Altermodern Art Education. Theory and Practice
Abstract
Inspired by the Tate Triennial “Altermodern” curated by Nicolas Bourriaud in 2009, Dutch art educator Robert Klatser formulated notions for the needs of today’s art education. Starting from the fact that art education in schools hardly connects with developments in art, nor with the lives of adolescents, nor with global development and interculturality, a research programme has been developed to examine the possibilities of Altermodern Art Education.
In the theoretical part of the research conducted by Talita Groenendijk and Marike Hoekstra the notions of Bourriaud on contemporary art , migration and globalization were connected with relevant developments in art education. The key parameters following from theory were intercultural, process-oriented and student-based. The empirical study consisted of a design research programme where seven trained art teachers implemented the central design parameters in 8 week-projects with 14-17 year olds.
Case studies of the implementations, based on interviews, teacher reflections, observation notes and learner reports, investigate the possibilities of Altermodern Art Education.
... Para além destas competências a arte pode aliar-se à educação, no que refere a processos de resolução de problemas, através do desenvolvimento de organização no espaço (Kim, Ju & Lee, 2015). Não obstante a sensibilização social apontada por Eça (2010) é também reconhecida à arte, como uma forma de auxiliar a aprendizagem de competências importantes nos dias de hoje, como desenvolvimento de estratégias de aprendizagem que se revelem produtivas, complexas e que envolvem cooperação entre os alunos (Hoekstra & Groenendijk, 2015). ...
Artists in Britain, as in many other parts of the world, are exploring issues of cultural identity and diversity in their work. Similarly the British national curriculum is promoting the study of identity in schemes of work for the school subjects of citizenship and art. This paper presents the findings of research into the work of contemporary artists from diverse cultural backgrounds living and working in London in which their life stories, artwork and educational projects were analysed for what they tell us about their self-identifications and about British national identity. A critical analysis of two national curriculum schemes of work in the light of the results leads to the conclusion that the emphasis on ethnicity and culture in the school curriculum is problematic and that learners are missing out on opportunities to learn about the way multiple global identities are under construction in modern urban societies through the study of contemporary works of art.
The significance of problem parameters in art education is examined. Problem parameters are delineated by the art instructor in the problem finding stage of the creative process before problem solving occurs. Problem parameters define problems and focus students' creative processes. In the delivery of an assignment, the art teacher presents problem parameters to students and students respond to parameters. A model is proposed illustrating the relationship between the presented problem parameters of art assignments and the creative processes of students. Characteristics of the instructional implementations of parameters are examined: Incomplete Parameters; Overly and Inadequately Restrictive Parameters; and Expanding and Contracting Parameters. Student responses to parameters are explored: Disregarded, Self-imposed, and Stretched Parameters. The implications of the model in art education are discussed.
Using Ivan Illich's seminal works, Deschooling Society and Tools for Conviviality as touchstones, this paper returns to further pursue the thrust of my article in iJADE 25.3 (2006), ‘Domain poisoning: the redundancy of current models of assessment through art’, and might be considered as a more radical addendum. The central strand of Illich's work on ‘deschooling’ is an indictment of the trend to dehumanisation and the counterproductivity which results from institutionalisation. This paper argues that it is time to revisit Illich's call for deschooling with particular reference to the teaching of art and design, and, in turn, to look at the construct of the art teacher for the twenty‐first century as connoisseur/critic/animateur, aloof from the world of domain‐based assessment. As has been suggested many times before within these pages and beyond, accountability makes teachers risk averse. In short, this article suggests that it is time that we took a structural risk and removed this glass ceiling to aspiration while calling for complete deregulation of art and design education and the reinstatement of the art teacher as an autonomous ‘agent of change’.
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.
The qualitative educational research literature is increasingly advocating the use of literary/artistic techniques. This article describes and evaluates educational action researches by three art teachers, and questions why they have not capitalised methodologically on their artistic expertise. Analysis of commonalities in practitioner-based research in education and practice-based research in art and design reveals significant differences in these two paradigms however. Whereas artists and educational researchers both engage in qualitative problem solving and may use the same kinds of materials and tools, they develop different kinds of hypotheses, look for different sorts of evidence and apply different quality controls.
This article is based on a project that explored the practices of art and design beginning teachers (BTs) working with learners in a post-age-16 context. The aim of the project was to: explore contemporary art and design practices; explore the concept of artist teacher learner researcher; enable beginning teachers to collaborate with post-age-16 pupils and develop new approaches and strategies to art and design pedagogy. Through practices that blurred learner-teacher identities a dialectical pedagogy emerged and a collaborative community of practice developed, all enabled through a renegotiation and reconceptualising of places of learning. The beginning teachers also started to construct their artist teacher identities, understand what it means to practise as an artist teacher in the classroom, understand the impact of these practices on teaching and learning and develop new learning and teaching methods. This project demonstrates the possibilities of these practices for contemporary art and design pedagogy and also how these practices can endure and be sustainable for this community of beginning teachers in the current cultural, social and political contexts of education.
Rather than taking a transformational role in schools, new art and design teachers quickly become subject to ‘school art’ orthodoxy. Theories of subjectivity and the development of professional identity within communities of practice can feel far removed from the classroom. This article seeks to make clearer the processes by which teacher identity and practice becomes normalised and proposes ways that such processes may be resisted. With reference to Foucault, Lyotard, Bruner, Wenger and Bey, the classroom as a site of performativity is contrasted with alternative heterotopia-like sites away from the spectre of observation, where different identities and behaviours can be explored. These temporary sites of difference are an antidote to the orthodoxy of the ‘school art’ condition and open up the possibility for teachers, both new and experienced, to implement a more hospitable, participatory pedagogy.