ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the use of identity boxes as a research method. The chapter outlines how using creative activities provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on key events and critical incidents and to reconfigure and reorder them in to the story they want to tell; it is this application of this concept that underpins the method. Examples of how identity boxes can be used to facilitate reflexive opportunities to produce rich data are examined, drawing on examples from two research projects: the first, Creative Research Methods in a College-Based Higher Education Setting (Kendall and Perkins, 2014); the second, from Helen’s own doctoral study, which is entitled From Training to Qualification: The Journey of Level 3 Early Years Student-Practitioners (Perkins, 2017). The chapter examines the efficacy of identity boxes as a methodological tool, and concludes with a discussion of the strengths and challenges of using creative activities as a research method.
