Parallaxic Praxis: Multimodal Interdisciplinary Pedagogical Research Design

Pauline Sameshima · Patricia Maarhuis · Sean Wiebe

Oct 2019 · Vernon Press

About this ebook

'Parallaxic Praxis' is a research framework utilized by interdisciplinary teams to collect, interpret, transmediate, analyze, and mobilize data generatively. The methodology leverages the researchers’ personal strengths and the collective expertise of the team including the participants and community when possible. Benefits include the use of multi-perspective analyses, multi-modal investigations, informal and directed dialogic conversations, innovative knowledge creation, and models of residual and reparative research. Relying on difference, dialogue, and creativity propulsion processes; and drawing on post-qualitative, new materiality, multiliteracies, and combinatorial, even juxtaposing theoretical frames; this model offers extensive research possibilities across disciplines and content areas to mobilize knowledge to broad audiences.

This book explains methods, theories, and perspectives, and provides examples for developing creative research design in order to innovate new understandings. This model is especially useful for interdisciplinary partnerships or cross-sector collaborations. This book specifically addresses issues of research design, methodology, knowledge generation, knowledge mobilization, and dissemination for academics, students, and community partners. Examples include possibilities for scholars interested in doing projects in social justice, community engagement, teacher education, Indigenous research, and health and wellness.

About the author

Dr. Pauline Sameshima is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Arts Integrated Studies at Lakehead University. Her interests are in creativity, imagination, community health, and curriculum theory. As a practicing artist, poet, and designer, Sameshima’s interdisciplinary projects use the arts to catalyze innovation, generate wanderings, and provoke new dialogues through creative scholarship. She is the Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum
Studies and curates the Lakehead Research Education Galleries. Website: solspire.com

Dr. Patricia L. Maarhuis is a researcher, educator, and artist in Health & Wellness Services at Washington State University. Her interdisciplinary research projects and artwork focus on the intersections between high-risk behavior, cultural context, the aesthetic dimensions of education, and experiential learning. She designs curricula and teaches faculty, staff, and healthcare professionals on research-based interventions and education strategies for adults with high-risk health experiences such as violence, trauma, substance abuse, and mental health concerns across multiple university departments. Website: Inbricolage.com

Dr. Sean Wiebe is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Prince Edward Island, teaches courses in multiliteracies, curriculum theory, and critical pedagogy. He has been the principal investigator on four Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funded projects exploring the intersections of creativity, the creative economy, language and literacies, and arts-integrated inquiries. One of his projects, based on findings generated from multiple sites across Canada and using the parallaxic praxis model, investigates how establishing a creative ethos in schools might support teachers as contributors to Canada’s creative economy.