Transforming images: A collaborative art exercise to debunk biases

Abstract

In the Netherlands, art academies offering teacher training courses in visual arts and design pay little attention to diverse learners, such as pupils with learning disabilities, in their curricula. To form a picture of the existing perceptions of students concerning persons with intellectual and/or psychological disabilities, this study was set up to map the views of a group of first-year teacher training students of visual arts and design at the Amsterdam University of the Arts. The focus of the study was to see whether student perceptions changed after an active encounter with persons with intellectual and/or psychological disabilities – in this case, a group of visiting artists with learning disabilities. The motivation for this study was influenced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As this mandate was adopted in the Netherlands in 2017, we have been intrigued by the consequences it would have for current educational settings and teacher training courses focusing on the subjects of art and design.