Social Portraiture: Decolonizing Ways of Knowing in Education through Arts-Based Participatory Action Research

Abstract

As scholars work to decolonize educational research, new methodologies are needed. In this paper, we present our conceptual premises for a new paradigm, social portraiture, which combines participatory action research (Freire, 1982) and portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffmann, 1997), and extends to include archival records and social art. This democratic approach integrates student participation, community engagement, and social change, coalescing into an integrated portrait of human experience in education. Our ideas contribute to foundations in arts-based methods in participatory action research, seeking transformative change in educational world views, ways of knowing, and institutional ways of life.