‘You can always see it from a different angle’ — Art as Resistance

In this article, taking three selected works by the Danish artist Julie Nord as my point of departure, I will analyse and discuss the role of art in educational theory and practice. In this analysis and discussion I present two concepts, ‘resistance’ and ‘undecidability’, which are rooted in the theories of Dutch professor of education and director of research Gert Biesta and the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, respectively. The two concepts are used to analyse the three works of art and then come to grips with the empirical part of the study. The empirical part explores how a Danish fifth‐grade class (ages 11–12) interacts with works of art characterised by these very things, resistance and undecidability. The point the article makes is that it is not always what is easy and unambiguous that offers the best conditions for learning and gives school pupils a desire to learn. Rather it is often what is full of resistance and is difficult to decipher and understand.     

From Obstacle to Growth Dewey's Legacy of Experience‐Based Art Education

In the last decades theories that emphasise visitors’experience as the key element in the process of meaning‐making have influenced art education in museums considerably. However, there is remarkably little evidence in practice that museums shape their exhibits and educational tools by the actual experiences of visitors. Because museum education is still too much knowledge‐based, people often do not come to understanding or engagement of thinking. This article demonstrates this inconsistency and its consequences based on visitors’conversations during a museum visit while looking at contemporary art. In order to engage visitors into their own thinking and create lasting experiences, the article also investigates Dewey's ideas about experienced‐based education and inquiry learning. The study especially shows that experiences felt as obstacles for interpretation are extremely suitable to stimulate, deepen and improve visitors’engagement in the inquiry cycle.     

Investigating the Impact of Contrasting Paradigms of Knowledge on the Emancipatory Aims of Gallery Programmes for Young People

Within an emerging philosophy of contemporary gallery education, new pedagogies are required to meet the demands of looking at art, with increasingly varied constituent groups. Strategies that aim to empower young learners come from an ideological framework in which knowledge is negotiated and local significances are produced conversationally by learners and facilitators. Tension exists between the ideological position and the role of the gallery as ‘expert’: this conflict creates ambivalence towards the learner. The discourse of the ‘expert’ and the discourse of ‘local negotiation’ employ different pedagogic strategies, creating tension in the ways in which knowledge is reproduced for the visitor and participant. This article explores interrogatory pilot work with young people at Tate Modern. I use a hermeneutical approach to explore the interpretive roles of facilitator and participant when language‐based strategies are used to look at art. This research aims to construct a pedagogy that enables young people to learn about art in ways that take account of their situation as learners.     

Older People Learning through Contemporary Visual Art – Engagement and Barriers

This article addresses how older people understand and engage with contemporary art in the gallery context – whether there is something unique to the art, the format of the visits, the pedagogical approaches used by gallery educators, the social contact, or a combination of all these factors. It also addresses the psychosocial barriers to engagement. It draws from ‘Contemporary visual art and identity construction – wellbeing amongst older people’, a two‐year research project funded by the cross‐research council New Dynamic of Ageing Programme. Over 21 months, 43 participants aged 60–92 made three visits to contemporary art galleries in north‐east England. The potential for art galleries to develop lifelong learning opportunities for post‐retirement people has implications for the cultural, health and voluntary sector.     

Drawing out the value of the visual: children and young people theorizing time through art and narrative

This article examines the role that drawing can play in enabling children and young people to theorize concepts of time. In two, independent Australian research projects, children aged between 5 and 8 years were asked to respond to the question, ‘What might the future be like?’, while 12–14 year olds were asked, ‘What does history look like?’ There are points of connection and convergence in the analysis of the drawings and the ways in which the children articulate their visual representations of temporality to demonstrate deep and philosophical insights. This research illuminates possibilities for both the value of art practices in learning and the capacity for such approaches in schools. It disrupts narrow visions of neoliberal policy that privileges the teaching of literacy and numeracy in schools and seeks to transform children and youth into particular citizens for the future. We argue that expanding our view of the use and value of visual forms of learning and expression can contribute to a more layered and complex understanding of the capacities of children and young people. Further, this research contributes to better understanding of how students navigate challenging local curriculum and school terrain as they are increasingly posited as global citizens.     

Learning to Be: The Modelling of Art and Design Practice in University Art and Design Teaching

Learning to be an artist or designer is a complex process of becoming. Much of the early phase of ‘learning to be’ occurs during the time emerging artists and designers are students in university art/design programmes, both undergraduate and postgraduate. Recent research reveals that a critical role in assisting students in their maturing identities as artists and designers is played by artist/designer‐academics teaching in university art and design programmes. By maintaining active art/design practices and drawing from these in their teaching, artist/designer‐academics model professional practice to students. Witnessing and interacting with such modelling is part of the process of students learning the shared discourses, views and practices of the art or design worlds to which they aspire to belong. The modelling of professional practice is critical to an artist or designer's ‘learning to be’ experience because it enables students to access the tacit and nuanced behaviours, languages and cultures that constitute contemporary art or design practice. This article outlines findings from a recent Australian study revealing the role of professional practice modelling in university art/design teaching. It highlights the centrality of professional practice modelling to artist/designer‐academics in their beliefs and approaches to teaching their academic disciplines. In critically exploring the research data and findings this article describes the role that modelling of practice plays and how it comprises a core part of the value that artist/designer‐academic participants contribute to the teaching of art/design education.     

Recognition,inclusion and democracy: learning from action research with young people

ABSTRACT

This paper draws upon learning from three action research projects conducted as part of a Europe-wide project exploring young people’s social and political participation. Challenging dominant discourses about what ‘counts’ as participation and what does not, the paper explores how, through the action research projects, young people engaged in knowledge democracy in ‘new democratic arenas’. Building upon experiential knowing and creating knowledge and learning through practice, the young people explored their own democratic knowledge production, communication and engagement within a context of shifting discourses of participation, democratic engagement and active citizenship. The increasing preference of young people for more informal forms of participation as lived practice reflects a shift to young people constructing their own modes of participation and ‘remaking democracy’ in their own vision and according to their own needs. By working outside of the confines of normative assumptions of democratic practice and participation, young people exercised their own ‘political’ agency in response to their own priorities, interests and concerns and, in doing so, illustrated that new forms, understandings and practices of knowledge democracy can emerge that reflect the promise of inclusive democratic societies more meaningfully.     

Pedagogies for the ‘Dis‐engaged’: Diverse Experiences of the Young People’s Arts Award Programme

Art education is often praised for its engaging programmes and inclusive pedagogies, with many initiatives created with the intention of widening access for those who are deemed to be lacking. This article investigates one such programme – the young people’s Arts Award, which is a nationally recognised qualification for young people aged 11–25. I call upon a range of pedagogies in order to critique the Arts Award within the context of informal and alternative education settings in the United Kingdom. Drawing on a 12‐month ethnographic study, the research was conducted across five diverse programmes which included youth work projects and alternative provision. I present two cases – ‘learning to be an artist’ and ‘learning to behave’ – which demonstrate a hierarchy of pedagogy in the application of this programme across these particular contexts. Artists’ Signature Pedagogies are used as an analytical framework to explore the affordances of working with artists through the programme. Further, I engage with the Pedagogy of Poverty to demonstrate that young people who were classified as ‘dis‐engaged’ were more likely to receive lower quality programmes, low‐level work and over‐regulated teaching. I argue that despite changes to the ways that young people access art education, there continues to be unequal opportunities. This finding is significant for not only creative practitioners and youth arts workers, but also arts education policy makers and programmers.     

‘But when are they going to produce some artwork?’ Against Pastiche: Issue‐Based Art and Authorship within the Key Stage 3 Curriculum

Ideas and issues based contemporary art is often seen as something to be avoided in schools, as the controversial subjects that it broaches are often perceived as problematic and inappropriate. However, by censoring education, it can be seen that educators are missing vital opportunities to confront the relevant personal, social, political and cultural issues that shape young peoples' lives in our postmodern, contemporary society. This article reflects on the experiences of an artist/teacher gained through the Recreating Landscapes (Illuminate Project), which aimed to utilise LeWitt's concept of the ideas ‘machine’ to broaden the way that Key Stage 3 art is taught and explore student voice. The construct of the teacher as giver of knowledge was challenged, informed by Barthes' work on the deconstruction of the modernist concept of Authorship. Issues were derived from a pupil voice workshop and the ownership of response to this stimulus belonged to the students. The aim was to challenge mimetic, technical achievement often favoured in ‘traditional’ school art pedagogy, allowing ideas and discussion to be the lynchpin, shifting away from the emphasis commonly placed on outcomes. Through this practice it was hoped that the ‘landscape’ of the learning environment would be recreated: a discursive setting where issues perceived as ‘challenging’ could be broached in a supportive environment, enabled by a reconsidered, culturally relevant pedagogy.     

A Stitch in Time: Gender Issues Explored through Contemporary Textiles Practice in a Sixth Form College

This article discusses, contextualises and locates in contemporary theory, an autobiographical case study of an artist‐teacher in the ‘learning community’ of a Sixth Form College art department. It reflects on the educational potential of enabling teachers of art and their students to investigate issues of culture and identity through engaging with contemporary art practice. It seeks to explore the extent to which exposure to contemporary art practices (and in the second year sixth form, textiles‐based, cases discussed) creates a more conceptual approach to student project work, which can act as a catalyst to develop students' understanding of issues‐based practice. The discussion of the selected pieces is located within a feminist paradigm that foregrounds the body and gender theories. This article elucidates how a conceptual approach to working, as opposed to a more traditional skills‐based approach, can act as a vehicle for moving students towards becoming self‐motivated artists and, in the case studies described, take their practice beyond that which is normally achieved within the constraints of timed, exam‐based work.     

Learning as peripheral participation in communities of practice: a reassessment of key concepts in workplace learning

This article explores the strengths and weaknesses of Lave and Wenger's concept of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ as a means of understanding workplace learning. It draws on recent ESRC‐funded research by the authors in contemporary workplace settings in the UK (manufacturing industry and secondary schools) to establish the extent to which Lave and Wenger's theories can adequately illuminate the nature and process of learning at work. The new research presented here, which was located in complex institutional settings, highlights the diverse nature of patterns and forms of participation. Case study evidence is used to identify individual and contextual factors which underpin and illuminate the ways in which employees learn. The paper argues that whilst Lave and Wenger's work continues to provide an important source of theoretical insight and inspiration for research in to learning at work, it has significant limitations. These limitations relate to the application of their perspective to contemporary workplaces in advanced industrial societies and to the institutional environments in which people work. These complex settings play a crucial role in the configuration of opportunities and barriers to learning that employees encounter.     

Art Education and the Moral Injunction to be Oneself

A primary function of schooling is to impart moral discipline, and art education distills this role to its core imperative of mandated pleasure, summarised by Jacques Lacan as the ‘will to enjoy’. This manifests in the insistence that, despite producing similar outcomes, students come to recognise themselves as unique and creative. In the twentieth century, art education in the USA has developed methods for extracting supposedly intimate personal expressions from young people, albeit without demanding the technical versatility, historical knowledge and critical reflection required of mature artists – the exception to this, despite its many flaws, being so‐called Discipline‐Based Art Education, or DBAE. In this article, I begin with reflections on the untapped potential of DBAE to relate to contemporary art practices. My ideas on moral instruction are expanded upon in the second section, when I undertake a ‘backwards’ history of British and American art education, in which the ideal of art class as a site of intrinsic and authentic meaning‐making is challenged by the functional requirements of education. My last section takes up a critique of critical pedagogy, in which I use the example of a project my high school students did about Michael Jackson to challenge ways in which trauma and pleasure are seen by critical pedagogues as features of experience that conflict fatally with the educational ends of individualist autonomy.     

Becoming numerate with information and communications technologies in the twenty‐first century

This article draws on data from a three‐year Australian Research Council‐funded study that examined the ways in which young children become numerate in the twenty‐first century. We were interested in the authentic problem‐solving contexts that we believe are required to create meaningful learning. This being so, our basic tenet was that such experiences should involve the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) where relevant, but not in tokenistic ways. This article highlights learning conditions in which young children can become numerate in contemporary times. We consider ‘academic’ or ‘school‐based’ mathematical tasks in the context of a Mathematical Tasks Continuum. This continuum was conceptualised to enable focused and detailed thinking about the scope and range of mathematical tasks that young children are able to engage within contemporary school contexts. The data from this study show that most of the tasks the children experienced in early years mathematics classes were unidimensional in their make up. That is, they focus on the acquisition of specific skills and then they are practiced in disembedded contexts. We suggest that the framework created in the form of the Mathematical Tasks Continuum can facilitate teachers’ thinking about the possible ways in which they could extend children’s academic work in primary school mathematics, so that the process of becoming numerate becomes more easily related to authentic activities that they are likely to experience in everyday life.     

Developing ‘active citizens’: Arts Award,creativity and impact

Creativity has become the new watchword in UK academic and policy circles. Within this context, policy discussions about the arts and their impact emphasise economic benefits over educational value, drawing clear distinctions between quantifiable or ‘hard’ measures of impact and those described as ‘soft’, less tangible and lacking a strong evidence base. Departing from the binary logics often underpinning notions of arts impacts, this article is novel in exploring the entwined relationship between impacts seen as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’. We draw on research examining the links between arts education and young people's future trajectories and use the concept of ‘active citizenship’ to show how informal, softer skills fostered through creative learning are an important part of citizenship-making for some young people. Participants’ accounts show how improvements in soft skills can give young people opportunities for agency, which shape progression pathways leading to measurable change. This finding is directly relevant in the context of evaluations of arts impacts in the UK and abroad, and should encourage further examination of the impact of creative learning on transfer of skills as well as policy developments in this area.     

‘Snitches get stitches’: School-specific barriers to victim disclosure and peer reporting of sexual harm committed by young people in school contexts

BackgroundSchool based, peer-to-peer sexual harm is under-researched despite its prevalence and adverse effects on young people across the globe. Understanding barriers to victim disclosure and peer reporting might help towards the prevention and protection of young people.ObjectiveThis study explores dual perspectives of young people and educational staff about school-specific environmental barriers to 1) young people’s disclosure of sexual harm experienced, and 2) young people’s reporting of sexual harm on behalf of others.Participants and setting: Participants include 59 young people aged 13–21 and 58 educational staff, drawn from seven schools across four local authorities in England whom formed part of a wider study on harmful sexual behavior and safety in schools.MethodsFocus groups were carried out with young people and education staff. The sessions were thematically analysed and focused on barriers to disclosure within the school context.ResultsPeer groups set powerful ‘rules’ that influence the ability and willingness of young people to report sexual harm. Some school responses for addressing sexual harm are sub-optimal and sexual harm is not adequately prioritised. Some schools appear to struggle to manage more subtle forms of sexual harm compared with more recognized forms of violence and abuse. A significant proportion of sexual harm is so prevalent that it is ‘normalised’, and therefore under-reported. This resigned acceptance to sexual harm consequently shapes young people’s disclosures.ConclusionsSchool systems of responding to sexual harm require strengthening to increase feelings of safety and empowerment of young people.     

An ecological analysis of the dynamics of localities: a 14+ low opportunity progression equilibrium in action

This article uses a multi-level ecological model to explore the dynamics of localities in England and their effects on the 14+ participation, progression and transition (14+ PPT) of young people at a time when nationally and internationally there is a recognition that transitions from education to employment are both more complex and take longer. Drawing on major research programmes, national enquiries and local studies, the article further develops the concept of a ‘local learning ecologies’ (LLEs) that represent localities in the physical, economic and social senses and that function as part of a multi-level ecological framework or system. The article exemplifies this concept by using qualitative research from one local study to provide insights into an LLE that shows characteristics of a ‘low opportunity progression equilibrium’. The authors conclude by reflecting on international examples of skills ecosystems and suggest that expansive forms of local partnership and ecological governance can be used to begin to move LLEs towards ‘high opportunity progression ecosystems’. However, they argue that because of the power of macro factors and the need to support equity and sustainability, these new forms of local networking will have to be nurtured by sympathetic national action.     

The power of positional competition and market mechanism: a case study of recent parental choice development in China

This article draws on data collected during a pilot study conducted in two west London schools exploring young people’s understandings of success. It considers ways in which ‘discourses of success’, as part of New Labour’s project of re‐inventing schooling, may shape young people’s subjectivity. The article examines articulations between New Labour policy and aspects of social difference and how these structure new identifications with success. In particular, the article explores how class, gender and ethnicity shape discourses of success and how they are implicated in their distribution. In conclusion, the article indicates how current education policy (particularly in relation to educational success) articulates the ‘public’ domain with dimensions of the ‘private’ self and suggests that understanding this is vital in the pursuit of social justice.     

‘The one that got away’: how angling as a culture of practice manifests in the teaching and learning relationship within angling-based intervention programmes

In recent years a professional sector has emerged within the UK delivering angling-based intervention programmes targeted at young people ‘disengaged’ with education. These coaches bring with them an angling cultural background, which influences their interactions with young people as ‘novices’, emerging in ‘angler talk’ that accompanies waterside coaching. We argue that young people's exposure to ‘angler talk’ amounts to a cultural apprenticeship, socialising young people into an experience-based learning community. Through angler anecdotes and waterside banter young people are encouraged to be active participants in an egalitarian system of knowledge exchange that is particularly appealing for working with disaffected young people. By identifying how angling as a community of practice manifests in the teaching and learning relationship, we demonstrate the benefit of ethnographic approaches for appreciating the subtle cultural influences at work in skill-based intervention programmes.     

Risky choices: the dilemmas of introducing contemporary art practices into schools

Contemporary art is a popular feature of the cultural landscape in the United Kingdom, and recent research has recommended introducing its practices into state education. Yet these practices are still rare in schools, and this paper argues that the many difficulties that arise from attempts to introduce them are indicative of their socially contingent character, which threatens to disrupt the ideological underpinnings of orthodox school practices. The school art projects ‘Room 13’ and ‘Teaching through contemporary art’ are used as prominent examples of contemporary art practices that support a relatively high degree of learner autonomy within state education, yet are situated outside of government initiatives. Through these projects the paper explores the dilemmas that the participants face, which include questions of learner agency, choice and creative risk, and the effects of regulatory assessment systems upon collaboration, experiment, play and ephemeral learning outcomes. The paper concludes by examining the possibilities of encouraging these more ‘risky’ contemporary practices in schools.     

Teaching Now with the Living: A Dialogue with Teachers Investigating Contemporary Art Practices

The Education Departments of Tate Modern and Goldsmiths College collaborated with a group of teachers to find out what they understood by the term ‘contemporary art’ and to discover the conditions that enable contemporary art practices in the classroom. We explored questions with eleven teachers, from both primary and secondary schools, during the Autumn of 2004. Although the cultural/ethnic context of the schools the teachers worked within was diverse, they shared a commitment to working with contemporary art in the classroom and exploring new pedagogies in this field. Their engagement with contemporary art and their revealing and compelling experiences are documented, contextualized and summarized. Samples of the discussions form the substance of this article. This is preceded by an analysis of the success of socially‐orientated contemporary art in the wider global context and its contrast with the omission of these practices in many schools. Conclusions have been tentatively drawn about how the curriculum may be better served by the use of contemporary art, as well as the means by which new learning methods may be facilitated.