Kylie Stevenson is a PhD candidate in the School of Communication and Arts at Edith Cowan University in Mt Lawley, Western Australia. In her research project, Kylie has engaged closely with a group of artist-researchers through reflective arts practice in order to explore their emerging practice-led research methodologies. Kylie has worked at RMIT University teaching creative writing, and as a teacher and curriculum writer for the Victorian Department of Education. She has been the recipient of four postgraduate scholarships and awards. In 2008, she was awarded a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust scholarship for an MPhil degree in Arts, Culture and Education at the University of Cambridge.

Embodying three aspects of my self through a/r/tography: A personal polyphonous perspective

In this essay I set out to explain my research as an embodied aesthetic experience. In my PhD study, Creative River Journeys—an inquiry into postgraduate education and practice-led research—I have adopted a research methodology called a/r/tography (Irwin & de Cosson 2004). This asks that my researcher identity embody the multiple roles of artist, researcher and teacher. This embodiment is not an abstract adoption of a research methodology, but a deliberate attempt on my part to confront the disparity between these roles in my past practice. I share insights that I have arrived at in relation to these three deeply interrelated aspects of my a/r/tographical self: the artist self—through poetic inquiry (Prendergast, Leggo & Sameshima 2009a); the researcher self—through the River Journey reflective practice; and the teacher self—through, for example, unexpected reciprocal mentorship in the project.

Keywords: a/r/tography—poetic inquiry—postgraduate education—practice-led research—researcher identity—reflective practice