International Journal of Education Through Art - Volume 9, Issue 1, 2013

Studies in the field of education in general, and in art education in particular, point to the contribution of critical pedagogy to the identity empowerment of pupils from an underprivileged socio-class background. Most of the studies conducted so far have examined in detail the theoretical–ideological characteristics of the critical praxis in education, but little attention has been given to the ways in which it operates in practice as part of the learning process in class. This article focuses on the meanings given by pupils from one art class in an underprivileged high school to the critical praxis, and on the ways in which they understood their identity and their social position in light of it. The study is part of an ethnographic field work that took place in the class over an entire school year. This included participant observations in 25 lessons and in-depth interviews with eight leading pupils. The findings suggest that the pupils tended to reject typical critical pedagogical practices that sought to empower them – adopting hegemonic creative tools (the master’s tools) and high-lighting peripheral narratives (ascribing a voice to the subaltern) – this on account of seeing them as reflecting and replicating their underprivileged condition. These objections suggest that critical pedagogy works in differential and unpredictable ways in underprivileged ethno-class contexts, which put its universal ideological assumptions to the test.

Participants were empowered through their engagement in the process of two recent separate community art research projects that highlighted the benefits of dialogue in art-making and increased participation as facilitators ceded authority to participants. Both projects used ethnography and narrative methods. The participants were senior women of Chinese heritage in Western Canada who could not fluently speak Canada’s dominant languages and some could not read or write in any language. Their involvement focused around issues of culture, language and storytelling. Reflecting on the projects suggested new avenues of research to learn more distinctly about such empowerment, and facilitated our personal creative work. Based on this learning, we continue to develop new initiatives for the education of pre-service teachers that will involve possibilities for transformation and the counter-hegemonic. Dialogue benefits art-making, and the possibilities for participation in creative community education projects are increased when planners surrender power to participants.

Using the metaphor of the ‘lost and found’, I will explore the curricular and pedagogical space of the arts in the elementary classroom and address implications for teacher education. The lost and found – a space where found items are kept for reclaiming by their owners – can help provide insight into the complexities and uncertainties of integrating the arts into the general elementary classroom. This article is based on findings from a qualitative study that attempted to understand arts integration and what is truly happening with the arts in elementary classrooms.

This article examines the Karlín School in Prague as a work of educational art. Built between 1904 and 1906 the school appeared like a modern learning palace and was adorned externally with four large scale murals and a range of sculptural works that taught not just the children studying in the school but also the local citizens about the value of art in education. As much as the monumental artwork combined with the architecture of the school was about sensibility to beauty and quality, it was also pedagogical, historical, highly politicized and ideological. The nature of these multiple signs of the artwork is analysed here, and considered within the contexts of national awakenings (particularly that of the Czechs in the early twentieth century) as well as the rise of teaching through art that Bohemia (through Comenius) had done so much to instigate.

Visual arts education can be an important and powerful field of learning for children. This article explores interrelations between the study of artworks and the development of creativity in children’s thinking and art-making. Starting from the premise that engagement with artworks does not automatically release children’s imaginative capacities, the article discusses how an aesthetic mode of enquiry can support children’s artviewing and enable the development of possibility thinking; the ability to make connections, to think differently and envisage new possibilities. Aesthetic enquiry can enable children to actively engage in taking their ideas further, exploring options and employing critical reflection. Providing children with opportunities to materialize their ideas after viewing an artwork, set the prerequisitions for innovative solutions and the development of creativity. These interrelations between artviewing and art-making are argued theoretically and explored empirically through a small scale exploratory study with 7–8 year olds.

The aim of this article is to highlight the experiences from a research project that studied the use of multimodal forms in degree projects. A visual representation and a written report were presented. Phenomena that occurred in the process are discussed. The article focuses on parts that were conducted in the field of Art Education and uses, by way of example, two degree projects, both of which had disabilities and the inclusion of the disabled as their theme. Participants chose a museum to exhibit their finished projects, to share ideas with the community, and to inspire the industry of pedagogy. The study looked especially at design theory and a socio-cultural view of learning; further, research into visual literacy, media literacy and media reception was used. Using the results, I describe various aspects of tutoring, thesis presentation in a public venue, and the significance of feedback from a student perspective

Syftet med denna artikel är att belysa erfarenheter från ett forskningsprojekt som studerat användningen av multimodala former i examensarbeten. En visuell representation och en skriftlig rapport presenterades. Fenomen som inträffade i processen diskuterades. Artikeln fokuserar på en delstudie genomförd inom ämnet bild och använder som exempel, två examensarbeten där funktionshinder och integration av funktionshindrade varit tema. Ett museum valdes för att visa upp de färdiga projekten, utbyta pedagogiska idéer med det omgivande samhället, och för att inspirera branschen. Studien relaterade särskilt till designteori och en sociokulturell syn på lärande, vidare användes forskning om ´visual literacy´, mediekunskap och mediereception. Utifrån resultaten beskrivs olika aspekter av handledning, presentation av examensarbete på en offentlig plats och betydelsen av återkoppling (feedback) - diskuterade ur ett studentperspektiv.

This is a short account of my own particular experience teaching a studio-based art course in America. It compares my experience there with my more common practice of teaching art in a Scottish university. Both institutions have their pluses and minuses when compared with one another, and this essay is intended only to provoke further discussion rather than present any conclusions about national pedagogies.

This is the story of ‘Street Water Project’, which took place in the neighbourhood of Santo Antônio, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, between November 2010 and July 2011. The activities consisted of art and environment workshops in schools and poetic interventions in public spaces designed to raise awareness of the population regarding the water sources that supply the city.

Esta é a história do projeto Água da Rua, realizado no Bairro Santo Antônio, na cidade de Belo Horizonte, Brasil, entre novembro de 2010 e julho de 2011. Tendo como objetivo conscientizar a população sobre os recursos hídricos que abastecem a cidade, o projeto promoveu oficinas de arte e de educação ambiental em escolas e organizou intervenções poéticas em espaços públicos.

The metaphor of research as a practice-led journey and art making as a catalyst in the research process is the focus of this visual essay. Using a multi-method researchdesign, which combined qualitative and arts-based methods, relationships, patterns, and meanings in the data were examined and clarifiedto explore how students and teachers in alternative high school settings characterize art education. This visual essay includes a selection of these art works to illustrate the research process.

AWAKENING CREATIVITY: DANDELION SCHOOL BLOSSOMS, LILY YEH (2011) Oakland, CA: New Village Press, 208 pp., ISBN:-13 978-0-9815593-7-7, h/bk, US$ 34.95

THE GLOBAL RECEPTION OF JOHN DEWEY’S THOUGHT: MULTIPLE REFLECTIONS THROUGH TIME AND SPACE, ROSA BRUNO-JOFRE AND JURGEN SCHRIEWER (EDS) 2011 London and New York: Routledge, 272 pp., ISBN: 9789415898881, h/bk, £80

THE CONFLICT OF THE FACULTIES: PERSPECTIVES ON ARTISTIC RESEARCH AND ACADEMIA, HENK BORGDORFF (2012) Leiden: Leiden University Press, 176 pp., ISBN: 978 90 8728 167 0, h/bk, 49.95; £39.95