Living graphs as a methodological tool: representing landmarks in the professional development of teacher educators

This article relates to the use of an innovative visual research method, living graphs, to capture and represent the life experiences of teacher educators in two universities in the UK. Six mid-career teacher educators from each university were asked to map their personal biographies, career landmarks, academic and research highs and lows, using a graphic format. This was then used as a basis for discussion and exploration in the interviews. Narrative analysis was used to examine the teacher educators’ accounts and themes were identified which related to professional and academic development. Living graphs were found to be a rich data source to identify and explore career landmarks: enhanced verbal input resulted from using graphics to represent highs and lows of experience, including the visual representation of emotion. This is a useful research tool but needs further clarification and guidelines for use.