The Routledge International Handbook of Practice-Based Research

Craig Vear

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367341435
• eBook ISBN: 9781000522044
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

The Routledge International Handbook of Practice-Based Research presents a cohesive framework with which to conduct practice-based research or to support, manage and supervise practice-based researchers. It has been written with an inclusive approach, with the intention of presenting deep and meaningful knowledge for the benefit of all readers.

This handbook has been designed to present specific detail of practice-based research by outlining its shared traits with all forms of research and to highlight its core distinguishing features into a cohesive, principled and methodical approach. To this end, the handbook is presented in five sections: 1. Practice-Based Research, 2. Knowledge, 3. Method, 4. The Practice-Based PhD and 5. Practitioner Voices. Each section begins with a leading chapter that outlines each of the distinct areas as they relate to practice-based research. This is followed by a series of contributing chapters that discuss pertinent themes in more detail.

Practitioners from a broad range of backgrounds will find these chapters helpful:

• research students or final year graduates will be introduced to the principled nature of practice-based research
• PhD researchers embarking on a research project or are in the flow of research will find this guidance supportive
• professionals such as designers, makers, engineers, artists and creative technologists wishing to strengthen their research into their practice will be guided through the principled and focused nature of practice-based research
• supervisors, managers and policy makers will benefit from the potential and rigour of practice-based researchers in the pursuit of new knowledge.

Part I

Practice-Based Research

1.1
Practice-based research

Linda Candy, Ernest Edmonds and Craig Vear

DOI: 10.4324/9780429324154-3

Introduction

This chapter presents the central theme of this handbook – practice-based research, a principled approach to research by means of practice. As a relatively new development in the landscape of research disciplines, practice-based research has arisen from those domains where existing approaches have not served the needs of practice sufficiently well. Practitioners in a wide variety of fields have sought better ways to explore the kinds of questions that arise from the problems they encounter during thinking, acting, appraising and reflecting on activities that make up the essential elements of their practices. While it shares some core features with all forms of research, there are three aspects which distinguish it: the centrality of practice to the research, the role of artefacts in research and the forms of knowledge that arise from it.

A search for ways to bring practice and research together in a quest for knowledge that is relevant and effective in practice is one of the key motivating factors for the rise of practice-based research. Practice-based research emerged in the context of 20th-century, post-war political and cultural change and the growth of professional practice in fields such as clinical medicine, healthcare, nursing, education and software engineering. There are also organisational and cultural drivers that have played key roles, not least of which has been changes in the way academies institute regulatory structures for the validation of research degrees. The chapter introduces these motivating factors and also discusses the impetus given to inter-disciplinary exchanges for stimulating new thinking and new knowledge. We then describe examples of inter-disciplinary endeavours that aim to advance this form of research through community building and innovation, research training and cultural change. Throughout the discussion, we introduce the contributor chapters in this section that highlight areas of significance.

What is practice-based research?

Practice-based research is a principled approach to research by means of practice in which the research and the practice operate as interdependent and complementary processes leading to new and original forms of knowledge. By ‘practice’, we mean taking purposeful actions within a specific context, typically in a creative or professional way: the making, modifying or designing of objects, events or processes. As a methodology, practice-based research is characterised by strategies designed by the practitioner researcher that determine the methods, tools and techniques to be used to draw upon or observe practice, such as the documentation of reflection. The attraction of this form of research for practitioners is that, by connecting closely to existing practice, it provides a means of exploration for extending that work in a personal sense whilst contributing to broader considerations, such as the production of new forms and new knowledge. Furthermore, it gives researchers access to new knowledge arising from within practice conducted in the real world.

Practice-based research has been described variously as practice research, practice as research, practice-led research, research-led practice, evidence-based practice, research-through practice, practice-related research, artistic practice, professional research.For the purposes of this handbook, we have chosen to use the term practice-based research as the clearest definition and most frequently used label for this research activity.

Practice-based research encapsulates four main principles:

1. Practice and research are complementary but distinctive
2. The research is based within a world-of-concern defined by practice
3. The practitioner researcher is at the centre of the research
4. The research aim is to generate new knowledge

A basic principle of practice-based research is that practice and research operate in tandem, as related activities but with distinctive attributes. However, because practice is central to research activities, this means that research questions, for example, often arise from the process of practice, and the answers may lead to the enhancement of that practice. This may take the form of new practice methods or innovative products, such as artefacts or performances. The production of new artefacts, and the documentation of the context and process that gave rise to them, is frequently a distinctive feature of practice-based research.

What is research?

It is helpful to take a step back and look at the meaning of research in general terms. Research aims to seek new knowledge through a principled and original investigation. This aim is defined by research councils from around the globe: for example, the Australian Research Council defines research as the ‘creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way so as to generate new concepts, methodologies, inventions and understandings’.¹ In the UK, the Research Excellence Framework 2021 defines research as ‘a process of investigation leading to new insights, effectively shared’.² Definitions are also written into federal documents and legislation; for example, the definition given by the European Joint Quality Initiative as part of the ‘Dublin descriptors’ defines research as:

The word ‘research’ is used to cover a wide variety of activities, with the context often related to a field of study; the term is used here to represent a careful study or investigation based on a systematic understanding and critical awareness of knowledge. The word is used in an inclusive way to accommodate the range of activities that support original and innovative work in the whole range of academic, professional and technological fields, including the humanities, and traditional, performing, and other creative arts. It is not used in any limited or restricted sense or relating solely to a traditional ‘scientific method’.³

The production of new knowledge that is communicable to a wider community is an essential component of any research activity, and practice-based research is no exception. This is in contrast to private research, creative exploration, or personal development, which are sometimes called research by practitioners in many fields, especially those undertaking the kind of leading-edge work that requires a search for information about advanced technologies or materials, for example. This kind of research may lead the individual to produce original work, but if they are the only beneficiary and the outcomes remain private to the individual concerned, they are unlikely to have an impact on the wider world. Knowledge from research that is private and inaccessible to others is not the concern of this handbook.

Defining features of practice-based research

There are three features that distinguish practice-based research from other forms of research:

• The centrality of practice
• The role of artefacts
• The forms of knowledge

The centrality of practice

Practice is doing something that extends beyond everyday thinking into actions that may lead to new outcomes: for example, the making, modifying or designing of objects, events or processes. It is the use of ideas, beliefs or methods, as opposed to investigating theories relating to them. Note the contrast with ‘theory’ and the emphasis on the use or application of ideas and methods towards some end. Practice involves taking these ideas further by realising them in some way. By extension, creative practice combines the act of creating something novel with the necessary processes and techniques belonging to a given field, whether art, music, design, engineering or science. Practice that is creative is characterised by not only a focus on creating something new but also the way that the making process itself leads to a transformation of the ideas – which in turn leads to new works. Practice-based research is situated in the world-of-concern defined by the practice usually ‘in the field’, that is in a real-world context with real world outcomes. Practice-based research will generate knowledge through the core involvement of the practitioner researcher conducting practice that includes making, appraising and reflecting on artefacts of many different kinds.

The role of artefacts

Artefacts is a term used to refer to outcomes from practice of many forms. They include objects such as artwork, musical compositions, dance performances, engineered bridges, software code and, sometimes, partly ephemeral experiences, such as interactive installations. The practitioner researcher may use artefacts themselves, or the process of developing an artefact, as the object of study. Creating artefacts is a core activity in many forms of practice-based research, particularly in the field of creative arts. A given artefact will give rise to different experiences in different people in different contexts. In the arts, for example, this transmission of experience contrasts with the direct communication of knowledge. However, the artefacts generated within a practice-based research programme may be at the core of the ‘new knowledge’ generated by the research, in which case the clarity with which that knowledge is communicated directly through the artefact is a key question. If we accept that the artefact can, in some sense, represent new knowledge, the problem of sharing what that knowledge is implies a need for a parallel means of communication that illuminates the knowledge – in effect, a linguistic one. The textual element is vital in completing the contribution to knowledge that the artefact may, in its core, represent. In a practice-based PhD submission, for example, the thesis will often comprise a written text together with supplementary material in other forms, such as film, artwork or the documentation of a dance performance.

The place of artefacts in practice-based research and their relationship to new knowledge is discussed in the lead chapter of Part II, ‘Knowledge’.

The forms of knowledge

The aim of practice-based research, as with any other mode of research, is to seek new knowledge where none exists in the particular field or discipline in which it is undertaken. Once this knowledge has been acquired, it is communicated in such a way that it can be shared in an archivable form for the benefit of others. The knowledge from research typically meets these criteria:

• Original: it is new in the world
• Validated: there are identifiable reasons to believe that it is true
• Contextualised: intended beneficiaries can understand its relevancy and reasons why it is new
• Shareable: others can benefit from it and understand it within its context
• Retainable: in archives in sustainable material of any form

These criteria are elaborated in the chapter on ‘Knowledge’ in Part II.

Practice-based research knowledge is expected to meet these criteria, as does any other form of research knowledge. The new knowledge can take t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Author biographies
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction to the handbook
• Part I Practice-Based Research
• Part II Knowledge
• Part III Method
• Part IV The Practice-Based PhD
• Part V Practitioner Voices
• Index