Metaphoric Methodology: Moving with Research and Writing

Abstract In this article, we discuss how metaphors and metaphoric attention to textuality have the potential to invite art education researchers to engage with methodological discussions aside from rationalities of academic legitimacy rooted in reason and mastery. Drawing from Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Kathrine McKittrick, Christina Sharpe, and other Black, Brown, and Indigenous scholars and writers, we introduce the concept metaphoric methodology and explore its potentials and possible pitfalls when engaging with multiple ways of knowing, sensing, imagining, and being through art education research writing. We begin the article by elaborating on the relationship between metaphors and methodology, specifically focusing on their shared etymological root in movement and the conceptual potential it holds for research and teaching. We continue by discussing how metaphoric methodology resonates with and partially diverges from artistic and arts‐based approaches to research. To give an example of metaphoric methodology in practice, we then share an example of metaphoric research writing from the corresponding author's art classroom. We conclude the article with a critical reflection of metaphoric methodology and discuss its potential contributions to art education research methodologies.