Children as observational film-makers: a Deweyan approach to researching primary school children's experience as they make art

Abstract

ABSTRACTDewey’s philosophy of experience has aesthetic experience at its core as he melds artificial dualities between thinking and experiencing [Dewey, J. 1934. “Art as Experience.” In John Dewey the Later Works, 1925 – 1953, Vol. 10. 1988, edited by J. Boydston, 1–352. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press]. This deeply empirical approach underpins a form of art education research, which draws on participant observational film-making in social anthropology. Pedagogy for developing a video camera technique enables primary school children (10 to 11 years old) to use cameras in an observational style. Despite methodological dissonances in this approach, observational film-making offers an empirical means to ensure that vital qualities in children's experience making art such as the aesthetic and material are not lost through the scientificity of education research.