ABSTRACT
This chapter shares insights from an inquiry in which a group of undergraduate and graduate researchers created drawings to interpret and represent qualitative data. The student research team invited participants from their university in Toronto to discuss their experiences navigating Ontario’s student financial assistance system. Drawing became a central activity within the research group and a mode through which we expressed our thinking and interpretation. This chapter shares stories about our drawings and discusses the creation of “Funder-Land,” a satirical illustration of a “theme park” of defunded postsecondary education. Funder-Land features participants’ stories and various park attractions to represent systemic problems and their impacts as revealed in our study. I share the story of how drawing helped student researchers “see” focus group data differently, express their interpretations in unconventional ways, and expand their research capacity and reflective practice.
