Teaching qualitative research: Fostering student curiosity through an arts-informed pedagogy

Abstract

Creative pedagogical approaches in higher education can facilitate students’ journey in thinking like and becoming a qualitative researcher. Pedagogical approaches tend to focus on procedural steps of qualitative research neglecting students’ development of cognitive skills and reflective capacity. Arts-informed teaching methods for qualitative research show promise as an educational development in stimulating student interest and expanding their understanding of qualitative research through an experiential approach to learning. In this article, the use of an arts-informed pedagogy to structure a graduate level qualitative research course is discussed. This pedagogy, grounded in experiential teaching-learning theories, was developed to foster students’ curiosity as well as their capacity to think like a qualitative researcher through arts media including poetry, dance, film and story. If space is created in the classroom for curiosity to become a disposition and habit of mind, students may be inspired to be perpetually inquisitive and as such, think like a qualitative researcher.