National

Shining a light on things by Evelyn Battell

I was in a workshop the other day about teaching math and one of the assignments we had in the middle of the workshop was to show the relationship between research and practice using nature. I found myself making a collage and decided the share it because it surprised me so! I never do art and can't draw a stick. But I obviously had lots of thoughts about research and practice. What was most surprising was that when I explained my art I had more interesting things to say than I realized. So here is a fledgling attempt.

The sun depicts research or research in practice. On one side of the picture the sun doesn't get through and there are dark, troubled areas. There are problems in these areas, scary things, ugly things, things someone should do something about but no RiP has been done to enlighten them.

They are things we need to know about—like violence and discrimination. We need to get to those things. We need to know about them. The other side of the picture depicts how the sun has burned and scorched nature. This symbolizes how research has been overdone and consequently shuts out what is known. It shows a place where we think there is nothing left to learn. We think we have learned it all through the research already done—but in fact there has been too much, or faulty, or vindictive, research. This burns the ground. What exists and persists is silenced. Like Aboriginal people who told untruths to get rid of bad researchers. In these places we don't hear the voices; they are silent.

In the middle of the picture, where the sun is shining fully on nature, everything flourishes and is green. We find out small but powerful things and we make connections. Research can bring light to things. There will be a coming forth, and a growing.