Engaging New Audiences: Translating Research into Popular Media

In this article, the author outlines how she used qualitative research methodologies to translate her research findings into a social-realist narrative film that has engaged multiple audiences. This process raises questions about what translation means when research is represented in the form of an imaginative text and how education researchers imagine their audience when making choices about research representation. The author also considers the perennial questions surrounding arts-based research: Can expressive forms count as research? Must practitioners of arts-based research be experts in their art forms? Should the artistic product stand on its own in traditional social science research venues? The author posits that the current cultural milieu holds unprecedented possibilities for translating education research into varied forms to achieve greater public impact.