Abstract
Cast by Merriam (Qualitative research and case study applications in education: Revised and expanded from case study research in education. Jossey-Bass, 1998) as a variant of case study methodology, Lightfoot’s (The good high school: Portraits of character and culture. Basic Books, 1983) seminal use of written portraits to combine science and art has been an intriguing presence in qualitative research since portraiture was first described in Lightfoot’s The Good High School. Lightfoot suggested the term “portraits” to bring a “measure of freedom from the traditions and constraints of disciplined research methods…” hoping that the work would be “defined by aesthetic, as well as empirical and analytic, dimensions” (p. 13).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anderson, L. M. (2011). Toward professional integration in the humanities: One teacher-researcher’s experience with portraiture. Arts & Humanities in Higher Education, 10(1), 103–119.
Brenna, B. (2010). Characters with disabilities in contemporary children’s novels: Portraits of three authors in a frame of Canadian texts (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Alberta.
Brenna, B. (2011). Characters with disabilities in contemporary novels for children: A portrait of three authors in a framework of Canadian texts. Language & Literacy, 13(1), 1–13.
Butler-Kisber, L. (2002). Artful portrayals in qualitative inquiry: The road to found poetry and beyond. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 48(3), 229–239.
Hill, D. (2005). The poetry in portraiture: Seeing subjects, hearing voices, and feeling contexts. Qualitative Inquiry, 11(1), 95–105.
Lawrence-Lightfoot, S. (2005). Reflections on portraiture: A dialogue between art and science. Qualitative Inquiry, 11(1), 3–15.
Lawrence-Lightfoot, S., & Davis, J. H. (1997). The art and science of portraiture. Jossey-Bass.
Lancy, D. F. (1993). Qualitative research in education: An introduction to the major traditions. Longman.
Lightfoot, S. (1983). The good high school: Portraits of character and culture. Basic Books.
Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education: Revised and expanded from case study research in education. Jossey-Bass.
Walsh, S., Bickel, B., & Leggo, C. (Eds.) (2015). Arts-based and contemplative practices in research and teaching: Honoring presence. Routledge.
Wolcott, H. F. (1995). The art of fieldwork. AltaMira Press.
Yin, R. K. (Ed.). (2004). The case-study anthology. Sage.
Online Resources
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot’s website: http://www.saralawrencelightfoot.com/portraiture1.html
Professor Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot on Portraiture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_GWU8MjcBU
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brenna, B. (2023). Portraiture. In: Okoko, J.M., Tunison, S., Walker, K.D. (eds) Varieties of Qualitative Research Methods. Springer Texts in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04394-9_61
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04394-9_61
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-04396-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-04394-9
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)