Learning How to Learn,Art Education and the ‘Background’

This paper describes the conditions that make learning how to learn in art possible. Rather than privileging risk-taking or the playfulness of primary process thinking, I will use a Wittgensteinian understanding of mind to argue against this approach in favour of one that raises students’ awareness of the cultural and cognitive ‘backgrounds’ (forms of life and language games) against which our individual actions and risks are framed and understood. Instead of building art education on a metaphysical view of the self, this paper will advocate a social constructivist approach to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to create a cognitive map for ‘the background’ of art. When these three are practised in a mutual way they connect individual minds to the resources or mind of culture which, in turn, makes lifelong learning possible, reclaiming the idea of art-for-life’s sake.     

To be or not to be ‘a disabled student’ in higher education: the case of a postgraduate ‘non‐declaring’ (disabled) student

This paper draws on data from a research project that was funded by the UK's Higher Education Academy. The project focused on the experiences of disabled students in one English higher education institution, and a key feature of the project was to attempt to access the perspectives of ‘non‐declaring’ disabled students. This paper draws on the experiences of one of the ‘non‐declaring’ respondents, Anna, a postgraduate student. In the UK, some students declare their disabled status on entry to a higher education institution, some do so once at the institution and some never let the institution know of their impairment. It is the perspectives of this latter group that are particularly difficult to access. Anna's experiences as a postgraduate student provide some insight into what may affect decisions about declaration of impairment. Drawing on a social‐relational understanding of disability, factors that influenced her decision not to ‘declare’ and the consequent effect on her experience of higher education are explored.     

Could ‘Criteria’ used in Quality Assessments be Classified as Academic Standards?

The Higher Education Funding Council for England was given responsibility by the government of the day for assessing the quality of higher education institutions in England. It decided to make subject areas the focus of these quality assessments, within an objectives-based approach to assessment. Assessments are made by peer subject assessors during visits to institutions. The report postulates that criteria'other'than the aims and objectives of the institutions and subjects areas were used in the assessments. An analysis was done of reports of the assessments done in 1993–94. The study identifies which criteria were used and argues that these could be labelled as academic standards.     

‘That Tricky Subject’: The Integration of Contextual Studies in pre‐Degree Art and Design Education

Contextual studies (CS), ‘theory’, ‘visual culture’ or ‘art history’ (amongst other labels) refer to a regular and often compulsory feature in art and design education. However, this takes many forms and can sit in a variety of relationships with the practical elements of such courses. This article is based on mixed method research on CS in the BTEC Extended Diploma in Art and Design, a course that makes up a substantial proportion of pre‐degree provision in the UK. We describe aspects of the wider study then draw on two cases to illustrate and discuss the implications of different approaches to the curriculum and its integration. Our analysis suggests that a seemingly progressive flight from a discrete CS towards a designed form of integration can have unintended negative consequences, and in the light of this we suggest some ways in which course teams might reflect on their practices.     

‘Females Don’t Need to be Reluctant’: Employing Design Thinking to Harness Creative Confidence and Interest in STEAM

There is great gender gap in mathematics and science among countries around the world, but the gender gap is one of the largest in Japan. In order to address this issue, we evaluated an educational intervention to empower the next generation of female youths by employing design thinking to ignite their interests in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) fields. In this article, we explain the rationale for the intervention, describe the unique three‐day curriculum employing design thinking, and share the results from the intervention. There are four key findings of our study. After participating in the workshop, the middle school female students showed greater interest in STEAM fields, demonstrated increased levels of creative confidence, cultivated a greater sense of empathy for others, and exhibited greater appreciation for collaboration. This study highlights the possibilities and opportunities for using design thinking to encourage female youths to become more interested in STEAM fields.     

Inclusion and Art Education: ‘Welcome to the Big Room,Everything's Alright’

This article offers an exploration of the art room as part of a broader project to consider the ways in which normative practices in art and design education can include and exclude students. The art classroom is explored here as a ‘disrupted space’ and one that can promote movement between the structures and boundaries that affect our ways of being in, and experiencing, the world. The art room offers a space for colonising otherness, as well as an ‘alternative’ or risky physical space, a refuge, or one with the potential to disrupt the dominant educational landscape.     

‘Being an artist you kind of,I mean,you get used to excellence’: Identity,Values and Fine Art Assessment Practices

In this article I report on a study into fine art lecturers’ assessment practices in higher education. This study explores the ways that lecturers bring themselves into the act of assessment (Hand & Clewes 2000). I interviewed twelve fine art lecturers who worked across six English universities. Lecturers were asked to relate to me how they learnt to assess student artwork and what informed their judgement making. My research explores the interfaces between fine art lecturers’ assessment practices, their values and identity/ies. My analysis offers a rendering of the ways that values underpin lecturers’ assessment practices. The article explores the ways that lecturers’ assessment decisions relate to their experiences as ex art students, their identity as artists, their own artistic practices, their conceptualisation of the arts arenas and the HE sector. My key overarching argument is that identity/ies and values underpin and enrich fine art lecturers’ assessment practices.     

‘The best day in my whole entire life’ – Young Children,Wellbeing and the Arts

For more than 25 years, a large percentage of young Australian children has been involved in arts and cultural experiences, but very little systematic information has been gathered to understand what they gain from these encounters. This article investigates young children’s cultural engagement and wellbeing within a festival experience – as creators making work for an exhibition at the festival, and as consumers participating in theatre, dance and festival activities. The case study involved 105 children (64 girls and 41 boys, aged 7 years 11 months to 9 years 1 month) and used a mixed methods approach incorporating quantitative surveys, qualitative focus groups and participant observation. Though the surveys did not show any changes in children’s views of wellbeing before, during or after the festival, focus group conversations revealed almost unanimous perspectives of positive wellbeing after the festival. The findings indicate that children’s wellbeing is a complex phenomenon that may be best explored using composite standpoints of children, teachers, parents and artists for achieving a clearer understanding.     

Women,Academia and Identity: Constructions of Equal Opportunities in the ‘New Managerialism’– A Case of ‘Lipstick on the Gorilla’?

This paper has two distinct foci. The first is an introductory focus on the current position and problems of academic women working in UK universities (despite the valorization of Equal Opportunities (EO), and within the context and constraints of the 'New Managerialism'). The second and main focus is on the personal impact of university work on the lives of academic women, towards exploring and uncovering how higher education's institutional structures and processes impact upon academic women's identity structures and processes. Idiographic analyses of a small number of case studies suggest that despite considerable recent gains, some academic women's identities are compromised, challenged and made 'vulnerable' through feelings of being undervalued, overburdened and often the subjects of unequal treatment – more than 30 years after the Equal Pay Act and almost 30 years after the Sex Discrimination Act. The paper's conclusions therefore warn that continued valorization of EO policy without its assimilation into the underlying core institutional culture will sanction the valediction of any tangible or effective progress in HE's ability to produce more robust academic identities and more satisfying daily working lives for academic women. Insofar as such assimilation is not achieved, the policy, practice and rhetoric of equal opportunities and equal treatment in UK higher education will remain little more than 'lipstick on the gorilla'.     

Wanting to be ‘known’: Redefining self‐awareness through an understanding of self‐narration processes in educational transitions

The aim of this article is to initiate discussion about the pursuit of self‐awareness—a concept embedded in recent policy—as an educational goal. The authors argue that complex theoretical questions need to be addressed if improvements in policy and practice relating to personal, social and emotional education are to ensue. Such questions relate to possible interpretations of ‘self‐awareness’, a term that may be linked to outdated theories, implying a ‘self’ to be discovered and the possibility that people can sustain a ‘sense of self’ across time and place. From this perspective, self‐awareness may seem overly individualistic, obscuring more pro‐social goals (e.g. empathy, compassion, citizenship). Drawing on sociological and social psychological literature, as well as data from an empirical study of identity construction, it is hoped to contribute to the provision of firm foundations for personal, social and emotional education through a stronger theoretical exposition of ‘self‐awareness’. The authors' reconceptualised version highlights the importance of an expanded and flexible story of self, which they view as an invaluable tool for learning, fostering an openness to change.     

‘Before I realised they were all women… I expected it to be more about materials’: Art,Gender and Tacit Subjectivity

This article discusses a critical discourse analysis research activity undertaken with a group of undergraduate primary trainees with an art specialism. The research activity involved the use of two contrasting texts discussing the work of Karla Black, Becky Beasley and Claire Barclay. The article explores how the positioning of the two texts affected the student teachers’ ability to engage effectively with ‘women's art’ on a personal and critical level, revealing some highly subjective views and raising questions around intertextuality; particularly how an individual's understanding of contexts, meanings and histories can inform collective interpretation and highlight existing subjectivity. The article subsequently identifies that although students were keen to talk about careful selection of texts, the benefits of using multiple sources and the risks of intertextual and ‘subliminal’ contamination, they were unable to reflect critically upon their own gendered reading of the texts. It concludes that this may well be a signifier of the problem – that the student teachers did not really see a problem at all.     

The contributions of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ executive function to children's academic achievement, learning-related behaviors, and engagement in kindergarten

Executive functioning (EF) refers to higher order thought processes considered foundational for problem-solving. EF has both ‘cool’ cognitive and ‘hot’ emotional components. This study asks: (a) what are the relative contributions of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ EF to children's academic achievement? (b) What are the relative contributions of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ EF to learning-related classroom behaviors and observed engagement? (c) Do learning-related classroom behaviors and observed engagement account for the relation between EF and achievement? For a sample of 173 kindergarteners, cool EF predicted math achievement, learning-related classroom behaviors, and observed engagement. Hot EF did not predict any achievement or behavior outcomes when examined concurrently with cool EF. Children's classroom behavior did not account for the relation between cool EF and math achievement, suggesting cool EF and math performance are directly associated.     

‘My mum would be as pleased as punch if I actually went,but my dad seems a bit more particular about it’: paternal involvement in young people's higher education choices

Research on parental involvement in educational ‘choice’, as well as in educational processes more generally, has highlighted clear disparities between the close and active involvement of mothers and the more distant role of fathers. While this article does not question the broad patterns identified by such studies, it does suggest that, in some circumstances at least, fathers are both able and willing to become closely involved in decision‐making processes and to take on much of the ‘hard work’ of educational choice. Drawing on a longitudinal study of young people's higher education decision‐making processes, the article presents evidence of detailed paternal involvement. It then suggests that this apparent ‘anomaly’ can be explained by the mothers' and fathers' differential access to cultural and social capital; a lack of previous experience of active engagement with educational markets; and, in a few cases, young people's active resistance to the involvement of their mothers.     

Multiple,relational and emotional mobilities: Understanding student mobilities in higher education as more than ‘staying local’ and ‘going away’

This paper advances theorising around student geographies in higher education (HE). It extends recent work, which has problematised the primacy of social class and binary thinking about student mobilities, and presents local/non‐local experiences and im/mobility as a defining dualism. Drawing on a qualitative longitudinal study of women's experiences during and on completion of HE, the following explores the ways in which a more diverse and constantly negotiated set of mobility practices emerge relationally, in the stratified field of HE, and through shifting personal and emotional attachments. Theoretically, the paper develops a new approach to student mobilities, synthesising dominant Bourdieusian notions of field with relational theories pertaining to mobilities (e.g. Adey, 2009), emotion (e.g. Holmes, 2010) and personal life (e.g. Mason, 2004; Smart, 2007). Such an approach makes it possible to move beyond the binary thinking that has become entrenched in policy and academic debates about student mobilities, and recognise a broader range of movements, flows, stops and starts that emerge relationally, emotionally and temporally as students and graduates move into and through HE. It is argued here that, given the policy emphasis on accelerated and flexible HE provision (BIS, 2016), a gradational view of student mobilities is more important than ever.     

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.     

Art,Design & Technology ‐ a Plea to Reclaim the Senses

The paper explores the inherent confusion surrounding the existence of design in two foundation areas of the English National Curriculum. We argue that this is a consequence of a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of art, design and technology. Whereas technology should be considered as a cross‐curricular set of skills and knowledge with a variety of technologies applicable to different subject domains, design more properly belongs to the diffuse subject of art with its range of skills, crafts and cultural knowledge bases. We argue that design and technology can learn from the expressive and open‐ended processes of art making. If the practice of design is to operate effectively in the classroom then it needs to embrace more exploratory strategies to playing and making. Teachers of all age groups need to foster a greater engagement with sensory materials to enable pupils to create a context for the making of personal meanings. The notion of the teacher practitioner is a key component and the studio practice of artists and designers provides a useful framework in the adoption of such approaches.     

‘When words don't come easily’: personal narratives from adolescents experiencing shyness as an emotional and behavioural problem in the school context

The purpose of this article is to present narratives from 15 adolescents experiencing shy behaviour as an emotional and behavioural problem in the school context in light of narrative understanding. The investigation is intended to generate knowledge about this largely under‐researched phenomenon based on the personal accounts of those who are actually experiencing it. Their narratives are the foundation for a discussion regarding implications for future practice in the context of school in relation to this group.     

Active Learning and Teaching through Digital Technology and Live Performance: ‘Choreographic Thinking’ as Art Practice in the Tertiary Sector

This article is an interdisciplinary reflective response to an intensive studio learning and teaching experience involving artists, academics and postgraduate students. The authors of this article teach, research and practise in coding, digital design, dance, and virtual and live performance. As lecturers and students we reflect upon and propose future approaches to art practice in tertiary education informed by live performance, performance capture and studio‐based responses to digital and virtual platforms. We reflect on an innovative contribution to the field of research–teaching nexus as informed by digital and virtual data capture identifying the key element of immediacy in live performance and choreographic improvisation with systems. We reflect on practice‐based inquiry via the Choreographic Coding Lab (CCL) model – a dialogical negotiation between capture technology and interdisciplinary artists in industry and academia. How can we encourage potential studio inquiry as an adapted model in tertiary learning and teaching? Our interdisciplinary voices, presented as authors’ reflections, provide suggestions for future studio‐based, active learning contexts.