dot drawing could engage the internal conversations of primary age children with early discourse in science education. Furthermore, the children’s drawings and accompanying conversations suggested that dot drawing as an activity may have generative capacity as a proto-language in representing matter in its various forms. The underlying purpose of this research is to critically examine the potential developmental use of the dot, as an artistic practice, in early science education as a way of resolving the dissonance that may exist between a student’s everyday perceptions and the disciplinary discourse of science education. To begin their scientific language and concept development, it was assumed primary age children, whatever their age, need something concrete to point to, something familiar on which to attach words. The dot is predicated as such a thing. As researcher/teacher, I first presented a series of science-drawing lessons to classroom groups of children and their teachers. These included the presentation of empty templates, for instance, the outline of a balloon. Individuals on their own and later in small focus groups were invited to fill them in with dots. I recorded their conversations in these teaching and learning settings. My study was centred on the children’s umwelten and the ways in which they had imagined and made sense of the physical world amidst the hurly burly of their everyday lives. Informed by Peirce’s semiotic theory, I explored in the children’s dot drawings and conversations, the potential meaning-making power of the dot as a semiotic system for representing the ways in which children could imaginatively explore the material aspects of their everyday world. The four case-studies presented suggest that occasioning drawing with dots, oriented the children to particle thinking and hence the culture of science. By providing such an agentive/imaginative space, attentive transactions were called out that may otherwise have remained dormant. By working with dots, shared meanings were constituted and codified in these experiences, enabling the philosophy of the child to be “hinged” to the philosophies of science and science education. The dot as indexical mark and the process of dot drawing seem to enable children to initiate science meaning-making, while at the same time locating themselves as persons, amongst the objects of science education presented in the classroom.