Higher-Research Degree (HDR) Conference

“What is a poem doing in a literature review?” Reimagining scholarly literature reviewing through feedback poetry

This workshop introduces feedback poetry, an accessible arts‑based method that supports creative engagement with academic texts. Drawing on poetic inquiry within Arts‑Based Educational Research (ABER), the session offers a practical way of slowing down reading, noticing what resonates, and responding creatively to academic texts. While poetic inquiry has its roots in qualitative research, feedback poetry can benefit researchers across methodologies—including those working quantitatively—by inviting closer attention, reflexivity, and more imaginative ways of thinking with literature.

Participants will explore how poetry can function as a mode of inquiry. Short examples will show how simple poetic forms can be used to respond to scholarly texts. These forms act as scaffolding, enabling participants to engage courageously and playfully. Through hands‑on activities, collaborative creation, and thoughtful discussion, participants will experience how feedback poetry opens space for curiosity, connection, contradiction, and insight—qualities often muted in fast, efficiency‑driven reading practices.

The workshop offers a complementary approach that can enrich literature reviewing, analysis, and conceptual thinking by highlighting what stays with us as readers. By working resourcefully with language, participants will be invited to engage differently with research texts and discover new ways to understand their own roles as readers and meaning-makers. No prior experience with poetry is required—just an openness to experiment with language and explore imaginative ways of reading and thinking.

Arts-Based Educational Research: An Invitation to Add More Colours to Our Research Palette

Arts-Based Educational Research—ABER—may sound specialised, but at its core, it brings artistic ways of knowing into dialogue with educational questions that matter. Artistic expression is not the preserve of a talented few; it is a shared human resource, rooted in the imagination and creativity we all carry. ABER is not about being “good at art.” It is about recognising that educational experiences are emotional, relational, embodied, and culturally situated—and that our research approaches can (and should) reflect that vibrancy.

This presentation draws on the forthcoming Bloomsbury Handbook to frame ABER through its three interconnected dimensions: arts-based, educational, and research.

The arts-based dimension highlights creative processes and artefacts—storytelling, poetry, movement, sound, visual creation—and how they shape what we notice, interpret, and communicate. It also raises broader questions about access to arts-based forms of knowledge as a cultural right, an economic imperative, and a foundation for social cohesion and justice.

The educational dimension emphasises the generative role of the arts in teaching, learning, and knowledge-making. It supports inclusive, participatory, and culturally responsive approaches that view arts and education as interdependent, each strengthening and informing the other.

Through ABER, the research dimension becomes a dynamic, co‑creative process. This participatory orientation challenges rigid boundaries between researcher, subject, and audience and opens new ways of thinking about knowledge, representation, and engagement. It draws on longstanding traditions that position the arts as central to learning.

I will also address scholarly recognition: how we can evaluate originality, rigour, and significance when research looks different from what we may be used to. My aim is to encourage you, whatever your research focus or context, to consider how the arts might expand your own research possibilities.

Building and Sustaining Students’ Academic and Social-Emotional Wellbeing

Students’ academic and social-emotional wellbeing are intertwined. The success of one is closely connected to the success of the other. Academic wellbeing comprises students’ academic motivation, engagement, and learning. Social-emotional wellbeing involves positive interpersonal relationships. This Keynote looks at these as a means to develop the whole student, both academically and social-emotionally. Professor Martin then talks through major research findings identifying strategies that are vital for integrating academic and social-emotional wellbeing in the classroom. Practical actions for doing this in the everyday course of pedagogy are then discussed.

How social media engagements impact youths’ identity and well-being: A Linguistic Perspective

I examine the mediating role of language and semiotics in shaping the interaction between individuals and social worlds, particularly in the ongoing process of exploring and defining selves across physical/digital spheres. First, I explore how youth digital trans-literacies (Gu et al., 2025) on social media shape self-concept clarity and well-being. Third, I present how social media content demonstrate the ways sentiment, emotion, and linguistic features influence audiences’ responses and experiences. These studies highlight the importance of a linguistic perspective to investigate the social, emotional and psychological impact of social media on youth development.