Virgin in the art classroom: Finnish pre-service teachers reconfiguring devotional images

The purpose of this article is to present art education projects at the University of Eastern Finland that have applied phenomenon-based approach to learning. Phenomenon-based pedagogy (learning by topics) serves as the founding principle for the current national core curriculum for basic education in Finland. With two Virgin Mary images as a source of inspiration, the art projects aimed at encouraging Finnish pre-service teachers to engage with and critically reflect upon the ways that different religious cultures encode their values and belief systems through the images they idolize. The article suggests that pre-service teachers, while generally openminded and interested in knowing more about other cultures, simultaneously tend to reaffirm conventional national narratives and values through their artworks and essays. The topic is controversial but should not be excluded from art education since in increasingly multicultural societies like Finland, teachers need a better understanding of religious visual practices and their diverse meanings. The art projects show an example of how phenomenon-based art education can respond to this need by enriching students’ learning experiences across cultural differences and disciplinary borders.