Artful Representations as Productive Resistance: Researcher Learnings in Expanding Boundaries of Critical Methodology in Speech-Language Pathology

Abstract

In this paper, we engage in productive resistance through exploring the application of an arts-based method in expanding the critical research methodology repertoire in the profession of speech-language pathology. There is a specific focus on the value of painting in the data representation process. We explore how a playful, creative analysis deepened the critical interpretative meaning-making process. In particular, we explain how artful representations in the data analysis process can broaden communication in research beyond the written modality to generate alternative knowledges. We use the concepts of productive ambiguity and unknowing as key conceptual tools to reimagine the data analysis process with particular focus on the process of data representation. We conclude that embracing the uncertainty of creative ways of knowing create possibilities for new meanings and knowledges to emerge.

Introduction

“The inclusion of the artwork completed by the author [PhD candidate] did not add to the text; the artwork of the participant’s was more informative. I am not sure the artwork of the author is necessary.” ¹

The questions from the examiners around the use of artwork to represent data highlighted to us the importance of unpacking and exploring the value of arts-based methods for the speech-language pathology (SLP) profession beyond the PhD thesis. The thesis sought to understand how undergraduate students in the profession of SLP negotiated learning in a community practice setting which was novel to them. For this paper, we specifically used one of the emerging themes from the thesis, be(com)ing a professional, to illustrate the analysis process.

The authors are Kristen Abrahams, whose PhD forms the inspiration for the paper; Daisy Pillay who introduced the team to arts-based approaches; Rizwana Mallick who partnered with Kristen in artful play in the data analysis/representation process; and Harsha Kathard, who was Kristen’s primary supervisor.

The quote above documents the feedback Kristen received from an examiner regarding her methods of data representation for her PhD study. In her dissertation, she used many methods of data representation including narratives, collages and paintings. While narrative interpretation and pictures created by the participants were acceptable; Kristen’s use of artwork to represent the data was judged as not adding value to the research according to the examiner.

The paper is positioned as an act of productive resistance (Courpasson et al., 2011). We understand the concept of productive resistance as a form of protest of institutional and professional practices which do not value forms knowledge production outside of traditional ways of knowing. Such engagement led to the key research question driving the focus of the paper: ‘Beyond the limitations of the written word (e.g. narrative representation), what potential does painting have in the data representation process?’ In productively resisting the examiner’s feedback, we explore alternative ways of meaning making in research.

In this paper, we begin by positioning ourselves as individuals and as a collective. Following which, we explore art-based methodology (and painting in particular) as a means of knowledge production and expression of voice in the PhD study. We reflect on our learning through productively resisting traditional forms of research and specifically explore how we can disrupt linear traditional ways of studying participants’ experiences. The analysis and the data representation process form the focus of the paper.

Transitioning into Arts-Based Methodology

While we focus on data representation and painting in this paper, it is useful to provide background as to what motivated the use of arts-based methods in the PhD case study. We are four academics located in two different South African higher education institutions and who come from different disciplinary fields. Kristen, Rizwana and Harsha work across the disciplinary fields of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Disability Studies and Education at a university in Cape Town, while Daisy works in the Discipline of Teacher Development Studies at the School of Education at a university in KwaZulu Natal. Historically, these two disciplines function in quite separate and siloised ways, and Daisy would not have been able to engage with Kristen, Harsha and Rizwana in this transdisciplinary mode of research. Determined to cross these superficial borders produced and reproduced over years of colonial and western ways, Harsha and Daisy initiated dialogues through National Research Foundation funded projects to challenge traditional and oppressive ways of researching the field of SLP –which went beyond a pathological framing of peoples’ experiences. Under the research supervision of Harsha, Kristen and Rizwana, who are early career academics and emerging researchers, were exposed to a range of qualitative inquiry workshops. In 2016, Daisy who works with self-reflexive methodologies and arts-based research, conducted a workshop in which she introduced postgraduate students in Health Sciences to arts-based research methods, specifically collage and poetic inquiry. Kristen and Rizwana were two of the five students who attended this workshop. A few years later, Kristen attended another workshop with Daisy on data analysis and representation. Both of these workshops offered Kristen a deeper and insightful understanding of ways and approaches of studying people’s experiences and how to make sense of the complexity of everyday communication.

As Kristen explained about her doctoral study ,

The workshop with Daisy was a crucial learning experience for me as it provided a tangible way to see how the words and voices of my participants may be illuminated through arts-based methods. Seeing how words and emotions could be presented in such a provocative way spurred my desire to engage creativity with the data I generated with participants.

Throughout my undergraduate and postgraduate study, I was limited by positivism ( Pillay & Kathard, 2018 ) in the way I thought about problems, understood problems and how I searched for solutions to problems. At the time, I didn’t realise that this approach extended to my work in research and the ways in which research methods were acknowledged, celebrated and shared in the profession. For the majority of my career as a SLP, I have used quantitative methods to explore and understand my research questions. Being quite methodical, I enjoyed the process of research, the structure it brought, and the growth and learning it afforded me. What I didn’t know then was the assumptions underlying positivism, and ways in which the positivist paradigm became my point of reference for doing research. Starting my PhD, I could have never imagined the learning journey I would embark on and the endless possibilities challenging and reimagining my research would open for me.

Shifting Positions and Frames

During my PhD, my supervisor, Harsha, encouraged me to challenge the normative boundaries of our work and explore alternative ways of knowing. She allowed me the space to transgress and explore art and research. Little did I know that such creative exploration would be challenged in the profession. Over the course of my PhD, I had to defend my work – to colleagues, to journal editors and to my examiners. I had to fight for the right to my own creative freedom to explore ways of knowing outside of the dominant hegemonies that govern what is ‘good research’ in SLP.

In the study, I shifted my understandings of research from positivist to interpretive and critical paradigms and used a variety of qualitative methods. While each of the methods assisted me with meaning-making, the arts-based method inspired a deeper level of engagement and analysis which we focus on in this paper.

In the words of Rizwana,

I began my PhD journey alongside Kristen as a bright-eyed positivist. I conducted a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) which is considered to be a rigorous and preferred method of study when testing interventions in the quantitative world. I was excited to undertake this large-scale study but soon found myself consumed by the details of the trial all while realising that the participant voice was missing. There was no room for me to find out what participants felt and thought about the intervention – the study could only comment on effectiveness. This highlighted the gap in my study and awakened my discomfort with my study and the pedagogy behind it. I used my discomfort to explore how best I could include the participant voice alongside my RCT. Being critical and learning about positionality and decoloniality were instrumental in understanding and exploring my discomfort.

There were many times when Kristen and I would sit and chat about our PhDs – our progress, our gains, our frustrations, our confusion and our discomfort. Together we questioned, challenged and fought to reimagine our research practices. Our discomfort required us to explore deeper issues of voice, representation, and power within the research process. This learning was useful as it not only made us challenge our own studies, but it allowed me to space to delve into different ways of presenting data.

When I was in high school, I took art as one of my key subjects. Not only was it a passion and talent of mine but I loved the purposeful and intentional nature of exploration of art styles, ideas, concepts and theory through various expression types and modes. I find so much value in critical expression of content through visual mediums like painting. This is why I was drawn to creating data imagery with Kristen through her study.

From the perspective of Harsha,

My experience of representing data draws both on qualitative and quantitative methods. The use of graphs, pie diagrams tables and figures have been the main ways in which I learned about data analysis/representation. Daisy and I were fellow students using life history research in our PhD studies. While she used a visual arts approach to her analysis, I experimented with narrative analysis and analysis of narratives. This experience provided the opportunity to use what made sense to me – stories – as a way of mean-making. Using stories offered me the opportunity to create meaning which brings together the personal, social, cultural and temporal aspects. Stories sit among other stories- with the understanding that a singular notion of truth is contested. John Berger quoted by Roy (1997) in the God of Small Things: ‘Never again will a single story be told as the only one’. I enjoyed the use of fictional techniques which enhanced the truth-making process. I respect authors who create stories as their artform to bring truth to life through playing with words. In the analysis of narratives, I used visual representation to represent the complexity of my findings. I was also aware of the limitation of words and became open to the possibility and value of bringing arts into science through interacting with artists – Daisy and Michael Samuel. Daisy and I continued our research journey as co-researchers on a transdisciplinary study on classroom communication through which we built new meanings across our disciplines. In Kristen’s project and this paper, we serve as mentors across disciplines to extend our engagement with arts-based methodology.

And Daisy…

I am a teacher educator and researcher. My work centres on the educational implications of exploring the (teacher/researcher) self as relational; and teachers’ complex lives and the making and remaking of identity through self-reflexive methodologies as basis for learning and change. I was excited to work with SLP teacher-researchers Harsha, Kristen and Rizwana and the ‘actual making of artistic expressions…as a way of understanding and examining…’ our research practices ( McNiff, 2008 , p. 29), beyond the limits of written word. In my own work, I have explored collage and painting as arts-based research for studying teacher’s lives and identities as ongoing shifts and change ( Pillay, 2020 ).

We present this paper as a collaborative reflexive arts-based inquiry with Kristen and Rizwana as the lead ‘artists’, and with Harsha and Daisy providing the critique and support across the different parts of the paper.

Framing This Study

Our work is guided by decoloniality which ‘…seeks to make visible, open up, and advance radically distinct perspectives and positionalities that displace Western rationality as the only framework and possibility of existence, analysis, and thought’. (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018, p. 17). For the paper, we position the profession of SLP as a project of coloniality (Abrahams et al., 2019). In other words, we understand SLP as being created and developed in the colonial image which manifests in the ways in which we practice, educate and conduct research. Coloniality in research manifests through positivist science underpinned by claims of objectivity and neutrality. Subsequently, it resulted in the slow uptake of qualitative research in the profession and the resistance to a critical approach.

In order to open up spaces to be more critical, it requires a shift in thinking towards decoloniality. Decolonising research requires challenging research practices that question, undermine or devalue the understandings and experiences of the other and requires searching for ways that value and uphold diverse ways of knowing and being (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2019). It requires the colonised to take ownership of their ways of knowing – it is a fight for acknowledgement and legitimacy within the professions.

Ndlovu, 2018 argued that knowledge is foundational and fundamental to imaging a different future to that of the present. Coloniality of knowledge, he argued, is key to challenging colonial dominance. Replication will occur when individuals cannot imagine other ways of doing outside of the traditional. Imagining new futures is only possible when we begin to understand the nature of our entrapment within the colonial knowledge structure. ‘This understanding will enable them [us] to withdraw their [our] participation in activities that reify the power structure of coloniality, thereby enabling its continuity, and instead engage in activities of a diachronic transformation that can lead to coloniality’s collapse” (Ndlovu, 2018, p. 110)’

This paper is understood as a decolonial moment, as an act of epistemic disobedience (Mignolo, 2009). As we grappled with analysis in our PhD studies, we realised how we were solely relying on developing knowledge and understanding using the dominant hegemonies within health professions (Archibald & Blines, 2021). We felt that such a reliance on one way of doing led to repetition and ultimately limited the possibilities for new knowledges to emerge. To decolonise research practices, we needed to question and challenge traditional research practices; it required the opening up of communication as a creative process to deepen our knowledge of the world around us; and challenged us to engage in activities that have the potential to lead to alternative ways of knowing, feeling and being within the profession. We argue that creativity in knowledge expression can give us more freedom to think differently and more broadly about communication and research within professions.

Productive Ambiguity, Unknowing and Data Representation

Eisner (1997) argued that language and numbers as the exclusive mediums for meaning making are problematic in that it is too restrictive to cover and convey all meaning. Exploring alternative forms of representation opens spaces for multiple plausible meanings and perspectives to be uncovered which highlights the complexity of our engagements. It is our understanding that productive ambiguity speaks to rebelling against the notion of single truth which opens spaces for multiple meaning, multiple understanding and multiple perspectives. Engaging in productive ambiguity requires diving into uncertainty – a process of unknowing. Unknowing requires us to give up our current understandings of research to open spaces through which we can examine our theories and practice to allow new beginnings to emerge (Vinz, 1997). We assert that productive ambiguity and unknowing require a playfulness – a willingness to explore, create and cross boundaries with playful intent.

Collage portraits blend arts-based research with the methods of collage and portraiture to analyse qualitative data and to create a form of representation of experiences (Gerstenblatt, 2013). Due to its flexible nature, collage portraits allow for the merging of a range of qualitative and arts-based research approaches, which complement more traditional methods. As stories are conveyed through the ‘weaving together of words and images’, it provides a means to conveying meaning beyond the limitations of language. In crossing the disciplinary boundaries between art and research, deeper and authentic understanding is developed within the social, political, cultural and historical contexts. Drawing inspiration from collage portraits, the idea of combining forms of art and narratives as a form of expression in SLP research in communication as a case became apparent. In particular, this resonated with SLP professional work in communication. We understand communication as multimodal (i.e., speech, picture, gestures and writing, technology) which engages multiple senses in the meaning-making process. This was particularly important in relation to conveying the complexity of experience.

The Analysis Process

The data generation in Kristen’s doctoral study included a number of different methods including observations, interviews, photovoice, experiential drawings and document reviews, which resulted in many forms of data – including photographs, drawings, written and verbal accounts and her own personal reflections and experiences. Kristen searched for a way to make sense of and integrate the data. She used a data analysis framework that followed the levels of reflexive interpretation (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2009).

Alvesson and Sköldberg (2009) discussed the meaning of reflexive interpretation: reflexive meaning the levels of interpretation are reflected in one another, acknowledging that reflections may overlap/interact with the different levels; and interpretation meaning there are no specific rules or procedures, as the process is guided by the researcher’s judgement and intuition. The research study shifted between the different levels, namely: the handling of empirical material, interpretation, critical interpretation and reflections upon language and authority. Using this framing, the following data analysis framework was developed as depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Data analysis process aligned with levels of interpretation specifically highlighting the analytic focus for this paper.

The first level of analysis included using document and narrative analysis to develop an overall case narrative that provided an overview of the emerging professional practice. Following which, thematic analysis of the case narrative was conducted to extract key themes for exploration in more depth. Solely using a written medium could not adequately convey the thoughts, feelings and emotions that were intermeshed with the words. Kristen felt the need to find alternative ways to represent the data that more closely aligned to the experiences of the participants. She began to explore different methods of data representation including the use of art-based methods.

The inspiration for the paper lies between the level two and three analysis.

The paper explores how painting can be used as a method of data representation to deepen engagement and understanding of the data which ultimately provided the foundation for the thesis building. In the context of the paper, we understand data representation as the process by which we transform the data contents into a form that people can understand, that is, finding forms of representation that can convey to the reader a deeper understanding of the data (Eisner, 1997). While the focus of the paper is on data representation, we understand this process as inextricably linked to data analysis and the overall meaning making. The paper documents the research process – how the researchers immersed themselves in an artistic process to develop an artful representation of the data.

Representation Process – Engaging in a Creative Process

The creative process emerged through the engagements with Daisy, additional readings on arts-based methods (Gerstenblatt, 2013), and through the playful exploration of art between Kristen and Rizwana. One of the themes of the thesis explored the professionalisation of SLPs through their education and how that shaped their professional identity formation in the context of an emerging professional practice in SLP.

We describe a deepening process – each step facilitated deeper engagement with the data in order to achieve the final painting. Deepening engagement meant exploring the boundaries of concrete and abstract meaning, literal and figurative, bold and subtle imagery and foreground and background. As we immersed ourselves in each step, meaning and understanding were deepened. In the following section, Kristen and Rizwana describe the creative process they followed as they playfully engaged with various data sources including narratives, drawings and reflections (see Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Diagram of the analytic process.

Immersion in the Data

Initially, we familiarised ourselves with the data – through the transcription process, verifying of transcriptions, thematic analysis of the data/emergent theme and writing and reviewing preliminary drafts of the narrative analysis. In addition to this, the theme around professional identity formation resonated with us on a personal level as SLPs who had also gone through the very same professionalisation process during our education. Understanding ourselves as intimately linked to the data challenged the notion of the researcher as objective – which opened up the space for personal meaning making through engaging with the data.

Mind Dumping

As we had both completed courses in Design Thinking (Meinel & Leifer, 2012), we had learnt about the utility of the Design Thinking process in creating space for innovative thinking. Through our engagements with Design Thinking and specifically the process of ideation, we became familiar with the concept of a mind dump. We understood a mind dump as a process of unknowing – we were able to clear our minds of our initial assumptions, ideas and thoughts that could potential cloud new/emerging ideas. The mind dump acted as a way to stimulate the generation of ideas through allowing us to ‘dump’ our initial thoughts.

During this process, we spoke about key ideas that stood out to us from the theme. We spoke about different modes of representation from the written word and their underlying meaning. The following questions guided our thinking: How do you put ideas into a visual format? What kind of symbolism do the ideas evoke? How were the participants describing their experiences? For example, when thinking about how to convey the idea of knowledge, we thought books with labels referring to the different disciplinary knowledges that SLP students obtain through their education.

The mind dump created a sense of a clear head space for us which in turn allowed us to develop an imagery within our minds – as something preliminary. For example, during this process, we thought about how to conceptually convey the experiences of the students. We decided on using painting as the data representation method as it allowed us the creative freedom to express the thoughts, feeling and emotions that were interwoven in the data. Using paintings as a form of representation was intriguing because paintings are open to interpretation, which we thought mirrored the participants’ experiences of engaging in the emerging professional practice. As the students spoke about their professional identity as emerging, we spoke about the idea of using two canvas’ (which could stand alone, but also interact) to mirror the concept of emergence. In this context, emergence occurs when an entity (in this case, canvas) is seen to have properties that it would not have on its own – the relationship between the individual and the collective (Sawyer, 2001). In other words, when joining the canvas’, new meaning and understanding are derived.

Drawing Further Inspiration – Collecting Imagery – “Parallel play”

We collected a random sample of magazines that we had at our homes. We sat together and individually searched through each magazine and started pulling out different images that stood out to us. In silence, we would look through magazines, working in parallel – allowing each other the creative freedom to visualise and collect the images developing in our minds. The process was instinctual in that we were quickly flipping through the magazine and pulled out pages with images.

Sharing – Playful Engagement

Once images had been selected, we had a collection of images scattered all over the room. At this point, it was important for us to consolidate our progress. We shared our thoughts and inspirations for our choices of pictures. This provided us with an opportunity to explore the similarities and differences in how we envisioned the ideas emerging from the theme. It also allowed us to solidify our joint understanding of the key points in the theme. For example, in the transcripts, one student drew herself as a bird, so we adopted this as a representation of the SLP students in the painting.

Through this process, we soon realised that while the magazine images allowed us to start to visualise the data, in many ways it was also lacking as we were restricted to the imagery portrayed through the magazines. We used Google to search for images that we were unable to capture through the magazine images. This allowed us to understand and represent images linked to the stories and further shaped how we conceptualised the painting. For example, students spoke about feeling like a robot and as we searched through the magazines, we could not find any imagery specifically that linked to this.

Sharing became an integral part of the process – allowing us to jointly collaborate, develop understanding and check in with each other. In this way, the process of sharing helped us to reshape and rethink the meaning, symbolism and imagery of the painting – ensuring that it has adequately represented the data. We argue that an individualistic analytic process is limiting as it does not easily allow for the productive ambiguity. We intentionally engaged in a creative collaborative thinking process to uncover alternative perspectives, meaning and understanding (see Figure 3).

Figure 3.

Photograph of the collaging process.

Cutting – Arranging – Re-arranging – Pasting – Drawing

We then began cutting out all of the images and started to play around with how to arrange the images on the canvas. This was an iterative process of arranging and re-arranging the images. Once we had developed a sense of how to structure the image, we began pasting the images on two pieces of paper. Collaging became a tangible way to bring life to the imagery in our minds – as a way to draw inspiration and visualise the painting. We understood collaging as part of the design process of the painting as a way to solidify the imagery we hoped to portray. We understood collaging as a shared activity – where we jointly discussed how to arrange the images before pasting them onto the paper. As we engaged in the collaging process, we also used drawing as a tool to merge the imagery in our minds, with the imagery from the magazine cut outs (Figure 4).

Figure 4.

Photograph of the drawing developed from the collage.

Layering

Collaging and drawing – as an interlinked process – provided inspiration for the painting. Here, we understand painting as a layered process – both physically and conceptually. Initially, we discussed the ideas around how to conceptualise a painting. Rizwana provided guidance on paints, painting techniques and the use of texture. For example, we needed to discuss colour mixing, layering of the paint and how this could bring some tactile elements to the work, dimensionality in terms of what to foreground and background in the painting and the stylistic elements of the drawings – would it be more life-like or more animated? This allowed us to conceptualise the background and foreground of the painting. We had to think about the following: What colours do we want to use? What imagery would that evoke? How should the colours interact with each other? Should they fade? Would there be harsh transitions? What kind of a message would we want to convey to the viewer? What images needed to be foregrounded? How do we do that? After creating the background, waiting for the paint to dry gave us time away from the painting to review, rethink and plan the next layers of the painting relative to the data generated with the participants. Once the paint had dried, we were able to take pencils and lightly draw the images from the collaging/drawing onto the canvas. This process assisted with visualising and scaling images to size. We were able to paint the images onto the canvas – which started to bring the images to life. Once it had dried, we realised that certain elements of the painting needed to stand out, so we used a pen to outline and highlight key elements in the painting.

Layering spoke to the multisensory nature of communication – as verbal, visual, tactile and sensory. Engaging multiple senses rebels against the dominance of verbal communication in conveying meaning. In this regard, multisensory play with the layering process allowed for an emotional connection to develop with the artwork.

Reflection

Throughout the process, reflection became an integral part of sharing. We would take time to reflect on what we had done, how it was presented and what was being conveyed. We were cognisant of the fact that we needed to portray the data in such a way that reflected the stories of the SLP students. It also allowed us the opportunity to change direction and re-evaluate our choices. Reflexivity in the research process was integral. Confronting our own biases, assumptions and knowledges in our professional and personal capacities was a necessary process because it allowed us to become more acutely aware of limitations, differences and similarities between us (as the researchers) and our participants. For example, as former students who went through a similar undergraduate curriculum, it was important for us to acknowledge our own experiences and ways in which that may impact how we interpreted the data.

Ultimately, what emerged from the creative process was a painting (see Figure 5). The painting depicts the process of professionalisation of SLP students and how engaging in an emerging professional practice may open new ways of thinking and being an SLP. In essence, the painting portrays the complexities (e.g. process, relationships and context) of be(com)ing an emerging SLP as an ongoing and relational experience that is shaped and moulded by the context in which one is placed and the people one engages with.

Figure 5.

Final painting of the process of be(com)ing a professional.

We argue that the painting deepened the analytical representation. Through engaging in a creative process, we acknowledge that as people we make meaning not only through words but also through many other means including our social interactions, environment, context, prior experiences and our spirituality. For us as researchers, we argue that deepening meaning was not only ‘documented’ in the words of the participants but also came to light through the visual as it allows the researcher to engage other senses, feelings and emotions that words alone could not fully portray. In particular through this process, the idea of identity formation as an ongoing process emerged as a key learning from engaging in a creative process. In addition, we are obligated to justly document participants’ experiences for the reader. For the reader, who was not able to engage with the participants or listen to their voices, the paintings were a way to bridge the connection between the written word and individual behind those words. In other words, meaning can become more ‘alive’ through how data are portrayed.

Implications for Research

Disrupting the oppressive structures of our work in SLP research allowed for boundary crossing into exploring alternative ways of engaging with research. The analytic process described in the paper was organic in nature, shifting and developing alongside our own research learning. This challenges the idea of research and analysis as being predetermined but rather emerging with the data. Such an organic process required a release of power and the acknowledgement that our individual disciplinary knowledges alone could not account for the complexity of lived experiences.

Documenting our experiences of engaging in alternative forms of analysis foregrounded the complex, iterative nature of analysis. The approach resists replication and provides a guiding framework for how data analysis can be reimagined within health profession in order to deepen the meaning-making process in research. It challenges the dominant narrative of a linear, step-by-step analysis process in favour of a creative, dynamic exploration of the data.

To the examiner, as tables, graphs and diagrams allow us to visually analyse data within positivist research, collage, drawings and paintings allow us to explore meaning within critical research paradigms. Embracing critical orientations to research may lead us to alternative meanings and understandings of the world which has the potential to bring us closer to understanding the complexity of human experience. This realisation acknowledges and appreciates that different research orientations and methods allow us to generate different knowledges to understand the intricacy of human experience.

Conclusion

Shifting from our traditional ways of researching required resisting our taken for granted/positivist upbringing and embracing the uncertainty of creative ways of knowing. Through engaging in productive ambiguity and a process of unknowing, artful ways of meaning making opened up for playful exploration of communication beyond the limits of written word. The journey of discovering alternative forms of data representation was a deep personal engagement. Collaging and painting allowed for other voices to surface and widen our perspectives and positioning as qualitative researchers studying people’s complex experiences and forms of communication. It is the responsibility of the examiners to open up to different possibilities for analysing and representing data. The researcher also holds the responsibility to expand the field by explaining and theorising methods of analysis.

The paper is a challenge to the tradition – the examiners, journal editors and health professions – to widen its approach to research to encompass communication as meaning making together. This shift has the potential to lead to discovering new and alternative knowledges.