A Participatory Social A/r/tography: Bodies and Houses Metamorphosing from Schools in Tegucigalpa to a Liverpool Tate Exchange Event

Social a/r/tography combines three dimensions of a/r/tography (artistic creation, education and research) incorporating a fourth collaborative, participatory community‐based approach. This ongoing project began in two primary and secondary schools located in the slums of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, as cooperative action for curricular development in art education. As participatory action, students created a mural drawing inspired by Sol Lewitt's wall drawings, as well as photo pairs on the theme of body and nature inspired by a lithograph by Uta Barth. The drawings and photographs created by the students in Honduras were presented at an event in the Exchange space of the Tate gallery in Liverpool as visual provocation for the creation of drawings and visual metaphors. The concept of visual dialogue, which we define as ‘to teach human beings to have visual conversations with other humans through the visual content of images’, helps us to consider images as questions which are answered with new images whose meaning is subsequently transformed in function of artistic, school and social contexts.     

Walking Propositions: Coming to Know A/r/tographically

This article explores walking as a form of inquiry within a study group at The University of British Columbia committed to a/r/tography. Three propositions are explored and as a result we think more deeply about being present, truly present, to that which we never anticipated. The first proposition, ‘Go for a walk outside, find an object and do something with it’, leads us to think more deeply about being present to possibility: kicking the rock. The second proposition, ‘Walk around your neighbourhood with another. When you find unfamiliar ground, pause, and ground yourself’, leads us to appreciating being present in‐between place and relationality. The third proposition, ‘Follow one another in a line without stopping or speaking’, invites us to explore being present to interiority. Walking in response to these propositions and coming to think deeply about the impact of being present to presence, became important to us as a community of a/r/tographers.     

Becoming Teacher: A/r/tographical Inquiry and Visualising Metaphor

A great deal has been written about the representational use of metaphor to understand teacher candidates’/new teachers’ conceptions of teacher practice. This article will discuss recent research that explored secondary visual art teacher candidates’/new teachers’ visualising of visual metaphors to provoke their a/r/tographical inquiry into their perceptions of practice. This article engages with the Deleuzian conception becoming as well as the ontology of difference to provoke the reimagination of metaphor in research. We offer new understandings about visualising the visual in research and the methodological implications of relational research practices.     

Arts‐Based Educational Research in Museums: ‘Art for Learning Art’, an A/r/tographic Mediation

This article discusses forms of arts‐based mediation in museums that use creation as the primary tool in the learning process. We present four mediation experiences based on the arts‐based teaching methodologies promoted by the project ‘Art for Learning Art’. These experiences have been developed in four museums: the Centre Pompidou Málaga, the State Russian Museum in Málaga and the Espai d'Art Contemponeo [Center of contemporary art] in Castellón in Spain and the Modern Art Murilo Mendes Museum of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Four experiences in three cities of two countries that work in a methodology which involves participative and collaborative visitor connections with the works exhibited using arts‐based strategies. In all cases, the artistic works of the exhibitions are the conceptual basis for mediation proposals that are offered to the public in order to encourage participation. We link the aesthetic experience as the origin of the mediation process in two fundamental aspects: creation and appreciation. In the act of creative appreciation, most art education objectives are met. The actions and processes are directed by collaborative and contemporary creation strategies around two axes: museum educator‐artists in training and visitors‐artists as learners. In the four experiences that we present here, this confluence takes place. The four events have been adapted to the conditions of the place, public and art exhibitions, contributing new approaches to the model that has been promoted from the University of Granada since 2013.     

Engaging Latino/a Students in the Secondary English Classroom: A Step Toward Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Behavior issues in the classroom directly relate to the teaching style and the type of interactions between the teacher and students. In particular, Latino/a students need to be engaged in the curriculum content if they are to be successful, both academically and emotionally. If this does not occur, then behavioral issues will arise, which will then feed into the school-to-prison pipeline theory.     

Tending School: A Forum on the Experiences of Refugee and Immigrant Students in the United States System

This article contributes to the investigation of refugee and immigrant education. As one part of a comprehensive qualitative study, it showcases the school experiences of three students: Quincy, a refugee from Afghanistan who came to the United States at age thirteen; Emily, an immigrant from Poland who arrived at age six; and Maung, a political refugee from Burma who arrived at age eighteen. The school experiences of these students mirror those of many children who come from countries and communities outside the dominant culture of the United States.The framework of investigation is based on the notion that school life for minority children, in this case, refugee and immigrant students, can be examined from a critical and political perspective; that is, contextualized socially, economically, and politically (Apple, 1990). Students who are not grounded in the mainstream culture struggle to get along in school settings that are institutionalized according to the moral, social, and cultural dimensions of society. Critical theorists contend that student voice can become an organizing force to negotiate and construct multiple interpretations of school life within the reality of institutionalized ways of being in school. In this study, a focus on finding and developing student voice offers the possibility of passages between private and public (Miller, 1990) to permit the sharing and envisioning of multiple interpretations of school life for students and for those with whom they interact with in school settings.     

Motivating and/or de-motivating environments to do action research: the case of teachers of English as a foreign language in Ethiopian universities

This study intended to investigate the motivating and/or de-motivating environments for teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) to conduct action research. Data were generated through a questionnaire, interviews, and focus group discussions. The results showed that there were both motivating and de-motivating factors. The motivating factors were more extrinsic and insignificant, and emanated from impediments which, with the scantily available opportunities, triggered few EFL teachers to be vigilant of their professional practices. On the other hand, the de-motivating factors were pervasive, stemmed from different sources, and ranged from policy to practice, from internal to external, and from individual to institutional – requiring empowerment of EFL teachers and shortening of bureaucratic journeys for endorsing research fund requests. The teachers should also bear proper attitude and commitment, and take initiatives to enhance their practical skills and to deliberate with pertinent stakeholders on creating a favorable environment to conduct action research for the betterment of themselves and their practices.