Arts Education Project Research Articles

Critical perspectives on TEL: art and design education, theory, communities and space

ABSTRACTThis paper explores three themes, emerging from the Inter-Life project, an Art and Design education and social skills project set in a virtual world. We argue that they connect with the concerns raised by critical Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) researchers at the Alpine Rendezvous workshop entitled “TEL: the Crisis and the Response.” The first theme focuses on theory and TEL. We consider Cultural Historical Activity Theory, but we strongly feel that our argument has broader application as part of the intellectual “self-defence toolkit” that researchers and practitioners in the critical TEL community need if they are to “resist” the crises arising from educational globalisation. A second theme relates to the importance of working together in research communities and joint enterprises, focused on using a joint set of tools to investigate an issue or set of issues in a systematic way. In our final theme, we focus on the significance of learning spaces. They are part of the “intellectual toolkit” with which critical TEL researchers can resist the subordination of our ideas and work to globalised interests.

Former West: Documents, constellations, prospects

Abstract FORMER WEST (2008–2016) is a long-term contemporary art research, education, publishing, exhibition and discursive project that aims at developing a critical understanding of the legacy of the radical resistance to power in 1989, in order to both imaginatively reevaluate the present and speculate about global futures. It employs the “retroperspective” method – allowing for imaginative thinking and acting through both global pasts and future prospects simultaneously. The work of art plays a critical role in this context and is understood as a “document” through which to re-read the recent course of history otherwise than the way in which we’ve gotten to know it, demonstrating thus the imaginative potential of artistic practice in shaping and transforming the world.

Blending Artistic, Research and Teaching Practices in the Context of Teacher Education. An a/r/tographical Approach of an Arts-Based Educational Project

<p class="2M-body">The purpose of this article is to explore an art education project within the theoretical and methodological context of a/r/tography. An arts-based educational project carried out by the Primary Education Department of University of Aegean, is examined through an artistic and inquiry process where the roles of artists, researchers and teachers are deeply interrelated. In order to explore how artful research and the co-creative process can help teachers access and reframe understandings of teaching and learning, the teacher trainees were interviewed and expressed ideas and beliefs on education, art, inquiry, teaching and knowledge construction. Findings of the research support the potential of art-based educational projects to evoke strong senses of artist/researcher/teacher self in <em>relation</em> to the <em>community</em>, empower cognitive, communicative and artistic skills, promote holistic learning and thus to play a significant role in the field of teacher education.</p>

The ensemble domesticated: Mapping issues of autonomy and power in performing arts projects in schools

This article, originally presented at Discourse, Power and Resistance in April 2014, draws on my current research, within the national Shakespeare Schools’ Festival programme, exploring emerging issues of autonomy and power. Theatre education projects have been positioned as an emancipatory endeavour, often drawing on the rhetoric of ‘the ensemble’ as a pedagogic approach. Yet, as I will argue here, notions of this approach’s emancipatory potential does not always sit easily within existing normative education structures. Recent education resources, such as the Education Endowment Fund’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit, suggest arts education projects can be understood as finite ‘interventions’ with a known set of outcomes. This, I want to argue, ‘domesticates’ the ensemble, flattening and masking the complexity of this approach. I suggest therefore that an ensemble-based project such as Shakespeare Schools’ Festival could be more usefully seen as a pedagogic space, which is populated, activated and made sense of in a myriad of potential ways by its participants in their particular contexts.

After a Decade: What remains of a kindergarten developmental arts education project?

This article focuses on the long-term impacts and effects of developmental work that began as an arts education project in Helsinki in 2000. Ten years later, five kindergarten leaders were interviewed to gather information about the impacts of the project. The aim was to determine the long-term effects of the project and examine in which ways the impact could still be seen in the daily work in kindergartens. We also explored the reasons and prerequisites for the impacts still showing, and tried to discover which obstacles prevent the ongoing impact of the developmental work.The interviews showed that the sustainability of the impacts was connected to the organizational changes and the longevity of the personnel in the kindergarten. The developmental work could be better taken advantage of when the kindergarten leaders felt the tasks developed in the project were important and offered them new ideas in their pedagogical leadership. A long-lasting developmental project was seen as part of the process of updating education, which confirmed the participants’ consciousness about being a teacher and the nature of the educational practices as well as a reflective manner of working. Participating also increased general developmental skills and interest in other developmental themes.

The Development of Psycho-Didactic Skills within Special Art Education Projects

Abstract The paper presents the possibilities of developing the psychodidactic skills of students participating in a new pedagogical practicum conducted by the Department of Art of Masaryk University in Brno. Special art education (SAE), a program primarily designed for sociallydisadvantaged clients, imposes specific requirements on leading art activities. The students became part of a qualitative research program, which was implemented from 2010 to 2013 and which helped to articulate which psycho-didactic skills each student already had; this was accomplished through the implementation of specific art activities with clients from five participating institutions. The paper presents a part of the results of the research.

Biographies for Artistic and Social Intervention: A Youth-Driven Project

This article discusses how biographical materials may be used in youth arts education projects to develop new methodologies and approaches that can stimulate artistic and social intervention in contemporary urban communities, thus changing the field of arts education policy at the community level. Through their creation of Artistic Society Projects, a group of young people from the arts education project Bando à Parte: Youth Cultures, Arts and Social Inclusion (O Teatrão, Coimbra, Portugal) have created a voice that may be used to transform their own communities. The starting points for this transformation are the young peoples’ biographical paths. The influence of youth on education policy may be strategically understood in the context of formal and nonformal school curricula. How can youth use their biographies to develop specific contributions both to change in individual behaviors and to social change in urban communities, influencing arts education policies to instigate action? The exploration of these processes through the work of artistic creation, inspired by collected biographical materials, represents a contribution to ongoing reflection on the issues of memory, identity, youth resistance, and community change in urban settings, influencing the ways in which arts education policy is understood and implemented.

Does Arts Education Develop School Readiness? Teachers’ and Artists’ Points of View on an Art Education Project

More than 98 percent of children in Finland attend preschool, where different kinds of projects are carried out in order to strengthen the children's abilities. This article focuses on the effects of one arts education project from a school readiness point of view. The main question was, How did the Helsinki arts education project affect the children's learning skills and attitudes? The target groups were children aged three to nine years who participated in the arts project in day care centers and schools. A multidimensional evaluation method was used for the analyses. The research data consisted of interviews of the program artists and educators (n = 23), follow-up reports (n = 9), and other materials. The results show that the program motivated children and aroused their interest in thinking, problem-solving, practicing, and learning. It offered children opportunities to experience success, which increased their self-confidence and skills. The project also strengthened their abilities in listening, goal-oriented work, evaluating others’ work, and receiving feedback, which are all abilities required for school entrance. The subject matter of their school courses was also integrated into their achievements.

Issue of Integrity of Art Education in the Context of Changes in Art and Visual Culture

This article examines a paradigmatic change of contemporary art education in the context of visual culture and focus to the integrity of arts in formal and informal art education. The article is based on an international research “Contemporary art and visual culture in education” which reveals the problematic aspects of contemporary arts and visual culture in education in general. The research method was the discourse analysis of the participants and researchers, who presented the insights in reflective groups and during the interview with teachers and educators.This paper explores how contemporary cultural context and the spread of visual culture provide preconditions for changes in art education. The aim of the article is to analyze theproblems and perspectives of integral arts education in formal and non-formal education: what the educational challenges and opportunities appear in the context of contemporary art and visual culture? How the integral arts could be realized in art education practice in different arts disciplines and areas of education?Contemporary art and visual culture is increasingly multidimensional, the wide range of visual art forms integral with per formative arts, new technologies and media merge the limits between the arts disciplines. That becomes relevant pedagogical problem with the fact that arts education is traditionally allocated to the separate arts subjects such as music, art, theatre, dance, which also can also be divided into separate areas. This subject segregation of the school curriculum and strong subject orientation limits multimodal contemporary arts education. Secondary Education programs provide opportunities for several options of arts education disciplines (photography, cinema art, graphic design, contemporary music technologies), but it needs special resources for the schools and professional teachers. Many schools follow on traditional model of teaching art and still focusing on simple interpretation of modern artworks, different media and technical skills.Contemporary model of teaching integrated arts and visual culture in education is challenging, because it is based on visual literacy and critical thinking skills, it emphasizes inquiry-based education, a critical understanding of contemporary art practices, problem solving and creating new valuable ideas. Knowledge and experiences came from various sources: formal, non-formal, accidental, individual.Great potential for contemporary art education has non-formal art education programs and projects. Successful project-based initiatives in art education have been excellent examples of arts integration.Artists and other creative people involved into a process of education, their collaboration with schools and communities could initiate some interdisciplinary and collaborative practices. Non-formal arts education environment creates more space for creativity, freedom and diversity. Additional arts education programs, museum and gallery education, artistic competitions and international projects allows for the wider development of arts education. Art education in the new age requires changing attitudes towards learning and teaching, changing roles of the educator and new learning environments.

The Discovery of Synesthesia in Childhood

Children with synesthesia often become aware of their unusual perceptions when they find out that not everyone has such sensory experience. How do children become aware of their synesthesia and how can educators facilitate and help them in this process? Self-reports of synesthetes, cognitive theories of development, and a number of specific art education projects on synesthesia in primary schools are discussed in this article and some implications for school education systems are drawn.

Arts education and creativity enhancement in young children in Hong Kong

The present study aimed at assessing Hong Kong young children’s gains in creativity and their teachers’ application of arts education after a one-year artists-teachers collaborative arts education project that involves various art forms (i.e. drama, visual arts and integrated). Participants included 790 young children, 217 parents and 65 teachers in seven kindergartens and nurseries. Measures included the Test for Creative Thinking–Drawing Production, Story-Telling Test (STT), the subscales of parent-rated creativity, communication and motivational characteristics, and the adapted Scale of Application of Arts in the Classroom. Among the three art forms, children in the visual arts group demonstrated highest gains in verbal creativity as evaluated by the STT. Based on parents’ report, there were significant differences in children’s communication characteristics across the three art forms. Significant differences across art forms were also found in teachers’ confidence in teaching arts to 3–4 years old and their perception of arts for arts sake. Both teachers and students take advantage of the professional and artistic input and guidance of practising artists in arts appreciation and production. Implications and limitations were discussed.

Learning Circus Skills in a Day Care Centre: Student Teachers in a Cooperative, Integrative Arts Education Project

The article is a qualitative case study of the integrative arts educational learning process of 11 teacher students during one study project in which they created an integrative and interactive educational project for 1- to 7-year-old day care centre children. The theme of the project was Circus. The qualitative research methods used include analyses, descriptions of observations, discussions with the students, and content analyses of students’ reflective and eval uative writings about the creative learning process. The results show that the cooperative learning method fits very well into integrative and expressive education studies.

Creativity in Artistic Education: Introducing Artists into Primary Schools

AbstractDespite a more prominent role of arts education in the school curriculum, artistic creativity does not occur to a great extent in primary school practice. More opportunities for teachers to strengthen their know‐how in the field of artistic creativity can therefore be considered important. Arts education projects focus on pupils' development of creativity by means of introducing artists with their divergent working methods into primary schools. Beside fostering pupils' creative openness and skills, arts education organisations aim to transfer artistic enthusiasm to teachers in each project. Collaboration with artists can encourage teachers' artistic creative work. New working methods, techniques or ways of experimenting are more likely to be adopted in daily teaching practice when the project duration consists of several years. However, most projects are short‐lived and the means for a long‐term project policy are limited. Consequently, results in the area of sustainable outcomes concerning artistic creative work with teachers are limited. To create a long‐term view, the availability of financial resources is an important condition in order to realise a mentality change towards artistic creativity in education. Finally, continuing debate with several participants about making artistic creative work sustainable remains necessary.

Qualitative Evaluation Processes in Arts Educational Projects

In this article we focus on evaluation processes through an arts education project evaluated using a pluralistic evaluation format. In the project artists worked in kindergartens and schools together with teachers. The essential concepts of pluralistic evaluation form the theoretical framework. The evaluation data included project documents, interviews and the final report of the whole project.The critical points of the project evaluation is building the criteria and making the values behind the evaluation visible and recognized. Good interaction, respect and mutual confidence between the actors make successful evaluation possible. The central questions were the relationship between practice and research and the significance of the value-bound nature of the evaluation processes.

Contemporary art as a resource for learning about human rights: a case study of the use of the Placenta Methodology with hospitalized adolescents

The Placenta Methodology is a critical art education system developed at the Complutense University in Madrid (Spain). This article explores how the Placenta Methodology (Acaso, 2009) can be used to develop educational projects. In this case the authors used this methodology to work with hospitalized teenagers on the topic of human rights, using contemporary art as a medium. In the workshops they aimed to promote a critical perspective to show that art is connected to real life, and to encourage the participants to question the importance of technical training in being a contemporary artist. By placing this kind of art education project in a new environment (in this case the hospital), the authors wanted to promote the role of art education as an intellectual force instead of merely teaching handicrafts.

Emergent Interdisciplinary Art Curriculum: A Constructivist Approach

This presentation reviews emergent studio occasions that suggest how creative, interdisciplinary projects and knowledge from biometrics, nanotechnology, and geography can be integrated into basic design, art education, and art studio projects. In the United States, students from a variety of disciplines take basic design studio courses to fulfill Fine Arts general education requirements. These students often see unique connections between their home disciplines and visual art. By attending to students' perceptions of interdisciplinary relations, art educators can create relevant curriculum for broader populations and by doing so enrich the visual art curriculum. Using this approach, interdisciplinary visual art education can be integrated earlier in students' academic programs. A constructivist strategy for developing this new curriculum is to take note of the connections the students perceive. In education, 21st century academic silos have replaced C. P. Snow's Two Cultures. Academic structures (silos) divide and isolate experience and knowledge to construct and define academic epistemology within a discipline. The academic structures are intended to replicate the disciplines. However, students who are not yet experts in a particular academic area sometimes perceive exciting new areas for exploration.

Success through collaboration: a community-based model for pre-service teachers

This study investigated benefits for pre-service teachers of participating in a community art education project called A Street in Hong Kong. The study was part of a collaborative project involving the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), schools and artists between 2007 and 2008. The data for the study was collected by means of questionnaires, individual and focus group interviews and classroom observation. Feedback was also obtained from the school principals, artists, school art teachers and primary-school pupils. The study found that the pre-service teachers benefited in several ways: they learned ceramic-making skills from the artists they could teach in primary schools and how to design art lessons through teamwork with peers and about classroom teaching from schoolteachers. They also learned how to find resources for community-based art lessons; and to help them organize a group exhibition; and were pleased to receive financial support for the project.

Art as "Connective Aesthetic": Creating Sites for Community Collaboration

This paper discusses a community-based arts education project that develops partnerships between the university and cultural arts organizations. Collaboration is inspired between preservice teachers and multidisciplinary artists by engaging these two groups in the educational process. The author advocates the use of art as a heuristic tool for examining social worlds. She demonstrates how art as "connective aesthetic" creates sites for community collaboration and provides impetus for transformation and social change.

Winter Art Education Project

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to describe how the Department of Art Education at the University of Lapland in Finland has developed winter art as a method of environmental and community‐based art education. I will focus on the Snow Show Winter Art Education Project, a training project funded by the European Union and the State Provincial Office of Lapland. The general aim of the project was to increase the know‐how of winter art in Northern Finland. This goal was put into practice through workshops on snow construction, documentation of winter art, winter‐oriented media production, and snow and ice sculpting; through continuing education seminars, workshops, and school projects for teachers; and through public lectures and seminars on winter and winter art. In this article, I describe the challenges that winter offers to community and environment‐based art education in the North. Further, I introduce the methods of implementation and the outcomes of winter art exercises carried out by several schools in Lapland in cooperation with and inspired by the Snow Show Winter Art Education Project.

Searching for Dialogue in Dance Education: A Teacher's Story

In this article, based on my dissertation, “A Dream Journey to the Unknown: Searching for Dialogue in Dance Education” (2003), I will describe several qualities, or themes, related to dialogue. These ideas may facilitate dialogue in dance education and bear significance for reflecting the nature of dialogical education more generally. In addition, my intent is to uncover the personal nature of my search for dialogue. Before describing the themes, I briefly outline the research process.The process began in 1997 when I was invited to take part in an art education project that was situated in an elementary school in Helsinki, Finland. I was aware that I was about to turn back to something that I thought I had already left behind. I had recently completed another study concerning my own dance teaching practice (1996). I had joined the so-called teacher research movement with a desire to understand the dynamics of the teaching and learning situation in the context of dance from an experiential point of view.