The term ‘collage’ derives from the French verb coller which means ‘to stick’ and refers to ‘the process of cutting and sticking found materials onto a flat surface’ (Butler-Kisber, 2018, p.114). Collage was first used as an artist’s technique in 1910 by Picasso and Braque and marked a major turning point in modernist art in the west (Scotti and Chilton, 2018). Collage is a user-friendly medium in which basic skills of cutting and sticking can be accessed and used easily. 

Collage using found imagery, is an embodied engagement with the world through a living inquiry, that re-presents the lived experience and voices of participants. Collage can conceptualise our memories, feelings and beliefs as metaphor and a mapping of thought. Findings through collage and conversations,  from the author’s recent doctorate study will reveal how becoming inclusive is not merely a cognitive enactment but is embodied in socio-material classrooms. Surrealist artist Hannah Hoch’s collage work will be shared as an example of how the juxtaposition of found imagery can express feelings and beliefs towards social justice for the society of the time.  Collage is further shown as a method to disrupt the status quo of classroom practice and make the familiar strange. The collages and conversations shared will reveal pre-service teachers’ feelings and beliefs of agency and autonomy for inclusive practice in a social justice context. Conclusions are drawn about how collage has become a valued method for research in an international education context. 

After this introduction about collage as a method of inquiry, and the example from the doctorate thesis, time will then be given for delegates at this BERA conference workshop to experience the collage activity, where an assortment of magazine cut-outs will be available for perusal. Participants will then choose magazine cut-out pieces to play with, juxtapose and form their own small collage piece that demonstrates how they feel about research and being a research in health or education today. The process of making the large collage is seen as a state of immersion in the activity, enjoyment and a sense of participation or a flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). 

Finally, I will facilitate discussions about the collages through the images chosen and their meaning through one-one, group and whole room discussions. 

Once created, the individual collage pieces can be further juxtaposed together to make one large piece of art-work to be displayed throughout the rest of the conference time that showcases collage as method of inquiry and our values and beliefs around educational and health research in a UK and international forum. 

Participants can take their collage created as a reminder of how they feel about their research; as an innovative and user-friendly method in research and promotion of the ABER SIG. 

Workshop Lead: Dr Lucy Barker; Northumbria University