Empirical findings that establish researchable context using visual art to prepare marginalized youth for a positive future using mixed human enquiry methodologies

Abstract

The overarching research explored whether and how using contemporary art education and practices can help to reintegrate marginalized youth and to raise their sense of self-efficacy. The framework of theory involving Sartre, Foucault and Bandura informed the research activity in the action research undertaken. In terms of the social and cultural transition beginning with the Enlightenment period in the eighteenth century, the research identified a need to establish the value of how fine art offers theoretical and practical methods that would strengthen and increase educational resources along with pedagogic values for future sustainability of creative and educational impacts. The research design of this particular action research project involves selected research methods incorporating contemporary ‘artbased’ practices and case studies. Three intertwined strands: (1) the action research project, (2) the observations and reflections on three Outsider Art exhibitions and (3) the process evaluation of Maidstone Prison addressed the research question by forming a practical structure that individuals can explore. The chosen methods used for documentation purposes included using a reflective diary, video, photography and sound recordings. The purpose of this case study is to reach a wider audience involved in social sciences, community organizations, the penal system and educational institutions, and also to encourage curiosity to engage in further research in order to address elements of a key finding that highlighted the displacement of the participants within the educational institution, which mirror their exclusion.