Utilizing contemporary art forms in the primary after-school: An artist-teacher-researcher perspective

Abstract

This article discusses the application of the integrative approach to teaching art to primary-school students in after-school activities from the teacher’s perspective. The described case study is based on the theoretical assumption that contemporary art forms are integrative in their nature and are therefore a suitable tool for knowledge integration because they have potential to make the relations between different objects and phenomena more visible. The research questions, addressed in the article, are related to the role of the artist-teacher-researcher in the teaching-learning process in the visual arts classroom and the pedagogical outcomes of applying artistic action research to teaching visual arts through contemporary art forms. An action research was conducted by the artist-teacher-researcher in an international primary after-school environment, and semiotic analysis of the collected verbal and visual data was performed to demonstrate how conceptualization of artistic ideas leads to knowledge construction.