Education and Society:

Expectations, Prescriptions,
Reconciliations

Proceedings of ECER 2021

NW 29. Research on Arts Education

Judit Onsès Segarra

Fernando Hernández Hernández
Eds.
NW 29. RESEARCH ON ARTS EDUCATION
University of Girona (2022)

Education and Society: Expectations, Prescriptions, Reconciliations

Proceedings of ECER 2021
NW 29. Research on Arts Education
Geneva (online), 6 -10 September, 2021

To cite this work:

Onsès-Segarra, J. & Hernández-Hernández, F. (Eds.). (2022). Education and

Society: Expectations, Prescriptions, Reconciliations. Proceedings of ECER
2021. NW 29. Research on Arts Education. Geneva (online), 6-10 September,
2021. Girona: University of Girona - Dipòsit Digital. [XXXX]

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 Education and Society:
Expectations, Prescriptions,
Reconciliations

Proceedings of ECER 2021

NW 29. Research on Arts Education

Edited by:
Judit Onsès Segarra
Fernando Hernández Hernández

EERA - NW29
https://eera-ecer.de/networks/29-research-on-arts-education/
NW 29. RESEARCH ON ARTS EDUCATION
University of Girona (2022)

Education and Society: Expectations, Prescriptions, Reconciliations

Proceedings of ECER 2021
NW 29. Research on Arts Education

Edited by:
Judit Onsès Segarra & Fernando Hernández Hernández

Authors

Zeynep Bulgulu Asrar Julia Mañero

Sara Carrasco Segovia Judit Onsès Segarra
Teresa Eça Alejandra Pacheco Costa
José Carlos Escaño Marina Riera Retamero
Anna Forés José Juan Roa Trejo
Tobias Frenssen Angela Saldanha
Gal Harpaz Ana Serra Rocha
Fernando Hernández Hernández Michaela Steed-Vamos
Nushin Hosseini-Eckhardt Miguel Stuardo
Verónica Hurtubia Seyda Subasi Singh
Rolf Laven Laura Tamassia
Paula Lozano Ana Rita Teixeira
Laura Malinverni Tal Vaizman

Design and layout:

Judit Onsès Segarra

Cover photograph:
Sara Carrasco Segovia
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Expanding the Approach of the Arts in Education

for Redefining the Research Agenda .................................................................................................................... 7
Introduction by Fernando Hernández Hernández & Judit Onsès Segarra

1. Artistic Methods in Research ................................................................................................................................... 13

Configuring a Product Manifesto in Times of Isolation ..................................................................... 14
Teresa Eça & Angela Saldanha

Reflecting on Art-Based Techniques to Support Children’s

Self-Narration in Multicultural Educational Contexts ......................................................................... 18
Laura Malinverni, Paula Lozano, Judit Onsès Segarra & Miguel Stuardo

The Art of Becoming and Non-Perfect Bodies of Democracy.

Methodologies of the Corporal and Approaches to Experiences
in Democratic Spaces ............................................................................................................................................................. 25
Nushin Hosseini-Eckhardt & Leicy Valenzuela

Resilience in a postcard ........................................................................................................................................................ 32

Judit Onsès Segarra, Verónica Hurtubia & Anna Forés

2. Innovative Estrategies for Enhacing Teaching .................................................................................... 38

Collectivities of Secondary School Arts Teachers and Field Researchers

in Unpredictable Arts Educational (Research) Practices .................................................................. 39
Tobias Frenssen & Laura Tamassia

Service Learning in Teacher Education Curriculum:

a Study in the Viennese Context ............................................................................................................................... 45
Michaela Steed-Vamos, Rolf Laven & Seyda Subasi Singh

Music Self-Efficacy of Amateur Musicians Predicted

by Online Music Tutorials Use, Learning Habits and Self-Esteem ............................................ 51
Tal Vaizman & Gal Harpaz

Talent management of music teachers and its implications

for school leaders ......................................................................................................................................................................... 63
Zeynep Bulgulu Asrar
3. Posthumanism in Learning and Teaching Practices ................................................................... 69

Posthuman approaches to Arts: A review of literature ..................................................................... 70

Alejandra Pacheco Costa, Julia Mañero, José Carlos Escaño & José Juan Roa Trejo

Reconstituting Collective and Care Spaces in a Context of Social

Estrangement in a University Course of Arts-based Research ................................................. 79
Fernando Hernández Hernández & Marina Riera Retamero

Cartography: An Artistic Method to Promote an Affective

and Meaningfully Learning ........................................................................................................................................ 86
Sara Carrasco Segovia

Research Experiences Workshops in Higher Education.

Bodies and Books as Places of Creative Learning .................................................................... 93
Ana Rita Teixeira & Ana Serra Rocha
Expanding the Approach of the Arts in Education for
Redefining the Research Agenda
Introduction by Fernando Hernández Hernández & Judit Onsès Segarra

Reconfiguring Education through the Arts

Arts education is an interweaving of concepts and procedures that pays attention to the role of the
arts in education and education in the arts (Hernández-Hernández, 2019). This approach means that
arts education is not a discipline parcelled out and closed in in institutional spheres that establish its
‘must be’. But as an event that breaks into established discourses and practices, denaturalising them and
questioning them from other (partial, unfixed and often multiple) points of view. All of this provokes
fissures and ruptures in the dominant curricular, disciplinary, cultural, and social narratives, destabilise
them and open them to other ways of knowing, imagining, and being.

This movement is related to the differentiation observed in the art system, which situates artistic works
in two spheres: that of production and that of distribution (Calderón-García and Hernández-Hernández,
2019). In the former, we find workshops, art schools, teaching institutions, academies, and universities;
in the latter, exhibition systems - galleries, museums, fairs, virtual networks, or cultural centres -. These
spaces reflect the pedagogical of the art and the artistic of the pedagogical. As the years have gone by,
the debate around production and distribution has expanded towards recognising the generation of
artistic and pedagogical knowledge, not only in specific curatorial projects but also in international
exhibitions such as Documenta or the Biennale, among many others. This situation has led to consider
that restricting education through the arts to institutional frameworks is unviable, as it does not respond
to how art expands and generates knowledge today.

It pays attention to the conceptual and procedural tools that help to make visible the onto-
epistemological, methodological and ethical relationships resulting from the interweaving of an artistic
and a pedagogical process. In this context, artistic pedagogies construct transitional social spaces in
which knowledge is generated together with and from the sphere of art. But these spaces are not limited
to a specific place, if we conceive of the arts and education, after the pedagogical turn (Rogoff, 2008), as
hybridised, insofar as they nourish each other, constituting a field defined by the continuous debate that
runs through it. Instead of conceiving the arts in education as a restricted field, the challenge is to think
of them as social spaces of exchange and fertilisation in all school subjects. For example, artistic strategies
and processes are used in different school activities and projects beyond the arts tracing and configuring
not only conceptual but also spatial, relational, and, therefore, social implications (Calderón-García and
Hernández-Hernández, 2019).

In the case of formal education today, the arts tend to be linked to a transdisciplinary movement that
generates bridges with other disciplines and strategies that go beyond the limits of a curricular subject
(Hernández-Hernández, 2104). The proposal would then be not only to teach the arts but to teach through
the arts, thus recovering the aspiration of those who, after World War II, founded InSEA (International
Society for Education through Art) under the auspices of UNESCO, but with a different perspective,
foundations, methodologies, and aims.

This movement is about transforming ‘education’ (in institutions and beyond them) through the arts.
And in a movement that would be recursive, it would be about doing the same with the arts from the
pedagogical point of view. This integration of the arts in education builds relationships between learning
in the arts and learning in the other curriculum subjects. To do so, it is a matter of starting from key ideas
Proceedings ECER 2020 - NW29 Introduction

and concepts related to relevant issues characterised by their complexity, ambiguity (so that they do not
have a single interpretation), and diversity (of routes and sources). This approach would help to go beyond
a technical and formal conception of the arts and education and shift it towards relevant social issues
related to the approaches of different disciplines and knowledge.

Deterritorialising the boundaries between the arts and education

This arts education approach pays attention, not to the ‘what’ (objects, images) or ‘how’ (how we
artistically interpret what we see and experience), but to the space ‘in-between’: where what we look
at and how we are seen by what we look at becomes a place to meet and interact. Thus, in terms of
education, in the arts, there is an intersection of networked positions, which allows us to understand how
we can see things in society and their effects on each of us. There are images and artistic proposals in this
interaction exposed in schools, universities, art institutions, and spaces on the margins. In this framework,
an arts-based educational approach can help to contextualise the effects of looking and embodying and,
through critical practice, analyse, project, and perhaps bring forth disobedient experiences of the things
we look at and that (con)form us (Atkinson, 2018).

This approach implies a deterritorialisation of the arts and education, understood in how Deleuze
approaches this concept, taking a territory (that of the arts, that of education) to delimit it differently
from the way we find it. In this sense, Deleuze and Guattari (1980/2015) present deterritorialisation as
a potential form of singular and collective involvement characterised as multiple enquiries leading to
social, political, and personal change. Although the notion of deterritorialisation is also a neoliberal
practice, primarily when related to globalisation and the offshoring of labour, it can also be used to open
the concept as a fulcrum for arts that contribute to “understanding key processes in the world from an
innocent and truthful perspective” (Naughton and Cole, 2018, p. 2). This position leads us to follow Deleuze
and Guattari’s (1980/2015) invitation to educators and artists to think with concepts, deploy new ones, and
constantly exercise imagination from an ever-changing philosophy characterised as always incomplete.
One of these concepts is ‘affect’, which helps to develop the relationship between arts and education that
affects and is affected by ‘events’ that generate movements and displacements beyond limits. Where one
is in constant change, where there is no beginning or end, and only transits in the process of becoming.

This event is what Atkinson (2012) points to as the situation of actual learning itself, which projects
learning not as an outcome but as something with much broader implications. The ‘event’ is both “a break
from established ways of knowing” and “a movement towards a new ontological state” (Atkinson, 2012, p.
9-10). This thinking framework does not allow us to consider learning as something that starts from the
new and cannot be limited to what is fixed or forbidden by curricular standards.

Atkinson (Hernández-Hernández; Sancho-Gil, 2015) considers the pedagogy of the event linked with
something that is happening, but we do not know what it is because it is based on the unknown. This
position leaves us in that position of not knowing what is happening. In this sense, says Atkinson,
perhaps we could replace this pedagogy of the event with the notion of the ‘pedagogy of the unknown’.
But also faced with a need to respond to it. Not to offer an answer from a position of authority but to seek
it together.

From this perspective, learning is less about reproducing a preselected content or procedure and more
about fostering a dialogic pedagogical relationship that situates the life of the classroom or any learning

8
Proceedings ECER 2020 - NW29 Introduction

experience as a place to explore and confront the unknown. As Atkinson points out, this would prevent
art teachers and educators from devaluing themselves, seeing themselves as purveyors of something pre-
established rather than imaginative individuals with innovative practices.

The idea of the event in pedagogy may be challenging for some, as it seeks to bring imagination, thought,
and reflection back into the educational process. It prevents the hybridisation of arts and education
from becoming a discipline, a territory of exclusivities. As a pedagogical practice, arts in education can
affect people’s subjectivities, producing a “new alignment of thought and action” (Atkinson, 2012, p 9).
This alignment allows them to experience learning through and beyond the arts. In this context, artistic
practice becomes part of a process of inquiry that allows for multiple presentations, readings, and
interpretations. From this position, arts education is seen as a critical approach that supports subjects in
relating to the world around them, to others, and themselves (Hernández-Hernández, 2015).

Implications for Teaching and Research

With this background, and by different paths, we can outline ways of reflecting, investigating, intervening,
and narrating that, under the umbrella of artistic pedagogies, place us in modes of knowledge,
intervention, activism, and research characterised by:

- To provide spaces for interaction between the pedagogical, considered as a way of articulating
foundations and intervention strategies, and the cultural understood as an arena in which both
“the politics of representation and the representation of politics” take place (Giroux, 1996, p.20)

- To generate spaces, actions, encounters, and ways of narrating in which social, political, and
institutional issues intersect in producing knowledge.

- To shift it to ways of thinking and acting concerning social practices that shape subjectivities.

- To unveil and subvert hegemonic ways of looking at artistic and pedagogical practices.

- To promote modes of inquiry, unveiling, and action in the face of the structures - discourses - that
constitute and naturalise us.

- To project ways of narrating - of giving an account - that not only include the participants but also
contribute to expanding other senses of understanding and relational experiences.

- To relate the human and the non-human in education through the arts and in research. By going
beyond dualisms and highlighting the intra-actions and materialities that link and affect them.

In the end, when we speak of education through the arts, we agree with Mieke Bal that “It is not a
question of explaining a method, but of provoking an encounter between various methods, in which the
object also participates, and the methods together become a new, though not firmly delineated field…
This encounter seeks to foster approaches and ways of intervening from artistic pedagogies. At this point,
the journey becomes the unstable ground of cultural analysis” (Bal, 2002, ºp.11). This positionality allows
making a very uncertain journey that opens paths of hope in difficult times.

9
Proceedings ECER 2020 - NW29 Introduction

Without forgetting that the meaning of the relationship between the arts and education has to do with
those experiences that generate disturbances, surprise us, question us, and invite us to leave our comfort
and power zones. Artistic and pedagogical practices can open spaces for dialogue and construct a shared
world (Helguera, 2011). It also contributes to an opening to the pedagogical imagination that “allows us to
invent, experiment and create, isolated from routines and trends” (Hernández-Hernández, 2008, p 56).

The Contents of this eBook

This book presents a compilation of twelve contributions presented at ECER 2021. Although all of them
share research and experiences from different countries and fields, we have decided to group them in
three thematic sections with four papers each.

1) The first one, Artistic methods in research, presents works in which arts have been used during the
process of research with communites. They invite us to reflect in how sometimes art can be very powerful
to stablish other kind of relations and engagement with participants than with more traditional methods
in research.

Thus, Teresa Eça and Angela Saldanha bring a community arts project carried out during the pandemic
with volunteer participants whithin a framework of activism in disadvantaged groups. The results show
how arts act as a factor to increase wellbeing in these kind of groups, as well as foster sense of inclusivity
and self-esteem in participants. They also share some clues to succeed in this kind of projects: trust,
researchers’ commitment, and strategies of institutional visibility.

In the second paper, Laura Malinverni, Paula Lozano, Judit Onsès-Segarra, Miguel Stuardo, presents a
research done with migrant children in which they used visual and arts-based methods to support their
self-narration. The paper contributes to the discussion, reflection and critical analysis of multimodal
nature of the activities proposed to participants. Especifically, how they allowed going beyond the limits
of verbal and written language by enabling different ways of communicating, specially among children
that sometimes do not master the host country’s official language.

Following with arts as enabler for other possibiliteis, Nushin Hosseini-Eckhardt and Leicy Valenzuela
presents a paper in which we are invited to reflect about bodies of democracy and how to relate to others
through the concept of hybridity. To do so, he proposes several activities to work with participants in
which they can get aware of their vulnerabilities and powers, as well as empathize with the others’. In
addition, he stresses how important ethics is in these kind of proposals and how much education has to
do in this sense.

Finally, during the lockdown in March 2020, all the world was in chaos. And university students showed
disengaged and with mental and emotional problems. Facing it, Judit Onsès-Segarra, Verónica Hurtubia
and Anna Forés from two different universities in two different countries proposed to their students
exchange postcards between them as a creative method to overcome that situation. Thus, postcards
became an example of visual methods to foster resilience between students as well as a way to introduce
pedagogies of care in teaching and learning experiences.

2) the second section, Innovative estrategies for enhacing teaching, allows us to draw a map of
current questions and concerns of teachers in their practices and training, proposing advices and
recommendations in the fields of visual arts and music.

10
Proceedings ECER 2020 - NW29 Introduction

Tobias Frenssen and Laura Tamassia focuses on an experience of team teaching and how they designed
together their lessons from their different positions towards arts and pedagogy. Starting with the ‘love’
for arts that secondary school teachers feel, a critical ethnograpgy is carried on, leading participants
and researchers to unexpected territories linked to the force of the collectivity, the precariousnes in
educational context and the art potential to create bounds.

In the context of Austria, Michaela Steed-Vamos, Rolf Laven, and Seyda Subasi Singh, provides an initial
conceptual reflection on Service Learning through art education in the Austrian context of teacher
education. Throughout a research carried out with pre-service teachers, teachers and teacher educators,
their first insights relate to the importance to include Service Learning in curriculum although existing
challenges related to educational system structure and organization.

Focusing in the field of music, Tal Vaizman and Gal Harpaz presents a study about beneficies of online
music learning in amateur musicians with the aim to provide an aid for music educators. In this sense,
they look for ways in which formal pedagogies in music can incorporate digital technologies and new
methodologies of self-learning in their programs. Thus, music educators can offer a better guidance to
their students recommending more efficient and suitable music tutorials besides ordinary lessons.

Following with music teaching, Zeynep Bulgulu Asrar invites us to reflect about the importance of talent
management in teaching music through a study with school leaders and music teachers. According to
the research presented, the fact that talented music teachers feel valued in their schools foster to create a
more positive climate school as well as stand out from the rest of schools.

3) The last chapter of this book, called Posthumanism in learning and teaching practices, introduces us
to posthuman theories and in which way they are being put at work in research. In this line, Alejandra
Pacheco-Costa, Julia Mañero, José Carlos Escaño, José Juan Roa-Trejo, due to the increasing of research
in arts and education with a posthuman perspective, have carried out a literature review from the last
ten years. They analize the most common concepts used, which authors appear more often in theoretical
frameworks, and which art fields are more akin to this perspective. They conclude that in time more
journals are getting more open and sensible to publish papers based on this approach.

In the context of university, Fernando Hernández-Hernández and Marina Riera Retamero share their
experience with students in a subject about arts-based research. They explain how the concept of care
materialised during the course in different ways, especially in the moment that the class group decided to
conform itself as a collective learning device in a moment in which pandemic irrupted and forced virtual
teaching.

On another vein, Sara Carrasco invites us to reflect about the potentialities of cartography as a strategy
to connect with students’ lives by visualizing their thoughts, and positioning themselves biographically,
spatial and temporarily. To do so, she explores cartography from the lenses of affects and corporeality as
a terrains of entanglements and rhizomatic processes in educational field, proposing experiences of ‘real
learning’ rather than repetition.

Finally, Ana Rita Teixieira and Anna Serra are interested in create collaborative research processes, in
which participants become researchers, artists and teachers in a state of becoming. Their contribution
to this publication is an example of rhizomatic processes of sharing and learning, in which they explain
at the same time the presentation they did during ECER 2021 conference about a virtual workshop they
carried out with researchers in Portugal, whilst collecting their colleagues feedback and their own new

11
Proceedings ECER 2020 - NW29 Introduction

reflections about it, ending up with a continuity of their work in a master seminar about arts-based
research.

References

Atkinson, Dennis (2012). Contemporary Art in Education: The New, Emancipation and Truth. The
International Journal of Art & Design Education, 31 (1), 5-18.

Atkinson, Dennis (2018). Art, Disobedience, and Ethics. The Adventure of Pedagogy. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bal, Mieke (2002). Conceptos Viajeros en las Humanidades. Una guía de viaje. Cendeac.

Calderón-García, Natalia; Hernández-Hernández, Fernando (2019). La investigación artística: un espacio de

conocimiento disruptivo en las artes y en la academia. Octaedro.

Deleuze, Gilles; Guattari, Felix (1980-2015). Mil mesetas. Capitalismo y esquizofrenia. (12th edition). Pre-
textos.

Giroux, Henry. (1996). Placeres inquietantes. Paidós.

Helguera, Pablo (2011). Education for Socially Engaged Art. Jorge Pinto Books.

Hernández-Hernández, Fernando (2008). Após a aventura, persiguiendo uma utopia. Pátio. Revista
Pedagógica, 49, pp. 56–59.

Hernández-Hernández, Fernando 2015). Promoting Visual Culture Art Education Learning Experiences
as a Pedagogical Event. In: Mira Kallio-Tavin; Jouko Pullinen, (eds) Conversations on Finish Art
Education. (pp.188-201). Aalto University.

Hernández-Hernández, Fernando.; Sancho-Gil, Juana Maria (2015). Pedagogía de lo desconocido. Una

entrevista a Dennis Atkinson. Cuadernos de Pedagogía, 454, 34-39.

Hernández-Hernández, Fernando (2014). Las materias que distraen o la utilidad de lo inútil. Cuadernos de
Pedagogía, 447, 62-65.

Hernández-Hernández, Fernando (2019). Hibridar las artes y la educación para favorecer la conciencia
imaginativa. 31 Revista GEARTE, Porto Alegre, 6, n. especial, 31-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.22456/2357-
9854.92168 MIAR; 3,5

Naughton, Christopher; Cole, David R. (2018). Philosophy and pedagogy in arts education. In: Christopher
Naughton, Gert Biesta and David R. Cole (eds.). Art, Artists, and Pedagogy. Philosophy and the Arts in
Education. (pp. 1-10). Routledge.

Rogoff, Irit (2008). Turning. e-flux journal, 11, November.

12
1. Artistic methods in
research
Configuring a Product Manifesto in Times of Isolation

Teresa Eça
[email protected]

Angela Saldanha
[email protected]

APECV: Research Group in Arts,   Community and Education

Abstract

In this text we will describe the findings of the pilot project carried out in Portugal under the “AMASS:
Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture” during 2020 . We will start by an introduction of the
context; following the description of the participant group; methodology and actions conducted during
the experiment. The actions, aiming to construct products designed with the voices of the group, were
grounded on relational aesthetics applied to participatory design and activist arts education. We will
explain the used strategies to achieve collaboration in the design and conduct of the actions; such as the
gift; photo-voice and story telling. In the second part we will describe the participatory action research
based on cooperative inquiry and collecting tools such as audio and video records, journals and field
notes; data were further analyzed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). In the third part
findings will be presented to establish some conclusions reinforcing the contribution of participatory
art and design practices and activist arts education methods as a factor to increase well being of
disadvantaged groups, providing inclusion strategies and augmenting individual self-esteem through the
visibility of artistic products made in collaborative processes.

Keywords. Participatory Action Research, Art Education, Participatory Arts, Participatory Design,
Inclusion
Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

The Context

As part of the AMASS Project: Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture (870621 — AMASS — H2020-
SC6-TRANSFORMATIONS-2018-2019-2020/H2020-SC6- TRANSFORMATIONS-2019) a pilot project was
carried out in Portugal with the collaboration of two non-profit organizations - APECV (Portuguese
Association of Teachers of Visual Expression and Communication)and ASSOL (Social Solidarity
Association for during the period June 2020-December 2020 with 21 participants with mental disabilities;
2 caregivers from ASSOL and 5 researchers-art educators- participatory artists from APECV. The
two organizations had already worked together in the past, which facilitated the contact and trusting
relationships between the participants, very important for the development of the project, which required
knowledge among the group’s participants for trust, participation and credibility among all.

The Study

The study was conducted using a methodological approach rooted in participatory action research
integrating arts based collaborative tools ( Vella & Pulé, 2021) , following the main theoretical approaches
of both organizations: Freire’s pedagogy (Freire, 1972) for APECV and Interdependence Pedagogy (John
McGee, 2007). Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy is developed in Brazil, in the 60s, with a humanist basis, of adult
educa2on, which provides the individual with autonomy, critical awareness and decision-making capacity.
This theory is based on respect for the student and the achievement of autonomy. The Interdependence
Pedagogy or Gentle Teaching is a method used primarily with people with disabilities, is based on the
inherent equality of all people and the use of non-violence and aims to make vulnerable people feel safe,
loved, involved in community life and able to love.

The actions, aiming to construct products designed with the voices of the group, were grounded on
relational aesthetics applied to participatory design and activist arts education ( Vella & Pulé, 2021) . The
Research questions were:

1. How can we engage participants in the design of a community arts project?

2. How to increase the social impact of an arts community project?

All participants were volunteers. External Artists were invited by APECV and were paid for their work
during the workshops, APECV researchers involved in AMASS project were paid for their work; educators
who acted as observers and internal evaluators were part of APECV staff. The workshops were held
during the ASSOL day care activities for the group of Wednesdays with people who accepted to integrate
the project. All participants were explained the objectives of the project and how the study would be
conducted. Permission to use real names and photographs and images with persons was sought using
specific forms.

All participants were legally entitled to sign consent forms. The used strategies to achieve collaboration
in the design and conduct of the actions were diverse including gift; photo-voice and performative
storytelling.

Data was collected through cooperative inquiry, focus group conversations using tools such as drawings;
audio and video records, journals and field notes of the APECV staff. Data was stored in APECV folders,
respecting the ethical guidelines of the AMASS project and APECV Code of Conduct, and interpreted
following Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).

15
Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

The Actions

First : The Manifesto

At the beginning and in preparation for the first session, APECV staff made a kit for ice-braking activities
under the moto “Isolate with Love”. The kit slogan played with the words love and social isolation because
the project was carried out during COVID-19 social distance measures, with a community characterized
by caring and love relationships. The Kit consisted of a handmade bag and face mask, a container to
put water, a disinfection gel for greater immunity), a notebook and colored wax pencils (appealing to
creativity, imagination and dreams), and Polaroid camera (for each participant to take their photos to
share with the group). In this first session, held at ASSOL’s headquarters, we all sat in a circle, with the
safety distance, talked about the project, about individual interests, about the pandemic times we were
experiencing and about everyone’s wishes. ASSOL caregivers told APECV team that the topic for working
with the groups during that the year was local folk tales.

Second: Story Telling

The sessions were built gradually and according to the group’s wishes, divided into five sessions. During
one year, stories were told through the photos taken with the Polaroid cameras; stories about local folk
tales were shared and APECV artists helped participants to print products related to the stories that were
further exhibited in the local museum by ASSOL. APECV designers created the logo ‘ Isolate with love’
and a brand to produce masks and bags created according to folk tales’ drawings by ASSOL participants
(with the collaboration of the Portuguese textile company TEXIBÉRICA).

Third: Outcomes Product-Manifest “Isolate with Love”

For three months we built a Product-Manifesto “Isolate with Love” that aims to react to the fragility of
our times. A Product-Manifesto filled with symbolism, with characters from ASSOL folk tales that we can
symbolically transport with us:

• the drawings, starting from the legends of the places, to add to the images of our shared
memories.

• the lace, in the form of a mandala, invoking timeless dreams, to help us keep what is most dear to
us.

All the pieces were made with attention, affection, patience, rigor and time that an object made
individually and by hand takes. We want to take care of others, dress affections and spread hope.

An exhibition of the process was organized in a Museum of Photography in Porto (Casa da Imagem) and
several presentations and articles about the pilot project were made by APECV researchers in Portuguese
conferences and webinars (International AMASS dissemination plan) . The presentations and articles
were always shared by ASSOL caregivers to the other participants in group meetings.

When we started this project we didn’t think it would be such an atypical year, but the COVID-19
pandemic confirmed that changes in the future will be constant and we have to start testing strategies
that respond to the different changes needed. Because the methods used in artistic practices in

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

communities are based on issues inherent to contemporaneity: social problems, minorities, environment,
sustainability, etc. with creative tools, the arts are capable of quick adaptation.. The work between ASSOL
and APECV has proven that artistic strategies and practices improve the social, professional and human
capacities of people with disabilities and those who are part of the group (people without disabilities). The
process shows the way and the contributions of each member of the group are valued, giving autonomy
and greater dependence to build the project on their own.

Conclusions

This collaborative participation was maintained in all sessions, in which voices were heard, voices
from APECV team (researchers, educators and artists) and the voices of ASSOL users of the day center
and their caregivers. The collaborative conclusions, were approved in a group conversations with all
the participants and reinforced the contribution of participatory art and design practices and activist
arts education methods as a factor to increase wellbeing of disadvantaged groups, providing inclusion
strategies and augmenting individual self-esteem through the visibility of artistic products made in
collaborative processes.

Francisco, during that year used the wax pencils of the kit provided in the first session to draw his own
stories he shared with us in the end of the pilot project. APECV staff was invited to participate in the
ASSOL activities extra project such as collaboration in the local exhibition about local folk tales; summer
festival and cultural week. Links between APECV and ASSOL were strengthened up to achieve more
visibility of artistic actions for personal development. APECV staff learned that:

1. Effective engagement of participants in the design of a community arts project needs trust,
researchers commitment in the field and work over time and is much effective if it is carried out
over a period of years

2. The social impact of an arts community project is increased if the coordinators and staff involved
develop dissemination products jointly approved to achieve visibility and through local; national
and international exhibitions and publications about the process.

References

Freire, Paulo (1992). Pedagogy of hope: Reliving pedagogy of the oppressed. London: Continuum.

Mcgee, J., & Brown, M. (2007). O essencial da pedagogia da interdependência (A GentleTeaching Primer).
ASSOL, Associação de Solidariedade de Lafões.

Vella, Raphael; Pulè, Margerita (eds) (2021). Conducting Participatory Arts Projects: A Practical Toolkit. ​

University of Lapland (Rovaniemi)

17
Reflecting on Art-Based Techniques to Support
Children’s Self-Narration in Multicultural Educational
Contexts

Laura Malinverni 1
[email protected]

Paula Lozano 1
[email protected]

Judit Onsès Segarra 2

[email protected]

Miguel Stuardo1
[email protected]

1
University of Barcelona
2
Universtity of Girona

Abstract

This paper builds on the European project MiCREATE - Migrant Children and Communities in a
Transforming Europe- which aims at supporting the inclusion of migrant students through a child-
centered approach. Within this context, our research aims at contributing to the discussion on designing
art-based techniques for researching with children, by specifically employing a reflexive methodology
to examine the different art-based techniques used in the fieldwork carried out in 3 primary schools
of Barcelona. To this end, the article is structured in three parts. First, we describe the conceptual
and theoretical underpinnings of using art-based methods to support children’s self-narration in a
multicultural school environment. Second, we focus on contextualizing the research and describing
the specific art-based methods employed during the fieldwork in schools. Finally, we will discuss the
affordances that each of the employed techniques offered to support (or not) the process of self-narration
in children and on the potential qualities for designing art-based methods for researching with children.

Keywords. Child-Centered Research, Migrant Children, Art-Based Methods, Self-Narration

Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

General description

This paper builds on the European project MiCREATE - Migrant Children and Communities in
a Transforming Europe (822664 — MiCREATE — H2020-SC6-MIGRATION-2018-2019-2020/H2020-
SC6MIGRATION-2018). Its objective is to identify and respond to the specific needs of migrant children
and translate them into policy measures for education professionals and policymakers. To respond to
this objective, a series of actions were carried out aimed at exploring the migratory phenomenon and its
impact on the educational system. These actions built on a multimethod approach, which included the
analysis of the media and political discourse, the collection of evidence in the educational context and the
inclusion of children’s perspectives and experiences.

Research aimed at including children’s perspectives had the goal of building an understanding of the
children’s experiences and everyday life from their viewpoints, by specifically examining four main
aspects: educational system, migration experiences, perceptions about their present and future, family
and the wider community. To this end, the research was carried out following a child-centered research
approach, which aims at moving away from the dominant adult-centric perspective on child experiences
to instead consider them as active participants, capable of communicating information about their own
lives and, thus, providing competent voices and valid sources of data (Clemence, Riggs & Augoustinos,
2014). This standpoint implies searching for appropriate research methods to dialogue with children in
order to get their first-hand views of their migration experiences and current policies. To this end, we
decided to adopt visual and art-based methods as one of the main instruments to carry out research with
children and support their self-narration.

Previous research has already pointed out the suitability of these approaches to facilitate children’s
narrations about themselves and supporting dialogue in multi-linguistic contexts. Several studies have
used visual methods and artistic approaches when carrying out research with migrant children and
youth (Guruge et al., 2015; Kirova & Emme, 2008; Moskal, 2017; Vecchio, Dhillon & Ulmer, 2017; Zhang-Yu
et al., 2020). Research in this field showed that students’ self-exploration through art-based approaches
facilitated children’s narrations about themselves and helped researchers in delving into their realities
and experiences (Zhang-Yu et al., 2020). At the same time, the multimodal nature of art-based techniques
has been recognized as beneficial in multi linguistic and multicultural educational contexts (Chappell &
Cahnmann-Taylor, 2013). This research is opening paths for rich experimentations on art-based techniques
for working with children (e.g. drawings, photographs, videos, mental maps, performance, poems,
photovoice, quilting, digital storytelling, etc.). At the same time, it is opening relevant standpoints to
stimulate researchers’ reflection and critical analysis of these practices.

In our research, we employed different art-based techniques to scaffold children’s self-narrations and
dialogues. These different techniques aimed at investigating key aspects of the realities and experiences
of the participating children, such as: experience of newly arrived children in the school, experiences on
trips and displacements they have lived; perceptions about their present and future, perceptions about
their family and wider community.

A total of 10 different researchers, with different backgrounds and at different stages of their academic
career, participated in this fieldwork. The wide variety of employed techniques and the number of
researchers involved in the project offered a fertile ground to stimulate the debate and reflection on the
limits and potentials of the employed techniques and on broader methodological considerations about
art-based methods for researching with children. Building on these shared reflections we therefore aimed
at tracing the possibilities, tensions and complexities entailed in art-based practices to support children’s
self-narration.

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

The main goal of the current communication is, therefore, to describe the techniques we used in order to
contribute to the discussion, reflection and critical analysis of art-based strategies for researching with
children. Specifically, we address the following research questions: What are the specific affordances that
each technique is offering for researching with children? How does reflecting on these affordances can help
in identifying relevant qualities for designing art-based methods for researching with children?

To this end, we will first describe the context of the research and present three of the employed
techniques. Subsequently, we use them to articulate broader reflections on research related to design
methods and techniques. Through the self-examination and self-reflection on our practices we aim
at keeping the quest for methodological appropriateness in human science “in a state of crisis, where
methods and assumptions are continuously questioned “(Polkinghorne, 1983).

Method

The research described in this communication is based on the fieldwork carried out with a total of 59
children between 10-12 years old from 3 different primary schools located in Barcelona. All participating
schools were public and were selected according to their migration rate (greater than 40%) and the
availability to participate in the research.

As part of a broader methodological design, the fieldwork included classroom observations, interviews
and focus groups with different members of the educational community and with children. To facilitate
the unfolding of the focus groups with children, we employed different art-based techniques to scaffold
their self-narrations and dialogue during the activity. Specifically, this communication focuses on the
following techniques: the Evocative Cards activity, the Family Maps activity and the Lines of Life activity.
All these activities lasted approximately one hour and were carried out as part of the school schedule.
Children were divided into groups of four and each group worked with one facilitator.

The Evocative Cards activity was based on the use of the Dixit game cards (Figure 1). We asked children
to choose one card to describe different concepts, i.e. the school, their friends, their family, themselves,
etc. We showed children a selection of the cards and asked them to pick one to describe one of the
aforementioned concepts. Subsequently, we start discussing with the child the interpretation that they
made of the cards and sharing their opinions and views around the topic.

Figure 1. The Evocative Cards activity

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

In the Family Map activity, we asked children to use emoticons to produce a map that represents their
families (Figure 2, Figure 3). The researcher provided them with a paper and a selection of emoticons
representing different facial expressions. Firstly, we explained the task to the children and subsequently
the facilitator also produced a map of her own family. In the meanwhile also the children were invited
to produce their maps. Once their maps were ready, each one described its own production and the
produced artifacts were employed as material support to further inquiries into specific design choices and
composition.

Figure 2. The Family Map activity, child 1 Figure 3. The Family Map
activity, child 2

Finally, in the Lines of Life activity, we asked children to create a visual chronological representation of the
most relevant events in their lives (Figure 4, Figure 5). This representation was then used as a prompt to
structure the dialogue with the child around her story and life experience.

Figure 4. Lines of Life activity, child 3 Figure 5. Lines of Life activity, child 4

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All activities were audio-recorded for subsequent transcription. At the same time, the artifacts produced
by the children were photographically documented. The resulting materials were employed to build an
individual sheet for each child in order to merge the narrations elicited through the different techniques.

These materials were subsequently analyzed from two perspectives. On the one hand, following a
multimodal approach (Jewitt, 2011), we analyzed children’s productions and transcripts in order to better
understand their views and perspectives on the research topics. On the other, we employed a reflexive
methodology to question and debate on our own methodological approach. For this communication, we
will focus on this second layer of research.

Outcomes

The outcomes of the fieldwork allowed identifying some specific affordances of the different employed
techniques. From a general perspective, the multimodal nature of the activities allowed going beyond the
limits of verbal and written language by enabling different ways of communicating. At the same time, the
produced artifacts worked as scaffolding devices in facilitating dialogue, both with the researchers as well
as among peers. Furthermore, the open-ended nature of the activities offered students the opportunity of
setting their own limits and carrying out their self-narration at their own pace, hence offering researchers
with resources to delve into complex topics without being too invasive. However, some specific limits
and tensions emerged. First, even if the obtained multimodal data allowed analyzing meanings that are
expressed through multiple resources, they presented specific challenges related to their analysis and the
complexities related to transforming multimodal data into actionable knowledge for guiding the design
of specific educational interventions. At the same time, the multi-layered nature of the obtained data also
entails specific difficulties related to bringing back the research to participants and exposing the results to
them.

On the other hand, the reflection on the specific techniques allowed spotting out affordances and
qualities that may be useful for guiding the design of art-based research techniques for children. The
Evocative Cards activity, for instance, showed to be a powerful ice-breaking prompt to start the dialogue
and set the stage around the theme that we wanted to explore. Furthermore, it allowed introducing
visual culture as a way to represent and communicate ideas. Also, the ambiguous nature of the drawings
inevitably asked children to use their experience and imagination to “fill the gaps”. This feature points out
the concept of “evoking rather than describing” as a relevant quality for designing tools and instruments
for researching with children. We, hence, suggest that further research could be dedicated to deepening
more into this concept and eventually developing a broader range of tools capable of eliciting children’s
fantasies.

The Family Map activity was particularly useful to explore the relational bonds of the children and
facilitate the dialogue around these topics. Also, it was positively received both by children and teachers
which considered it as an interesting tool to better know each other. Two other remarkable elements were
the role of the researcher and the scarcity of available elements. First, the researcher, by exposing also her
personal life to children facilitated a more horizontal dialogue, in which existing power structures and
barriers were at least partially smoothened. Second, the constraints of using just emoticons and spatial
distribution to represent the family showed several benefits. First, it allowed children to overcome the
barriers related to poor drawing skills. Second, the scarcity of available elements avoided getting lost in
minor details to instead focus on structural features. This specificity allowed the use of elements such as
spatial distribution as a tool to express meanings in a way that would have been much more difficult to
communicate through other media. We, therefore, consider that researchers involved in designing tools

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and techniques for researching with children should pay careful attention to the “modal affordances”
that different resources can offer. In other words, carefully reflect on the selection of the expressive tools
available and on “what is possible to express, represent or communicate easily with the resources of a
mode and what is less straightforward or even impossible” (Kress, 2009).

Finally, the Lines of Life activity was particularly useful to better understand children’s lived experiences
and detect the needs and problems that children may face. Furthermore, it could also be helpful for
teachers to better understand the story of each child. As in the previous case, a remarkable aspect of this
activity was the role of the modal affordance of the representation and its constraints. On the one hand,
children need to find a visual metaphor capable of summarizing their story. This graphical choice can
offer meaningful views on children’s lived experiences when discussed with them. On the other hand, to
build their representations, children need to define and select events that they consider important and
exclude others. Discussing with children on their choices allowed us to get insight on what is relevant and
important for them and their social and familiar context.

To sum up, we hope that the described techniques and the identified qualities can be helpful for other
researchers to design and implement art-based research strategies with children. We believe that all of us,
as researchers, should adopt the mindset of the creative craftsman who designs their tools and strategies
according to the specific needs of each context. Hence, our goal was not to provide a prescriptive
description of recipes that researchers are advised to follow. Instead, we aim at contributing to enriching
descriptive research approaches which can help research in human sciences to question and experiment
with different methodological assumptions and approaches.

References

Chappell, S. V., & Cahnmann-Taylor, M. (2013). No child left with crayons: The imperative of arts-based
education and research with language “minority” and other minoritized communities. Review of
Research in Education, 37(1), 243-268.

Clemence, D., Riggs, D., & Augoustinos, M. (2014). Research with Children of Migrant and
Refugee Backgrounds: A Review of Child-Centered Research Methods. Child Indicators Research, 7(1),
209–227

Due, C., Riggs, D., and Augoustinos, M. (2014). Research with children of migrant and refugee backgrounds:
A review of child-centered research methods. Child Indicators Research, 7 (1): 209–227.

Guruge, S., et al. (2015). Refugee Youth and Migration: Using Arts-Informed Research to Understand
Changes in Their Roles and Responsibilities. Forum Qualitative Social Research 16(3).

Jewitt, C. E. (2011). The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Kirova, A., & Emme, M. (2008). Fotonovela as a Research Tool in Image-based Participatory Research with
Immigrant Children. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 7 (2): 35–57.

Kress, G. (2009). Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. Routledge.

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

Moskal, M. (2017). Visual Methods in Research with Migrant and Refugee Children and Young People. In
P. Liamputtong (Ed.), Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences (pp. 1-17). Springer.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2779-6_42-1

Polkinghorne, D. E. (1984). Methodology for the human sciences: Systems of inquiry. Suny Press.

Vecchio, L., Dhillon, K. & Ulmer, J. (2017). Visual methodologies for research with refugee youth.
Intercultural Education, 28(2), 131-142, 10.1080/14675986.2017.1294852

Zhang-Yu, C. (2020). Funds of identity and self-exploration through artistic creation: addressing the voices
of youth. Mind, culture and activity.

24
The Art of Becoming and Non-Perfect Bodies of
Democracy. Methodologies of the Corporal and
Approaches to Experiences in Democratic Spaces

Nushin Hosseini-Eckhardt 1
[email protected]

Leicy Valenzuela 2
[email protected]

1
TU Dortmund/Institut for Education, Psychology und Educational Sciences
2
T.P. Universität der Künste

Abstract

To start with the main point: We understand that there is nothing that is so much existential and
undeniable as the body itself, so we concentrate on it as a core angle to approach learning, especially
in democratic spaces. The reason for elaborating on this project is the observation of tendencies of
fragmentation, alienation from politics up to narratives of post democratic times, intensified by digital
social bubbles. As a philosopher of education and a theatre pedagogue and performance artist we enter
this field of methodologies of the corporal from different angles, generally said with a theoretical and
practical background. The potential we see in our cooperation derives from the constant lack of finding
appropriate ways of translation between the insights of theoretical and practical work. The theoretical
approach will introduce three concepts that either focus or imply the concept of corporality. They will
deal with the works of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty on The Phenomenology Of The
Perception and his focus on the corporal condition in the world. Beyond that the concept of hybridity
-as a broader idea of phenomenons of the cross- targets from a postcolonial perspective global and
historical inter-lockings due to aspects of hierarchy, power and violence. The third theoretical approach
to corporality and democratic learning will be introduced by the concept of experience through stages
of alienation and reconnections by the philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer John Dewey.
Grounded on these theoretical contexts there will be a composition of the methodology of the corporal
aiming to sensitize the addressees for the vulnerability and power of the individual and the common
social body.

Keywords. Corporal Approach, Experience, Democracy, Vulnerability, Positions

Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

General description

The German sociologist Andreas Reckwitz portrays in his book „Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten“
(The Society Of Singularities) late modern societies in which extraordinarity became a core value that
is both personally seeked and socially expected. Thus one of the effects of those tendencies would be
the vanish of the common, the connecting and a crisis of the public (Reckwitz, 2017, p. 434). As we believe
that the common, the connecting and public spaces are main carriers of democracies on the social
and the governmental level we understand our pedagogical task in finding ways of connecting or re-
connecting alienated spaces through advanced particularization. For that we will focus on the concept
and methodology of corporality as key pedagogical approach to the idea of difference and connection
such as individuality and sociality. Before we introduce some aspects to methodology of the corporal, we
choose to portray theoretical foundations to that with phenomenological, postcolonial and democratic
perspectives on corporality as a key to didactics.

1.     Phenomenological theories of the body as a chiasmatic figure

In his theory about the „Phenomenology of Perception“ the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty centers
the body (more in a corporal sense) as subject, vehicle and object of understanding oneself in the world.
Leaving Edmund Husserl‘s idea of the dualism of body and mind behind Merleau-Ponty declares the
body- as a chiasmatic (Greek word for cross) connection between mind and flesh- as the centre of our
perception in the world. Thus the body is both an empirical fact and a symbol of the connection between
the transcendental level and one‘s undeniable being in the world by seeing, hearing smelling and feeling.
So our thoughts can never be independent. Or to put it differently: Our thoughts are always inter-locked
with our corporal condition and the part of the world we are directed to. Following this logic of the
corporal condition in the world the term opacity (nontransparent) makes an appearance. Due to our
visual field there will always be things we can not see, but we can imagine it to a certain extent.

An example would be that even if we are in the house and are not watching out of the window, we still
have a picture of how the house looks like from outside. But we still don‘t know what is going on there
right now (see Merleau-Ponty, 1966, 91-96). This example shows the potential of our body as vehicle to
approach to easy and complex philosophical mindgames about what we can see, understand and if so- to
what extent. With that we could ask ourselves: What do I bring with me that makes me understand or
not understand the other? And what would that mean for questions of relating to others or solidarising
with them for example in cases the of black-lives-matter movement, even if I haven’t made the experience
of being black myself. How can we put ourselves in relation to those problems without being inadequate?

By stressing the idea of the corporal Merleau-Ponty creates a figure of thought that generates both
approaches to philosophical thinking though the body as an undeniable facto of our being in the world
and a symbol of phenomenons of the cross-interlockings, just like the concept of hybridity does.

2.     Cultural theories about the banality and complexity of hybridity

The concept that ‘connects things that only seemingly do not belong‘ together is hybridity and especially
as methodological approach to interdisciplinary working. Hybridity works on a banal and a complex
level. On the banal level it states the (corporal oriented) fact that as living creatures we are all biological
and social cross- products of at least two merging entities. It opens up a view on how many past and

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

present mergings we consist of due to our chiasmatic becoming in the world (see Hosseini-Eckhardt,
2021, p.15). The rather complex level of hybridity shows itself when we take theories and discourses into
consideration that raise questions of power and its effects on people‘s ‘subjectivation‘ (see Castro Varela,
2016, p. 153 and Reckwitz, 2015, p. 189ff.). On an existential level we are all vulnerable, but seeing this
through the intersectional aspects of power it becomes obvious that there are levels of vulnerability
depending on one’s position in society and the world (class, race, gender, disabilities, direct effects of the
climate crisis). The concept of hybridity opens up many perspectives:

- It releases the view for various global and historical dimensions of social intermingling in
contexts of dominant and violent power relations in the world, such as slavery, colonization,
apartheid, wars (see Foucault, 2008, p. 38, Bhabha, 2002, p. 66ff.).

- It puts into question epistemological ‚knowledge‘ based on traditionally national and racist
normative orders of social affiliation and membership (see Adorno, 1977, 674ff.)

- It relocates the view from defining the entities of the inter-lockings to the everlasting process of
merging and becoming as a core aspect of life itself, not only in explicit migrant societies.

- Hybridity shows living examples in culture and social life for resistance to binary thinking and
definite identification, like social performances of mimicry.

3.     Theories of pedagogy and democracy

John Dewey, a pedagogue and philosopher of education and democracy states that learning requires
different stages of relating to the world. For that he leans his concept of ‚experience‘ on G.W.F. Hegel‘s
dialectical method as he sees for people the necessity of undergoing a temporary crisis. This happens
through the confrontation with new and even alien things that provoke processes of alienation in
order to search for solutions and a mental and emotional re-connection. In this re-connection there is
more than the effect of learning. It has to be understood as an enrichment on the personal level as it
describes methods to ‚Bildung‘ (see Dewey, 2000, p. 186-203). Experience means to near the world by feeling
frustration, boredom, joy and all other phases of learning. The dealing with ‘here and now‘ problems
point to a pedagogy that stresses the corporal aspect in the common space. We think that deep learning
happens a lot through experiences that include the whole body in it‘s chiasmatic or furthermore hybrid
connection to oneself and others. What makes these theoretical perspectives interesting is the emphasis
on the worth of individuality and community, such as the inner and the outer world at the same time.
Consequently, it is a pedagogical task to find ways of initiating awareness for them and experience the
worth of both.

Methodology

In order to elaborate on the methodology of the corporal we will present three approaches to our
didactical idea of the “Art of Becoming“ and the “Non- Perfect- Bodies of Democracy“.

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

1. Create a common ethical space (Validation of yourself)

The proposition of all common work, especially in consideration of topics like vulnerability and corporal
approaches, are ethical standards that shall be communicated with all participants. If you want people
to make connections to themselves and others they need to trust the common shared space. This ethics
is based on the paradoxical knowledge that all living creatures are already complete and enough in order
to be recognized as those and at the same time also are basically non-perfect and in a stage of becoming.
In her practical work with ‘vulnerable‘ schools and refugee communities in Berlin, Leicy Valenzuela states
that authentic respect and acknowledgment are the foundations of every cooperation (see Maturana,
2004 and 2008). It is essential to provide the necessary time and space for each being to be able to see and
validate him/herself in the first instance.

2. Where am I, where are we? (Awareness for the common space with others)

Common vulnerability

We initiate interviews about scars where the students can choose to tell a story about a probably hurtful
experience they had and can talk about. We draw a human body on a big sheet of paper and ask the
participants to make a cross on the place of the body where they have their scar. By this common body
with all it‘s scars we visualize the vulnerability we all share. In a further step they tell the story of their
scar to their neighbor who has to listen to it because he has to present it later to others from the first
person perspective. With this the participants practice to take a distant point of view to their own
experience by putting it into words to a stranger. The listening person learns to listen with a special
sense of responsibility to represent the other person’s story as his/her own to the public. Another effect
that comes along with this task is the need to ask many questions about the scenery and emotional
involvements while listening in order to draw a vivid picture of the moment. This story of a painful
situation is a good example for corporal approaches that help to connect to someone else’s story and
open up to feel empathy with him/her (see Anzieu, 1991, p.45ff). This exercise is very productive in ways of
connecting, but also in learning to distance oneself from public pressure. It is an exercise that can make
us aware of what we want and can share and what we cannot talk about or even don’t have words for.
Maybe this exercise can help to add to one’s prior experience or find ways of expressing it. With this in
mind we can start to think about our own and also other people’s corporal and social vulnerability, even to
an intersectional level.

Present body

We work on the psycho-physical consciousness of the group, that is, we recognize ourselves as a collective.
For this we apply „View Points methods“ which are to be seen as an open process rather than a closed
methodology” (Bogart, 2014, p.10).

For example; participants walk through the room trying to have an open unfocused gaze (see Hosseini-
Eckhardt, 2015, p. 69ff.) to train their awareness/relationship between ‘me-being somewhere with
somebody‘. After walking for a moment the group stops, closes their eyes and has to try to remember/
identify who is around them.

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3. Who are we as a group and community (recognition of one’s dependencies on others)?

Silent movements

In this exercise the group silently walks at the same time and stops at the same time, without someone
giving the signal. The group decides when to move forward and when to stop and hence practices to get a
corporal sensitivity with others without words.

Barometer of positions

For groups or circumstances where there is not much time or patience to train the above, we apply
games of questions and positioning in space. One side of the space represents 100%/ yes and the other
side represents 0%/no. The group positions itself towards questions like “How much do you like chocolate
ice cream?” or “Do you feel supported?“ aso. Participants seek their own opinion and move towards this
position in the room with significant others (see Anselm, 1995, p. 197ff.).

Watch carefully with Soft Eyes

Participants will be sent out into society/nature and take the following analytic glasses with them:
„endurance“, „skepticism“, „empathy“, “refusal to be distracted“, “What do your thoughts say about your
own cultural and social imprint?“ (Ahrens, 2012, p. 164ff.)
They will have to watch a scene of life and take on those above glasses.

Outcomes

Unlike Thomas Hobbes’ figure of the Leviathan describing the almighty power of the state, from a present
point of view, democracy rather can be shown through various aspects of a body in its fragility, constant
failures, trial and errors, but also the power of engaging, acting and resisting. The postcolonial thinker
Homi K. Bhabha refers to that power as agency. The non-perfectness (Roselt, 2006, p. 36) of democracy is
based on its actual power to deconstruct, construct and evolve.

As education requires and establishes a democratic space in which others are recognized, our being
in coexistence is influenced and modified. In this sense, our pedagogy is related to accompanying or
mobilizing processes of recognition, contemplation and reflection, so that the person achieves the
potential to learn by itself through its experiences.

Performing arts are tools to access philosophies and reflections from and towards bodies, where all share
a skin that is fragile, flexible and mutable, as well as structural bones. To reflect from the body means to
generate an experience, to ask oneself within it what it means for my existence and then to act from it
(see Ahrens, 2010, p.23).

Speaking at the beginning of this paper of tendencies of alienation and fragmentation, we may see those
observations with the above theoretical glasses differently. Optimistically, we might be able to assume
that the alienations towards politics and from other social groups might not be a sign of post democratic
times. Contrariwise, these alienations may be signaling a normal phase of democratic systems that simply

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

needs to go the next step of (re-)connecting with a broader idea and community. To us, corporal concepts
and their methodology is an auspicious concept for applications. It is a key pedagogical approach as it has
a banal and complex level and thus can address a heterogeneous group of people who all share the fact
that we all are at the same time good enough and in the process of becoming. With that the concepts and
methodologies of the corporal, hybridity and experience in democratic spaces can be understood both as
figures of thought and methodological approach that open up our view and senses to a perception of our
own position. Moving one’s body as an existential and vulnerable entity in a shared space with others and
performing and speaking out loud about corporal and social questions sets free dimensions of difference,
alienation and connection that demand an ethical save space in order to create trust and connection.

This paper‘s theoretical and practical angle was to show pedagogical impulses and settings through the
corporal approach as an acknowledgment of peoples capability to connect to others through their own
vulnerability, experiences and becoming. They shall be motivated to watch with ‚soft eyes‘ at what made
them become the person they are now. Maybe they come to see the individual and collective worth of
their being in the ‚here and now‘ space with others in the world. These theories and methodological ideas
of the corporal aim to gather various ways of practicing to consciously see, express and negotiate our
relation to others- near and far.

References

Adorno, Theodor W. (1977): Erziehung nach Auschwitz. In: Ders.: Gesammelte Schriften Band 10.2:
Kulturkritik und Gesellschaft II. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, S. 674-690.

Ahrens, Sönke (2011): Blickdehnübungen für emanzipierte Zuschauer. Die Lehren aus The Wire. In: Zahn,
Manuel/ Pazzini, Karl-Joseph (Hrsg.): Lehr-Performances. Filmische Inszenierungen des Lehrens.
Wiesbaden: VS, S. 164-173.

Ahrens, Sönke (2010): Experiment und Exploration. Bildung als experimentelle Form der Welterschließung,
Bielefeld: Transcript, S.23.

Anselm, Sigrun (1995): Grenzen trennen, Grenzen verbinden. In: Faber, Richard/ Naumann, Barbara (Hrsg.):
Literatur der Grenze – Theorie der Grenze. Würzburg: Könighausen & Neumann, S. 197-210.

Anzieu, Didier (1991): Das Haut-Ich. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, S 45ff.

Bhabha, Homi K. (2000): Die Verortung der Kultur. Tübingen: Stauffenberg, 66ff.

Bogart, Anne and Landau, Tina (2014): The viewpoints book. London: Nick Hern Books, P.10

Castro Varela, María do Mar (2016): Postkolonialität. In: Mecheril, Paul (Hrsg.): Handbuch
Migrationspädagogik. Weinheim/Basel: Beltz, S. 153.

Dewey, John (2000): Erfahrung und Denken. In: Ders.: Demokratie und Erziehung. Eine Einleitung in die
philosophische Pädagogik. Weinheim/ Basel: Beltz, S. 186-203.

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Foucault, Michel (2008): Dispositive der Macht. Über Sexualität, Wissen und Wahrheit. Berlin: Merve, S. 38.

Hosseini-Eckhardt, Nushin (2015): Ambivalenz der Perspektiven. Wie Denkfiguren der Komplexität gerecht
werden sollen. In: Kammeyer, Katharina/ Roebben, Bert/ Britta Baumert (Hrsg.): Zu Wort kommen
lassen. Narration als Zugang zur Inklusion. Beiträge zur diakonisch-caritativen Disability Studies,
Bd. 9. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, S. 69-80.

Hosseini-Eckhardt, Nushin (2021): Zugänge zu Hybridität. Theoretische Grundlagen- Methoden-

pädagogische Denkfiguren. Bielefeld: Transcript, S.15.

Maturana Romesín, Humberto (2004): Transformación en la convivencia. Santiago: J.C.Sáez editor.

Maturana Romesín, Humberto (2008): The origin of humanness in the biology of love. USA: Imprint
academic, Philosophy documentation Center.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1966): Phänomenologie der Wahrnehmung. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., S. 3-18,
91-96.

Reckwitz, Andreas (2015): Drei Versionen des Hybriden. Ethnische, kulturelle und soziale Hybriditäten. In:
Kron, Thomas (Hrsg.): Hybride Sozialität - soziale Hybridität. Weilerswist: Velbrück Wissenschaft, S.
187-246.

Reckwitz, Andreas (2017): Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten. Zum Strukturwandel der Moderne. Berlin:
Suhrkamp, S. 434.

Roselt, Jens (2006): Die Arbeit am Nicht-Perfekten”. In: Fischer-Lichte,Erika (Hrsg.)  “Wege der
Wahrnehmung”. Deutschland: Theater der Zeit, S.36

31
Resilience in a postcard

Judit Onsès-Segarra 1
[email protected]

Verónica Hurtubia 2
[email protected]

Anna Forés 3
[email protected]

1
University of Girona
2
Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano
3
University of Barcelona

Abstract

Resilience is a concept that is easy to explain, but difficult to promote in society and even more
so in the university educational environment. The European lockdown due to covid-19 pandemic
affected university students in several dimensions: emotionally, socially, psychologically. That led to
disengagement for studies. In this way, we as teachers decided to change our teaching practices and
propose creative methods with the aim of weaving bonds between students. This contribution presents
a part of qualitative research with mixed analysis methods that explores degrees of resilience of students
from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano and the University of Barcelona through an
exchange of postcards during the months of total confinement in Spain and Italy during March and April
2020.

For this paper we focus on one of the creative methods used: postcards of resilience. During two weeks,
students from University of Barcelona and from the Universidad Católica de Sacro Cuore Milán (UCSC)
were sending postcards between themselves without knowing each other. The results reveal how the
postcards worked as visual-textual resilience devices, allowed to create affective bonds between students
who did not know each other previously, as well as to activate empathy strategies between them and the
situation they were living in.

Keywords. Resilience, Higher Education, Creative Methods, Covid-19, Postcards

Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

General description

In March 2020, at the onset of the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, better known as COVID-19,
(World Health Organization [WHO] 2020) governments began taking various health measures and
reducing social contact situations to restrict the risk of contagion. These measures (voluntary and
mandatory) involved a radical reduction of social contact interactions, closing many public buildings
(such as bars and restaurants, concert halls, cinemas and theatres), even schools and universities. All this
led to the emergence of new possibilities for sharing emotions and maintaining social ties, as opposed to
policies of physical-social distancing (Hurtubia et al., 2020). In the latter cases, educational communities
began to seek new forms of social interaction, avoiding physical contact as much as possible. Thus, classes
shifted from face-to-face to virtual teaching.

In addition, the impossibility of visiting family members, the adoption of teleworking and unemployment
made many individuals and families feel isolated and without social support. This impacted on both the
mental health and well-being of many citizens (Brooks et al. 2020; Goldschmidt 2020). In many situations,
these same measures increased symptomatology and/or psychological distress in the population, showing
relevant increases in terms of anxious and depressive symptoms (Barzilay et al., 2020; Li et al., 2021).

In this new context, university professors were encouraged by governmental institutions to look for
new ways to address the learning crisis (United Nations 2020) and to improve pedagogical practices in
the midst of the pandemic (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] 2020). At
that time, three professors from two different universities and countries wondered what contributions
the resilience approach could make to improve and adapt our educational methodologies. Especially in
university students, where recent studies confirmed that in the two countries involved in the research,
86% of parents observed emotional and behavioural changes in their children (Orgilés et al. 2020).
And, according to Save the Children (2020), the lockdown in spring 2020 affected university students in
several dimensions: emotionally, socially and psychologically. This caused, among other effects, students’
demotivation and loss of interest in their studies.

Faced with this situation, a series of emotional and technological support initiatives were triggered, many
of them of a resilient nature. Resilience can be understood as a process of social construction in which
personal and environmental variables mediate, and is a powerful strategy for dealing with change and
uncertainty. In this case, the uncertainty generated by COVID-19 helps to dialogue with changes and
accept them as a functional part of the systems (Forés & Grané, 2008; Vanistendael, 2001).

The subject and his or her educational space are determined by social, cultural, political and religious
variables that mark his or her identity (Sen 2007). Furthermore, according to Sara Bonati and Martinho
P. Mendes (2014, 165), “educational strategies should promote awareness of the potential capacity of
communities to respond and increase individual and collective resilience”. According to Boris Cyrulnik
(2002), bonding and affectivity emerge as two basic and fundamental pillars of resilience, not only to
prevent trauma but also for the full healthy emotional development of people.

On the other hand, in order to achieve resignification and post-traumatic growth, creative languages
are a strategy to promote resilience, as they are a channel of communication and expression. According
to several authors, creative methods are useful for overcoming life changes and relieving stress (Irwin
2006; Theron 2012); they bring reflective awareness (Archer 2017), and community health (Siles 2019). Art
creates internal and external mobilisation: “it keeps distance from emotion and allows us to take charge
of the situation (...). Because emotion is transformed, metamorphosed” (Cyrulnik 2010, 73). Within creative

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

methods, recent studies are exploring the potential of the postcard in research (Gugganig and Schor 2020);
for bonding and fostering resilience in historical moments of crisis such as the First World War (Mayhew
2019); and for improving the education system (Archer 2017; Harris and Rawlinson 2020), for example, to
catalyse “levels of student engagement, creativity and motivation” (Archer 2017, 92).

Along these lines, as teachers faced with the challenge of introducing changes in our teaching practices
that would better respond to the crisis situation, we looked for some attractive proposals for our students.
Given that the three of us were teaching in two different countries, Spain and Italy, we thought that a
conversation between our students could be interesting. Inviting them to share their discomfort, worries
and moods with students they did not know but who were living similar situations, could perhaps help
them to overcome the stressful and heartbreaking situation of confinement they were living. Thus, a
digital postcard exchange exercise was proposed. The aim of this project was to put into practice creative
methods to create affective bonds between university students during the period of confinement in order
to develop resilience strategies.

The idea of proposing an exchange of postcards between students from universities in different countries
was born from the conjunction between art, resilience and the pandemic caused by Covid-19. Through
the creation of digital postcards, students were invited to engage in an exercise of introspection, to
understand a complex reality they had never experienced before, and to express and share their emotions
through artistic expression.

Methodology

The activity was presented to students from both universities through the following prompt: write a
digital postcard to an unknown student from another country sharing with him/her through images and
a reflective text how they felt and how were their social relations of the moment of confinement they
were living.

The postcard exchange took place during April 2020 between students of the University of Barcelona
course and students of the Master in Aid Relations in Development Contexts and National and
International Cooperation of the Catholic University of Sacro Cuore Milan (UCSC).

The students exchanged virtual postcards under the coordination of the professors (three in total), who
also participated in the exchange. Students from both countries were previously informed of the aim of
this activity and agreed to participate in it on a voluntary and confidential basis. The exchange consisted
of sending a first postcard and, after receiving the postcard from students in the other country, writing a
second postcard in response.

By visually and textually analysing the postcards, we realised that they did indeed function as a
strategy to foster resilience among students. In the first postcards, the predominant images were related
to windows, screens, natural elements, hearts and hugs, as well as images that conveyed a sense of
togetherness and a willingness to build bridges and bonds (Figure 1, Figure 2). As for the text, the tone was
one of distress, of things they could not do, and of longing.

As for the second mailing of postcards, the images of natural elements increased, there were fewer hearts
and hugs (perhaps they did not miss them so much) and, instead, there were more images linked to covid

34
Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

in a global way (Figure 3, Figure 4), as well as a message of care and union not between two or three people
as in the first mailing, but with people from all over the world. In addition, on a textual level, the messages
were generally more hopeful and heartfelt.

Welcome to
my happily busy

quarantine!

Figure 1. Poscard from a student Figure 2. Poscard from a student

Hola Anna, es un placer recibir tu mensaje y compartir este momento muy complicado
contigo.
Como tu, estoy descubriendo el significado de la palabra "casa" como un lugar donde poder
pararse para aprender a estar con sigo mismos, y adquirir los instrumentos que
necesitamos para volvernos personas mejores y mas junto en un dolor y una lucha comun.
Me gusta pensar a este tiempo de cuarantena, como un largo momento de ayuno donde
nuestro espiritu pueda purificarse y rinacer, y volver a vivir en el mundo, una mañana, con
ojos mas hambrientos de antes.
Un abrazo lleno de amor a ti, y a todo el mundo

DŝůĂŶŽ͕ϮϬƉƌŝůĞϮϬϮϬ


ŝĂŽ>ĂƵƌĂ͕
'ƌĂnjŝĞƉĞƌůĂƚƵĂĐĂƌƚŽůŝŶĂ͕ğǀĞƌŽĐŚĞůĂƐĂůƵƚĞğƵŶĚŝƌŝƚƚŽƵŶŝǀĞƌƐĂůĞĐŚĞĚĞǀĞĞƐƐĞƌĞƚƵƚĞůĂƚŽ
ƉĞƌžƉĞŶƐŝĂŵŽĂŶĐŚĞĐŚĞƵŶĂůƚƌŽŐƌĂŶĚĞƉƌŽďůĞŵĂ͕ĚĂƚŽĚĂůůĂƉĂŶĚĞŵŝĂ͕ƐŝĂĚŝŶĂƚƵƌĂ
ĞĐŽŶŽŵŝĐĂ͘^ƉĞƌŝĂŵŽŝŶĨĂƚƚŝĐŚĞƚƵƚƚŝŝƉĂĞƐŝƚƌŽǀŝŶŽŝůŵŽĚŽƉĞƌƌŝƵƐĐŝƌĞĂĚĂŝƵƚĂƌƐŝĂǀŝĐĞŶĚĂ͘
YƵĂŶĚŽƚƵƚƚŽƐĂƌăĨŝŶŝƚŽĂŶĐŚĞŶŽŝƐƉĞƌŝĂŵŽĐŚĞŝůŵŽŶĚŽĚĂƌăŝůŐŝƵƐƚŽƉĞƐŽĂůůĞĐŽƐĞǀĞƌĂŵĞŶƚĞ
ŝŵƉŽƌƚĂŶƚŝ͘
^ƉĞƌŝĂŵŽĚŝƉŽƚĞƌƚŽƌŶĂƌĞƉƌĞƐƚŽĂǀŝĂŐŐŝĂƌĞ͕ĂďĂĐŝĂƌƐŝ͕ĂĚĂďďƌĂĐĐŝĂƌĐŝĞĂƐƚĂƌĞŝŶƐŝĞŵĞ͘

hŶĐĂƌŽƐĂůƵƚŽ͕
ůĞƐƐĂŶĚƌĂĞ&ƌĂŶĐĞƐĐĂ͘

Figure 3. Poscard from a student Figure 4. Poscard from a student

Outcomes

The postcard exchange functioned as a vehicle for visualising self-transformation and changes in the
students’ lives, as well as a strategy for fostering resilience. It also made it possible to create a conversation
among the students about their lives during confinement, allowing them to attend to their tangible
discomforts and to situate their experiences as an embodiment of creative resilience within their
sensibilities.

Moreover, this kind of proposal opens up new approaches to explore visual methodologies in educational
research, much needed to overcome the “limits of words and things” in research. One of the reasons that
led us to make the resilience postcards was to look for strategies for resilience in the health crisis itself.

35
Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 1. Artistic Methods in Research

The use of technology in favour of bonding, from the perspective that all the studies on resilience showed
that maintaining links with significant others was key to resilience in pandemics (Benitez, Corona and
Tartakowsky, 2021) and that in educational spaces, feeling part of communities helped enormously to
generate resilience.

The experience was very meaningful and highly valued by students in the two countries.

References

Archer, C. (2017). Practice into Pedagogy into Practice: Collaborative Postcards from Hong Kong. The
International Journal of Art & Design education 36 (1): 92–105. doi:10.1111/jade.12072.

Barzilay, R.; Moore, T. M.; Greenberg, D. M.; DiDomenico, G. E.; Brown, L. A.; White, L. K.; Gur, R.C.; Gur, R.
E. (2020). Resilience, COVID- 19-related stress, anxiety, and depression during the pandemic in a
large population enriched for healthcare providers. Translational Psychiatry, 10(1),291. https://doi.
org/10.1038/s41398-020-00982-4

Benítez CoronaL., Martínez RodríguezR. C., & Tartakowsky PezoaV. (2021). La importancia del vínculo en la
resiliencia familiar durante el Covid-19. DEDiCA Revista De Educação E Humanidades (dreh), 18, 173-
191. https://doi.org/10.30827/dreh.vi18.18015

Bonati, S., and Martinho P. M. (2014). Building Participation to Reduce Vulnerability: How Can Local
Educational Strategies Promote Global Resilience? A Case Study in Funchal – Madeira Island.
Procedia Economics and Finance 18, 165–172. doi:10.1016/S2212-5671(14)00927-7.

Brooks, S. K., Webster, R.K., Smith, L.E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N. and Gideon, J. R. (2020).
The Psychological Impact of Quarantine and how to Reduce it: Rapid Review of the Evidence. The
Lancet 395 (10227), 912–920. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8.

Cyrulnik, B. (2002). Los patitos feos. La resiliencia: una infancia infeliz no determina la vida. (Tomás
Fernández-Aúz and Beatriz Eguibar, trans.). Barcelona: Gedisa.

Cyrulnik, B. (2010). Me acuerdo: el exilio de la infancia. (Rosa-María Sallera-Puig, trans.). Barcelona: Gedisa.

Forés, A.; Grané, J. (2008). La resiliencia. Crecer desde la adversidad. Barcelona (España): Plataforma.

Goldschmidt, K. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic: Technology Use to Support the Wellbeing of Children.
Journal of Pediatric Nursing 53, 88–90. doi:10.1016/j.pedn.2020.04.013.

Gugganig, M., and Schor, S. (2020). Multimodal Ethnography in/of/as Postcards. American Anthropologist
122 (3): 691-697. doi:10.1111/aman.13435.

Harris, D. and Rawlinson, F. (2020). Do ‘Virtual Postcards’ Enhance Blended Learning? The Clinical Teacher
17 (5): 503–507. doi:10.1111/tct.13124.

Hurtubia, V., Forés, A., Martínez, R., Benítez, L., & Acuña, M. (2020). COVID-19 resilience and neuroscience.
Journal of Applied Cognitive Neuroscience, 1(1), 52–57.

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Irwin, E. C. (2006). Peter: A Study of Cumulative Trauma: From ‘Robot’ to ‘Regular Guy. In L. Carey, (ed.)
Expressive and Creative Arts Methods for Trauma Survivors (pp. 93–113). London: Jessica Kingsley
Publishers.

Li, Y., Zhao, J., Ma, Z., McReynolds, L. S., Lin, D., Chen, Z., Wang, T., Wang, D., Zhang, Y., Zhang, J., Fan, F., & Liu,
X. (2021). Mental Health Among College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: A 2-Wave
Longitudinal Survey. Journal of Affective Disorders, 281, 597–604. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.11.109

Mayhew, Alex. (2019). ‘A War Imagined’: Postcards and the Maintenance of Long-Distance Relationships
during the Great War. War in History 28 (2), 301–332. doi: 10.1177/0968344519831039.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] (2020). Lessons for Education
from COVID-19: A Policy Maker’s Handbook for More Resilient Systems. OECD Publishing.
doi:10.1787/0a530888-en.

Orgilés, M., Morales, A., Delvecchio, E., Francisco, R., Mazzeschi, C., Pedro, M., and Pedro-Espada, J. (2020).
Coping Behaviors and Psychological Disturbances in Youth Affected by the COVID-19 Health Crisis.
Frontiers in Psychology 12 (565657), 1–9. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.565657.

Save the Children (2020, May 8). Save the Children advierte de que las medidas de aislamiento social por
la covid-19 pueden provocar en los niños y niñas trastornos psicológicos permanentes como la
depresión. https://www.savethechildren.es/notasprensa/save-children-advierte-de-que-las-medidas-
de-aislamiento-social-por-la-covid-19-pueden

Sen, A. (2007). Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. London: Penguin Books.

Siles, S. (2019). Art and Creativity as New Wellbeing Ways. The First Phase of ARTYS. La Experimental,
Art and Community Health in the Colonia Experimental of Villaverde Alto (Madrid). Educación
Artística Revista de Investigación [EARI] 10, 150–167. doi:10.7203/eari.10.12608.

Theron, L. C. (2012). Does visual participatory research have resilience-promoting value? Teacher
experiences of generating and interpreting drawings. South African Journal of Education 32 (4),
381–392.

United Nations (2020, August). Informe de políticas: La educación durante la COVID-19 y después de ella
[Policy Brief: Education during COVID-19 and Beyond]. https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/
policy_brief_-_education_during_covid-19_and_beyond_spanish.pdf

Vanistendael, S. (2001). La resiliencia en lo cotidiano. In Manciaux, M. (Comp.), La resiliencia:resistir y

rehacerse (pp. 237). Buenos Aires (Argentina): Gedisa.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2020, March 11). “WHO director general’s opening remarks at the media
briefing on COVID-19. World Health Organization website,. https://www.who.int/director-general/
speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-
march-2020

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2. Innovative Estrategies for
Enhancing Teaching
Collectivities of Secondary School Arts Teachers and
Field Researchers in Unpredictable Arts Educational
(Research) Practices

Tobias Frenssen
[email protected]

Laura Tamassia
[email protected]

University Colleges Leuven-Limburg (UCLL)

Abstract

One of today’s European trends in education puts teacher teams and team teaching in the spotlight,
as favorable with respect to individual, ‘isolated’ teachers (EC, 2015, 2017). Arts teachers, for example, are
often employed in interdisciplinary teams because of the expectation that they can make creative and
solution-oriented contributions in interdisciplinary projects. While this evolution might be presented
under the self-evident motto ‘stronger together’ inside and outside the classroom, inspection of
educational policy documents and observation of practices in schools reveal a multiplicity of functional
roles and responsibilities assigned to groups of teachers, in relation to the implementation and control
of new educational policy requirements, and to the use of teacher-team dynamics for effectiveness and
efficiency-driven innovation (Frenssen, Tamassia, 2020). Today’s arts teachers in schools are confronted
with this.

Keywords. Research on Arts Education, Arts Pedagogy, Philosophy of the Arts and Education, Team
Teaching, Arts as a Subject, Section (Group) of Arts Teachers
Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 2. Innovative estrategies for enhacing teaching

General description

Context

One of today’s European trends in education puts teacher teams and team teaching in the spotlight,
as favorable with respect to individual, ‘isolated’ teachers (EC, 2015, 2017). Arts teachers, for example, are
often employed in interdisciplinary teams because of the expectation that they can make creative and
solution-oriented contributions in interdisciplinary projects. While this evolution might be presented
under the self-evident motto ‘stronger together’ inside and outside the classroom, inspection of
educational policy documents and observation of practices in schools reveal a multiplicity of functional
roles and responsibilities assigned to groups of teachers, in relation to the implementation and control
of new educational policy requirements, and to the use of teacher-team dynamics for effectiveness and
efficiency-driven innovation (Frenssen, Tamassia, 2020). Today’s arts teachers in schools are confronted
with this.

Topic

This arts educational research project is a reaction to these practices. We explored the possibilities for
being together and teaching together as subject-matter arts teachers in a secondary school. With the arts
teachers we started not from external requirements and obligations in relation to policy and innovation,
but from the own deep and shared love for the subject of arts (pedagogy).

The research project was a three-year project. These were turbulent years: schools had to impose new
curricula, teachers had to implement new teaching objectives in practice and corona provided an adapted
school routine. In this paper presentation we look at the way the teachers as a collective started to
commemorate their arts classes, and how they decided to develop a lesson together. The process through
which the involved teachers went, is accurately mapped and presented in the publication of NW 29 from
last year. There is attention for (1) the way their lesson was designed together and (2) the arts pedagogic
positions of the teachers (in relation to content, students and colleagues) in the team-taught lesson.

Research Question

How can a collective of eight subject-matter arts teachers, in cooperation with a small collective of field
researchers, achieve a collective practice as a form of team teaching, that is initiated from the own deep
and shared love for the subject of arts (pedagogy)?

Theoretical Framework

In the theoretical part of this study we were inspired by the work by Jacques Rancière, Gert Biesta, Jan
Masschelein, Maarten Simons, Elizabeth Ellsworth and Tyson Lewis. It is also these authors who make us
think about the place of research in the practice context of a secondary school.

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 2. Innovative estrategies for enhacing teaching

European/international dimension

Team teaching is currently receiving lots of attention, not only at the level of educational policy, but also
within educational research in the European context. This is not new, team-teaching has been a “hot
topic” for some time (e.g. Murphy, Scantlebury 2010). The concept whereby different teachers stand in
front of the class seems to intrigue researchers. However, the approach in articles about team-teaching is
often practical-organizational.

The project we present is innovative because it explores the possibilities of teachers teaching together
starting from the figure of the subject-matter teacher, and not replacing it by something else or ignoring
it. By considering the possible intertwining of the educational concept ‘team teaching’ with the subject-
specific knowledge and practices of a secondary school teacher, we arrived at a different educational
concept: the pedagogic collective of teachers.

The teachers and researchers in this study work in Belgium. However, the turbulent educational
landscape is not a typical characteristic of education in this country. Our reflections on the unpredictable
and precarious character of educational (research) practices in these conditions, and how small
collectivities coped with that, are of relevance for researchers in other European countries.

Methodology

Context in which the research method must be placed

- practice-oriented research
- concrete case study
- aim: mapping the explorative route of a collective of teachers in the world of the subject of arts

Method: ethnographic research

Our practice-oriented work can be placed in the tradition of critical school ethnography. We applied this
in a project aimed at exposing problems and limitations of team teaching in the context of secondary
education. Here we worked with arts teachers. Our focus was on the subject-specific cooperation of
teachers in the context of a subject group.

In the initial phase of our research, we started from literature and document study. Gradually, insights
were interwoven with field studies. Literature, documents and practices were in constant dialogue with
each other. This interplay opened up our research path.

Field work with section groups of arts teachers

The section group of arts teachers is anchored in the fibers of a school culture. We went through a
practical cycle with the school-bound section group of arts teachers. During the cycle we refined our
answer to the research question. After the literature study, the first versions of the design strategies,
teaching positions and actions were created.

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 2. Innovative estrategies for enhacing teaching

Data processing method

The data from the document and literature study is handled according to the method of systematic
review. We start from a set of key terms. These key terms are refined and adjusted through confrontation
with literature. We process the data from the case study in the secondary school through ethnographic
research. We opt for this because there are already many perceptions about the concepts of team teaching
and team learning in secondary education. The ethnographic methodology offers us the opportunity to
analyze the complexity of a school-bound educational community. The ethnographic approach is in line
with the way we work with the section groups of arts teachers. The researcher consciously thinks about
his role within the research context, in this case in his work with the section group. The insights that
come from this analysis are fed by conscious questioning the activities. In the second phase, the proposed
design strategies, teaching positions and actions are explored and used.

Outcomes

- A collective of arts teachers, an underestimated dimension: Within the group of arts teachers, there is a
resistance to concepts such as team teaching, as they are often used in schools to achieve external goals.
These goals are outside the field of the arts (education). A collective that starts from a focus on content
offers opportunities to express the relationship between subject, school and policy from the position of
the subject-matter arts teachers.

- Arts as a connecting element: Letting the group work is often forgotten in team teaching. Not from
practical considerations, but from content. In this project, the love of art proves to install an unexpected
connection between the teachers. Before this project, mainly practical organizational issues were on the
agenda in the section. The notion of speaking as a group was not present at the time. The project caused a
shift.

- Collectivity gives a voice: The collective dimension is a dimension that offers a lot of security. The
collective gives the arts teachers in this school a voice toward the school community and a voice towards
school policy.

- The collective as an artistic concept: The concept ‘collective’ has a tradition in the arts. It is given
different interpretations. It is interesting to put the concept within arts education in relation to this
concept within the arts. Some artistic collectives give a lot of space to the autonomy of the individual
artists involved. Other collectives leave little room for the freedom of these artists. The collective of
teachers we have worked with in this school leaves a lot of autonomy for the individual. The collective
dimension also arises in working together outside the classroom. There is no obligation for collectivity
during the lessons.

References

Biesta, G. (2010). A new logic of emancipation: the methodology of Jacques Rancière. Educational theory,
33(1), 39-59.

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Biesta, G. (2017). Letting art teach - art education ‘after’ Joseph Beuys. Arnhem: Artez Press.

Craig, C.J. (1998). The influence of context on one teacher’s interpretative knowledge of team teaching.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 14 (4), 371-383.

EC – European Commission (2015). Strengthening teaching in Europe.

https://ec.europa.eu/assets/eac/education/library/policy/teaching-profession-practices_en.pdf

EC - European Commission – European Political Strategy Centre (2017). Ten trends transforming education
as we know it.
https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/227c6186-10d0-11ea-8c1f-01aa75ed71a1

Ellsworth, E. (1997). Teaching positions: Difference, pedagogy, and the power of address. New York: Teachers
College Press.

Erickson, F. (1984). What Makes School Ethnography ‘Ethnographic’? Anthropology and Education
Quarterly, 15, 51-66.

Frenssen, T, Tamassia, L. (2020). Inspiratiegids Integrale Opdrachten – Glimpen uit een verrassend
onderzoeksproject. Diepenbeek: Art of Teaching.

Gordon, T., Janet, H., & elina, L. (2001). Ethnographic Research in Educational Settings. In P. Atkinson, A.
Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland, & L. Lofland, Handbook of Ethnography (pp. 188-203). London: Sage
Publications.

Lewis, T. E. (2015). Suspending the Ontology of Effectiveness in Education: Reclaiming the Theatrical
Gestures of the Ineffective Teacher. In T. E. Lewis, & M. J. Laverty, Art’s Teachings, Teaching’s Art -
Philosophical, Critical and Educational Musings (pp. 165-178). Dordrecht: Springer.

Masschelein, J., & Simons, M. (2012). Apologie van de school - Een publieke zaak. Leuven: Acco.

Meirsschaut, M., & Ruys, I. (2017). Team teaching: Wat, waarom, hoe en met welke resultaten? Een
verkenning van de literatuur. Eindrapport literatuurstudie. Steunpunt Onderwijsonderzoek, Gent.

Murphy, C., & Scantlebury, K. (2010). Coteaching in International Contexts - Research and Practice. Springer.

Pink, S. (2008). An urban tour - The sensory sociality of ethnographic place-making . Ethnography , 9 (2),
175-196.

Rancière, J. (1991). The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five lessons in intellectual emancipation. Stanford, Calif:
Stanford University Press.

Rancière, J. (2010). The emancipated spectator. London: Verso.

Scruggs, T.E., Mastropieri, M.A., & McDuffie, K.A. (2007). Co-teaching in inclusive classrooms: A
metasynthesis of qualitative research. Exceptional Children, 73 (4), 392-416.

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Valckx J., De Neve D. & Devos G. (2016), De rol van vakgroepen bij de professionele ontwikkeling van
leraren secundair onderwijs, Steunpunt Studie- en Schoolloopbanen, Leuven.

York-Barr, J., Ghere, Gail & Sommerness, J. (2007). Collaborative teaching to increase ELL student learning:
A three-year urban elementary case study. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 12 (3),
301-355.

44
Service Learning in Teacher Education Curriculum: a
Study in the Viennese Context

Michaela Steed-Vamos 1
[email protected]

Rolf Laven1
[email protected]

Seyda Subasi Singh 2

[email protected]

1
University College of Teacher Education Vienna
2
University of Vienna

Abstract

This study aimed to provide a conceptual reflection on Service Learning through arts education at
the tertiary level. In Service Learning as in many other areas, the role of art is poorly understood. This
study used several methods to reach the attitudes of pre-service teachers toward Service Learning and
the inclusion of Service Learning in the curriculum of art based courses in primary teacher education.
In addition to pre-service teachers, teacher educators and teachers were included in the study to have
a holistic perspective about the promotion of Service Learning through art-based courses in teacher
education. The study was conducted in Vienna and the setting of the study was the courses on art-based
subjects such as drawing, textile and handicraft where a Service Learning project was implemented.

A questionnaire was applied to 50 pre-service teachers who rated the importance of Service Learning
through a rating scale (5 point-Likert-scale) while teachers and teacher educators were surveyed through
semi-structured questionnaires. Questionnaires were analyzed to reach descriptive statistics on the rating
scale through the SPSS program and the questionnaires were analysed through content analysis. The
study showed that pre-service teachers believe that Service Learning offers excellent opportunities for
art-based subjects in the field of art education, textile and crafts and it revealed the areas that require
improvement in the curriculum. Besides the rating-scale findings, teachers and teacher educators
emphasized the necessity of expanding Service Learning to a greater part of the curriculum in teacher
education.

Keywords. Service Learning, Voluntary Work, Social Engagement, Art Education

Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 2. Innovative estrategies for enhacing teaching

This Study

Service Learning, also called Engaged Learning or Civic Education, takes place through voluntary
engagement outside the classroom in addition to learning in the classroom. Service Learning through
engagement is a form of teaching and learning which combines social engagement and subject learning
(Seifert, Zentner & Nagy, 2012). It can enhance learning by overcoming the gap between theory and
practices, increasing the employability chances, developing job-related knowledge such as teamwork,
communication and improving civic responsibility. This definitely supports the achievement of social
cohesion and identifying members of the society as valuable assets beyond their potential employability
as a workforce (GEAR, 2021).

In educational theory, the demand for social commitment and responsibility in educational institutions is
not new. Service Learning has its origins in the educational pragmatism of John Dewey (Sporer, 2011, p.70).
The social philosopher Dewey, an important pioneer of modern pedagogy, is regarded as the mastermind
of action and experience-oriented ´pragmatic learning` (Laven, 2006, p.145.). This was understood
to be brought about by the process of globalization, with a particularly strong role of media and
telecommunications that bridge the local and global (Jameson & Miyoshi, 1998). This cultural dimension,
this clash of cultures` (Huntington, 2015) or as described in the visual and art sciences as the “iconic turn”
(Boehm, 1994, p.11-38), can better be questioned through the individual aesthetic/artistic discussion.

Service Learning promotes understanding of diversity and mutual respect among all participants
(Reinders, 2016, p.24). Diversity is therefore one approach to Service Learning and linked with the art
and culture it provides. However, in Service Learning as in many other areas, the role of art is poorly
understood. Concurrently, arts participation is falling among younger adults and with it most forms of
civic and social engagement (National Endowment for the Arts, 2009, p.1).

On the other hand, Europe has an increasing interest in Service Learning and its embedment in the
school curriculum as a methodology to engage students in activities where they can learn about
community needs and develop civic responsibility and social inclusion (EUROSTAT, 2019). The lack of
social and civic competencies, especially among the youth, in Europe has been the topic of research, policy
documents as well as needs assessment reports, which concluded that the lack of such competencies
aggravates the situation for the early school leavers (Brunello & De Paola, 2014; Widmar, 2015). The
analysis of several cases from different European countries has proven that Service Learning is, however,
effective in enhancing social and civic competencies, especially when achieved in higher education.
Hence, transmitting the skills and competencies that guarantee the required professional and personal
development is an important task for universities especially for teacher education departments.

In Austria, Service Learning is seen as a didactic method and it is relatively new for (higher) education.
Hence, as stated by Fernandez & Slepcevic-Zach (2017), Service Learning is hardly the topic of any
publications. However, a growing interest in the Service Learning approach can be observed in line
with the renewed awareness of the civil society tasks of universities and colleges following the Bologna
process, which may be in the sense of a third mission or the discourse of an “engaged university”
(Lassnigg, Trippl, Sinozic, & Auer, 2012). The institutional anchoring of Service Learning in Austria is not
bound to a national policy. However, it is subject to that of the individual universities themselves. Recent
development related to Service Learning in Austria has put a focus on academic teacher education, where
the possibilities and forms of using Service Learning in various modes of university-school collaboration
are being discussed increasingly (Resch & Schrittesser, 2019; Weber et al., 2018).

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 2. Innovative estrategies for enhacing teaching

The present work therefore aims to provide an initial conceptual reflection on Service Learning through
art education in Austrian teacher education. The overarching question is that of the possible link between
art and Service Learning and the integration of Service Learning to the teacher education curriculum
(Weinlich, Laven, 2020). Based on the notion that art is changing the potential of Service Learning, this
study initially aimed to investigate which attitudes Austrian pre-service teachers have towards Service
Learning. Secondly, the study wanted to see if and how their attitudes are shared by practitioners such as
teachers. Thirdly, teacher educators were included to investigate the readiness to increase the existence of
Service Learning in the teacher education curriculum.

Methodology

The study was conducted in the context of an Erasmus+ Project on Service Learning at the University
College of Teachers Training in Vienna. Within SLUSIK Project (Service Learning – Upscaling Social
Inclusion for Kids) with partners from Belgium, Croatia Ireland, Slovakia and Spain, the University
College is engaged in developing toolkits and training materials for teachers to support the promotion
of social inclusion, the acquisition of social and civic competencies as well as scaling up good practices
of Service Learning with the help of engagement of teachers and teacher educators already engaged in
Service Learning activities.

The participants of the study were teacher educators who include Service Learning in their teaching
methods, teachers who work in the practice school of the University College in Vienna and the pre-
service teachers who are primary school teacher candidates taking the courses with a special focus on
art. Teacher educators and teachers were selected by focusing on their previous experiences in Service
Learning context. Teachers and teacher educators who are already engaged in Service Learning projects
in their schools and higher education institution were reached and included in the study as data-rich
sources. On the other hand, pre-service teachers were selected conveniently from the three art-based
courses offered in the primary teacher education curriculum where a Service Learning project was
implemented under the guidance of the course instructor. The participation in the study was on a
voluntary basis after informed consent and the confidentiality and anonymity of the personal data was
achieved through taking ethical steps in line with the regulations of University College.

This study used several methods to reach the attitudes of pre-service teachers, teachers and teacher
educators in art-based education toward Service Learning and the inclusion of Service Learning in the
curriculum of teacher education. The data were collected through interviews and questionnaires. The
setting was three art-based courses, such as drawing, textile and handicraft. The questionnaire was
developed after a systematic review of the literature on the integration of Service Learning in the teacher
education curriculum. After identifying the main competencies that Service Learning can improve,
several items were developed by the authors who are also teacher educators. Three of the authors went
over the items individually and together to refine them and decide which items should be included in
the rating scale. After deciding which items to include, a questionnaire with questions about background
information and 10 items for the rating scale was developed. Pre-service teachers rated their agreement
on ten rating scale items.

The questionnaire was applied to 50 pre-service teachers at the end of the semester after the completion
of Service Learning projects. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 teachers and 5 teacher
educators including questions to systematize and complement the data retrieved from questionnaires. As
the course instructors, the authors also included observation through the semester to triangulate the data
and to interpret the findings of the questionnaire and interviews. Questionnaires were analyzed to reach

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descriptive statistics on the rating scale through SPSS, where data from interviews were analyzed to reach
themes rather than smaller chunks or codes. Larger categories, in other words, domains (Spradley, 1980)
were generated and the data were not quantified. The domains were semantically related to each other
and grouped under main themes to support the data from questionnaires. Three authors’ independent
domain analyses assured intercoder agreement.

Conclusions

The study showed that pre-service teachers think Service Learning can offer opportunities to improve
required teacher competencies and Service Learning can be embedded in art-based subjects in the field of
art education, textile and crafts. In addition, the study revealed the areas that require improvement in the
curriculum based on the answers of the teachers, teacher educators and the pre-service teachers.
The analysis of the rating scale showed that pre-service teachers believe in the necessity of integration
Service Learning in the teacher education curriculum. They strongly agreed that Service Learning
projects can help to develop competencies:

− To work with diverse groups and to respond to the diverse needs of society
− To build links between school and community
− To grow not only as a teacher but also as a community member
− To take initiatives to engage in social problems

The items on the scale that pre-service teachers agreed were:

− Participating in Service Learning project can increase one’s concern for the well-being of others
− Service Learning projects can help to identify social challenges of disadvantaged groups
− Service Learning can help to develop an appreciation for the world out of the classroom
− Service Learning projects should be included in the teacher education curriculum

On the other hand, pre-service teachers seemed more suspicious about two items by rating their
agreement as somewhat. Pre-service teachers were not so sure about the impact of Service Learning in
terms of developing leadership skills and reaching different layers of society.
The interviews with teachers and teacher educators revealed that Service Learning is a topic that interests
the majority of education professionals however the engagement of the practitioners in Service Learning
is very limited due to several factors. The domains reached can be summarized as: lack of support system,
issues with teacher education curriculum, inflexibility of the systems. The list of the identified challenges
can be listed as:

− Not enough support system for teachers and education professionals on how to implement
Service Learning SL
− Not enough explicit focus on SL in the school curriculum
− Not enough efforts in teacher education to train teachers for SL
− Not enough in-service training) for teachers about SL
− Not enough flexibility within the school curriculum to implement SL projects
− Not enough support from the school direction to implement SL projects
− Not enough parental support to implement SL projects

The study showed integration of Service Learning in art-based courses increased the trust level of pre-
service teachers in Service Learning and its necessity to be a part of the teacher education curriculum.

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After completion of a Service Learning project in these specific courses, pre-service teachers believed in
their competencies to address the diverse needs of the increasingly diverse profile of the society. It was
found that Service Learning and community engagement of pre-service students can raise awareness
about the various intersecting inequalities such as age, disabilities, nationality, gender and others. It
can target help aspiring teachers to target the social issues and it can help them to explain diverse
and complex structures of co-existing and intersecting social challenges. Based on this study, it can be
said that Service Learning’s existence in the teacher education curriculum can help to develop teacher
competencies to handle social problems. As the SLUSIK project targets, the problem of early school
leaving in Europe can be solved by developing social and civic competencies and these competencies
can be developed by teachers who had the chance to develop the same competencies in their teacher
education.

References

Boehm, G. (1994). Die Wiederkehr der Bilder. In: Gottfried Boehm (ed.). Was ist ein Bild? Munich: Fink.

Brunello, G., Paola, M.D. The costs of early school leaving in Europe. IZA J Labor Policy 3, 22 (2014). https://
doi.org/10.1186/2193-9004-3-22

EUROSTAT. (2019). Young people and social inclusion. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/
statistics-explained/index.php/Young_people_-_social_inclusion

Fernandez, K. & Zelpcevic-Zach, P. (2017). Service-Learning in der Wirtschaftspädagogik - Ergebnisse eines

Design-Based-Research Studie. Stuttgart. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft.

GEAR. (2021). Analysis of Civic education in five European countries. Retrieved from. https://gear.gong.
hr/?p=3362

Huntington, S.P. (2015). Kampf der Kulturen: Die Neugestaltung der Weltpolitik im 21.Jahrhundert.
München: Goldmann.

Jameson, F. & Miyoshi, M. (1998). The Cultures of Globalization. Durham and London: Duke UP.

Lassnigg, L., Trippl, M., Sinozic., & Auer, A. (2012). Wien und die “Third Mission” der Hochschulen.
Project Report. Retrieved from https://www.digital.wienbibliothek.at/wbrup/
search?operation=searchRetrieve&query=bib.personalName%3D%22Sinozic%2C%20Tanja%22%20
and%20vl.domain%3Dwbrup%20sortBy%20dc.title%2Fasc

Laven, R. (2006). Franz Čižek und die Wiener Jugendkunst. Wien: Schlebrügge.

National Endowment for the Arts (2009). Art-Goers in Their Communities: Patterns of Civic and Social
Engagement. NEA Research Note #98. Washington, D.C.: National Endowment for the Arts.
[28.01.2021] Retrieved from https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/98.pdf

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Resch, K. & Schrittesser, I. (2021). Using the Service-Learning approach to bridge the gap between
theory and practice in teacher education. International Journal of Inclusive Education,
10.1080/13603116.2021.188205.

(14) (PDF) Using the Service-Learning approach to bridge the gap between theory and practice in teacher
education. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349109797_Using_the_Service-
Learning_approach_to_bridge_the_gap_between_theory_and_practice_in_teacher_education
[accessed Nov 07 2021].

Reinders, H. (2016). Service Learning – Theoretische Überlegungen und empirische Studien zu Lernen durch
Engagement, Weinheim/Basel: Beltz.

Welsch, W. (2016). Ästhetische Welterfahrung: Zeitgenössische Kunst zwischen Natur und Kultur. Paderborn:
Wilhelm Fink.

Seifert, A., Zentner, S. & Nagy, F. (2012). Praxisbuch Service-Learning – Lernen durch Engagement an
Schulen. Weinheim / Basel: Beltz.

Sporer, T., Eichert, A., Brombach, J., Apffelstaedt, M., Gnädig, R. & Starnecker, A. (2011). Service
Learning an Hochschulen: Das Augsburger Modell. In: Thomas Köhler & Jörg Neumann (ed.).
Wissensgemeinschaften. Digitale Medien – Öffnung und Offenheit in Forschung und Lehre.
Münster: Waxmann, 70–80 [28.01.2021] Retrieved from http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/
documents/7620/6_Sporer.pdf

Spradley, J. P. (1980): Participant observation, Long Groove.

Weinlich, W., Laven, R. (2020) Service Learning with the Power of Art for Biodiversity in Rural Areas RIS
Mansion Rakičan, Maribor: University Press.

Widmar, M. (2015). Students’ social and civic competencies: Predictors of ESL. Retrieved from http://
titaproject.eu/spip.php?article31

50
Music Self-Efficacy of Amateur Musicians Predicted by
Online Music Tutorials Use, Learning Habits and Self-
Esteem

Tal Vaizman 1
[email protected]

Gal Harpaz 2
[email protected]

1
Department of music, School of Arts, Humanities, University of Haifa (Israel)
2
Department of Psychology and Education, The Open University of Israel, Raanana,
(Israel)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the connection between music self-efficacy and learning and
playing habits of amateur musicians, especially preferences for online music tutorials. Two hundred
twenty-two amateur musicians completed the research questionnaires, including distinction between
two types of online music tutorials: autonomy (foster independent learners, incorporating context, and
background) vs. dependent (offering mainly imitation options and providing little further knowledge).
Hypotheses are supported by the results, showing a prediction of high music self-efficacy through the
use of autonomy online music tutorials, co-playing, studying with a teacher, and self-esteem as well as a
prediction of low music self-efficacy through the use of dependent online music tutorials. Considering
that music self-efficacy is an essential part of an effective learning process, we argue that an optimal use
of online music tutorials could be presented and suggested to music students by formal music educators,
who, by doing so, may foster autonomous learners. Further research is required for establishing causality
between amateur musicians’ personal characteristics, their learning and playing habits and their music
self-efficacy. Moreover, the subject should be further addressed post COVID-19 social effects on online
learning habits and co-playing communities.

Keywords. Music Self-efficacy, Music Education, Online Learning, Self-esteem, Learning and Playing
Habits, Online Music Tutorials

* There was no funding for the research and authors have no financial disclosure or conflict of interest with the
presented material in this paper
Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 2. Innovative estrategies for enhacing teaching

Introduction

Revaluating online music learning and the incorporation of technology as a valid learning method
(Crawford, 2017) have become a part of music educators’ constant search for improvement and change.
Another form is the call for student-focused pedagogy and integration of informal teaching into the
curriculum (Vasil, 2015) while claiming that informal music learning requires similar methods to be
applied in online formal learning (Johnson & Hawley 2017). There is a certain movement in music
education away from ‘allowing’ the use of personal technologies (mp3, phones, headphones) (Bickford,
2017), toward an inclusion of technologies as a supervised part of music lessons.

Adoption of a more autonomous form of music learning that allows students some freedom and self-
direction was suggested by Green (2009), claiming that teenagers can enjoy and benefit from peer
learning while receiving the freedom to choose the musical content they engage with during lessons. Her
approach was used in British schools (Stowell & Dixon 2014) and reinforced by an Australian conservatory
(Lebler, 2008). Popular music cannot be addressed with the same approach and analysis method that
characterizes traditional music. It is chiefly self-directed or peer-learning based, and therefore requires
proper teaching methods, well-supported independent learning, and self-evaluation (Lebler, 2008, 2019).
Though formal pedagogies gradually adopt a more popular musical library and foster more self-directed
music-students as well as teachers (Ng 2018), outside the formal field self-direction methods are being
used; online music tutorials are easily accessible (Lian, 2016) and formal education is not solely responsible
for the learners’ exposure to materials, but is in charge, nonetheless, of their professional development.
The rapid growth of information might challenge learners in determining quality within the quantity
and appreciating the impact of materials on their learning process, music abilities, and music self-efficacy
(MSE).

The aim of the present study was to provide formal education with a new guiding tool for students by
exploring an aspect of learning habits of amateur musicians. Accepting that amateur musicians – those
who choose a leisure activity, such as co-playing and may abandon it if dissatisfied (Stebbins, 1992) – spend
a significant time playing in informal learning environments (Lebler, 2008) and that an educational
program and positive reinforcements can improve students’ self-efficacy (Van Dinther et al. 2011), this
study explores the connection between MSE of amateur musicians and their preferences in online music
tutorials and playing habits. It is in our best interest to provide an aid for music educators in presenting a
new way of incorporating online materials and guidance to music students.

Personal Characteristics: Music Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem

Self-efficacy refers to one’s belief in one’s capabilities to organise and execute the courses of action
required to achieve a desired goal (Bandura, 1997, 2006, 2010). High self-efficacy is correlated with
persistence and reaching high levels of accomplishment (Zimmerman, 2000). Music self-efficacy (MSE)
is highlighted as an important factor for musicians (Ritchie & Williamon, 2012), especially regarding
performance, anxiety issues (McPherson & McCormick, 2006; Zarza-Alzugaray et al., 2020), regarding
learning, motivation, and belief in one’s musical abilities (Harasim, 2017). MSE, which is occasionally
considered via a distinction between performance MSE and learning MSE (Richie & Williamon, 2011;
Schunk, 1996), might also be addressed by pointing to similarities between the domains (Hendricks, 2015)
or to the influence of one domain over the other (McCormick & McPherson, 2003, 2006; Nielsen, 2004).
General self-efficacy has been linked to various personal characteristics: self-regulatory skills; academic

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Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 2. Innovative estrategies for enhacing teaching

performance; risk-taking behaviours (Pajares & Urdan, 2006); sport performance; coping with anxiety,
depression, and eating disorders (Bandura, 1982, 1997). The present study focussed, among others, on the
relationship between music self-efficacy and self-esteem of amateur musicians.

While self-efficacy refers to one’s actions towards achieving desired goals, self-esteem has been defined as
a global evaluative attitude toward the self (Rosenberg, 1965) and as a combination of competence and self-
worth (Mruk, 2006). Self-esteem and self-efficacy are both forms of believing in oneself: the first involves
judgment and a sense of self-worth, and the latter is a cognitive evaluation of one’s own capacity (Dinther
et al., 2011).

Moreover, both self-esteem and self-efficacy affect people’s ability to deal with difficulty, challenges,
and achievements. Examples include the self-efficacy beliefs of teenagers, which were correlated to
school achievements and to self-esteem (D’Amico & Cardaci, 2003); self-esteem and self-efficacy were
correlated with attitudes towards help-seeking among teachers (Huang et al., 2007); academic self-efficacy
mediated the path between self-esteem and anxiety and fostered strategies for promoting psychological
sustainability and resilience in the face of challenges (Mao et al., 2020). Self-esteem and self-efficacy have
a positive relationship in different contexts and a positive effect on successfully coping with challenges.
(Marcionetti & Rossier, 2019). Notably, the present study examined the relationship between self-esteem
and MSE of amateur musicians, as well as their learning and playing habits.

Preferences in Online Music Tutorials and other Learning and Playing Habits

A popular way for amateur musicians to learn independently of formal educational systems comes in
the form of online music tutorials and considering that informal online technology use can be beneficial
for young musicians (Green, 2014) it is, therefore, important to examine how online music tutorials use
influences learners. YouTube, in particular, has become a popular channel for users, allowing the benefit
of professional and amateur demonstrations (Cayari, 2018), with Vlogs (video blogs) being accessible
marketing channels (Bhatia, 2018). Programs like Hotttabs meticulously gather and present songs,
tutorials, and tablature notations (tabs) (Barthet et al., 2011). Though online materials might challenge
the formal educator, a calculated sharing of their benefits with students may aid the latter with the
acquisition of lifelong skills (Cayari, 2015).

In this study, we addressed two types of online music tutorials, following Nadler’s (1997) theory of
autonomy vs. dependent help-seeking orientation, viewing the tutorials as tutors coming to the aid of
music learners. Any tutor offering aid, could either provide the solution for a challenge and therefore
foster a dependent learner or provide an explanation and different views, thus fostering an autonomous
learner who might accomplish a similar task the next time on their own (Nadler, 1997). Accordingly,
autonomy online music tutorials promote autonomous learners by offering high-quality knowledge
relating to music theory, scales, or harmony, exploring sound, or offering background information,
and/or presenting charted music in the form of notes or tablature notations. The comprehensive
information provided encourages an autonomous learner and improves their ability to cope with similar
challenges in future, beyond mastering a new musical piece, which may also strengthen MSE. On the
other hand, dependent online music tutorials offer mainly imitation options and provide little further
knowledge, usually zooming in on a player’s hands or fingers and taking the learner step by step towards
accomplishing the execution of a specific task. They do not address general music understanding nor
deliver knowledge or opportunities for similar independent coping in future.

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Other music playing habits can also correlate to MSE. Playing with others or co-playing can present a
form of escapism, a social opportunity, or even stress reliever for amateurs (Pitts et al. 2015) and was found
to be a predictor of MSE (Harpaz & Vaizman, 2021).

Studying with a teacher is also connected to MSE, since teachers have the ability provide their students
with tools for fostering their MSE. Informal online learning, chosen as a substitute for a formal approach,
might deny learners the teacher’s impact on their practicing habits (Barry, 2007). Turning towards
alternatives like online and offline co-playing communities may compensate for a lack of formal learning,
sometimes denied due to geographical situations (Waldron, 2013). It may also raise the participants’
enthusiasm and drive them toward practicing (Bayley & Waldron, 2020).

This study aimed to examine the relationship between preferences for autonomy vs. dependent online
music tutorials, other learning and playing habits, self-esteem and MSE of amateur musicians. Based on
the literature, we examined two research hypotheses:

(1) Co-playing experience, studying music with a teacher, years of playing, and hours spent playing
per week as well as self-esteem and preferences for autonomy online music tutorials would be
positively correlated with MSE, while the preferences for dependent online music tutorials would
be negatively correlated with MSE.

(2) Learning and playing habits, preferences for online music tutorials, and self-esteem would
predict the level of MSE.

Method

Participants

Two hundred and twenty-two amateur musicians who use online music tutorials while learning how to
play new pieces completed the research questionnaires. The age range of the participants was 16 to 66 (M
= 28.17; SD =10.49), with 31% aged 21 years and younger, 35% between 22-30, and 34% were 31 and older (148
men, 72 women, 2 others). Participants grouped into three samples: 77 Israeli participants (35%) completed
questionnaires in Hebrew; 82 participants (37%) from six Anglophone countries, and 62 participants (28%)
from 16 non-Anglophone countries. Overall participants were from 23 countries.

Participants had been playing music for eleven years on average (SD = 8.93) and spend an average of four
hours per week playing (SD = 2.71). Approximately one in four participants (24%) had never studied music
with a teacher, the remaining 168 participants (76%) studied with a teacher for four years on average (SD
= 3.66). The majority of participants (60%) were occasionally involved in co-playing with others, while 190
participants (86%) play one instrument and 32 (14%) play multiple instruments.

Measures

Participants completed the following online questionnaires for amateur musicians:

A General Background Questionnaire Including Learning and Playing Habits. The variables: gender, age,
extent of education, country, years of playing, years of studying music with a teacher (if any), hours spent
playing per week, co-playing experience, main instrument.

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Music Self-Efficacy (MSE) Questionnaire. A general self-efficacy scale (Chen et al. 2001) was used as the
basis for MSE measurement and was adapted to situations of learning new musical pieces. Participants
were asked to indicate on a 5-point scale - 1 (to a very small extent) to 5 (to a great extent) - the extent to
which each of eight statements describes them while learning new pieces. with higher scores meaning a
stronger sense of MSE, e.g., ‘I believe I can succeed in any endeavour I set my mind to when I’m studying a
new piece of music’. Reliability was Cronbach= 0.92.

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Rosenberg (1965) scale was used, 10-item statements on 4-point scales - 1
(strongly opposed) and 4 (strongly agree), higher scores meaning a higher sense of self-esteem (e.g., ‘On the
whole, I am satisfied with myself’). The scale was scored by totalling the individual items after reverse-
scoring the negatively worded items (2,4,6,8,10). Reliability was Cronbach= 0.75.

Online music tutorials Users’ Preferences Questionnaire. Based on the distinction between autonomous
vs. dependent help-seeking (Nadler 1997, 2015) and the help-seeking orientation questionnaire
(Komissarouk et.al., 2017), an original questionnaire was formulated to measure participants’ preferences
for online music tutorials. Participants rated their agreement with 12 statements on 5-point scales - 1
(strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly agree). Six items reflect autonomy online music tutorials users’
preferences (e.g., ‘It’s important for me to base my playing on theoretical knowledge’), and another six
reflected dependent online music tutorials users’ preferences (‘I prefer a demonstration to reading a
musical text’). Exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation revealed two factors, as expected: a
six-items autonomy online music tutorials subscale – Cronbach’s = 0.68 - and a five-items dependent
online music tutorials subscale – Cronbach’s= 0.63. One negative item that was part of the dependent
online music tutorials subscale was ruled out due to lack of reliability (‘the chord or sound names are
not important for me’). Results of the Exploratory Factor Analysis of online music tutorials the users’
preferences questionnaire is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Results of the exploratory factor analysis of online music tutorials user’s preferences items.

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Note. The item numbers according to their appearance in the questionnaire are shown in parentheses.

Procedure

The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee. All participants signed a consent form
before answering the research questionnaires. No personal or identifying information was disclosed.
URLs of Google forms containing questionnaires were sent using snowballing sampling by email for
the Israeli sample that completed Hebrew questionnaires. The English sample was collected by Prolific
- Online participants’ recruitment for surveys. It took participants about ten minutes to answer the
questionnaires, in both the Hebrew and English versions. For the statistical analysis, we used SPSS,
version 25. Data were collected throughout September - October 2019 before the spread of the COVID-19
pandemic.

Results

To perform an initial test of the research hypotheses, we calculated Pearson correlation coefficients
between all continuous study variables. The results indicated support for the research hypotheses.
Specifically, music self-efficacy (MSE) was found to be positively correlated with self-esteem as well as
with autonomy online music tutorials with the number of years playing a musical instrument and with
weekly hours of practice. Furthermore, MSE was found to be negatively correlated with dependent online
music tutorials. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations between the study variables.

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001. OMT – online music tutorials.

Moreover, in order to test if the hypothesis that those who were taught by a teacher have higher MSE
than those who were not, an independent samples t-test was conducted. A significant t-test indicated
a difference in means between the groups , with a medium effect size Specifically, those taught by a
teacher (were significantly higher on MSE than those who were not taught by a teacher).

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Similarly, in order to test whether those who play with other people (co-playing experience) have higher
MSE then those who do not, we conducted an independent samples t-test. A significant t-test indicated a
difference in means between the groups , with a medium to large effect size Specifically, those who play
with others (had a significantly higher MSE than those who do not play with others).

To test the unique effects of all the independent variables on MSE, an ordinary least
squares (OLS) hierarchical regression was conducted in two steps. In the initial step, background variables
were inserted into the model as predictors: studying music with a teacher, years of playing, co-playing
experience, and hours spent playing per week. In order to control the differences between countries, two
dummy variables were calculated and were entered to the first step as well: English speakers vs. others
and Hebrew speakers vs. others. In the second step, to test the effect of the theoretical independent
variables on the dependent variable above and beyond the background variables, autonomy and
dependent online music tutorials users’ preferences and self-esteem were inserted into the model.

The results of the first model indicated that the background independent variables accounted for 15%
of the variance of the dependent variable. Analysis of the regression coefficients indicated that while
controlling for all other variables, those who play with others have higher MSE than those who do not, as
well as those who study music with a teacher (compared to those who do not). Additionally, weekly hours
of practice have a positive effect on MSE. Lastly, both English speakers and non-English speakers have
lower MSE compared to Hebrew speakers.

The results of the second model indicated, however, that the independent variables accounted for 35% of
the variance in the dependent variable and that the model was significant. Furthermore, the theoretical
independent variables accounted for 20% of the variance in the dependent variable, above and beyond the
variance explained by the background independent variables. The results of the second model indicated
that when controlling for all other variables, self-esteem and autonomy online music tutorials have a
positive effect on MSE, and conversely, dependent online music tutorials have a negative effect on MSE.
Both models’ regression coefficients are presented in Table 3.

Table 3. Regression coefficients for music self-efficacy

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OMT – online music tutorials

Discussion

As hypothesised, Autonomy online music tutorials and self-esteem were found to be positive predictors
of MSE, while dependent online music tutorials were a negative predictor of MSE. Moreover, MSE was
significantly higher among participants who were taught by a teacher and/or had co-playing experience.
Weekly hours of practice were also positively correlated to MSE. In addition, a correlation was found
between preferences for autonomy online music tutorials and weekly hours of practice. Regarding the
connection between long practicing hours and performance abilities (Ritchie & Williamon, 2012), we
concluded that long periods spent with one’s instrument are connected to autonomy learning skills.

Our findings highlight the potential behind a professional direction of online music tutorials use. In
order to know how to incorporate technology in education, a generally supported action (Johnson, 2017),
exploration of how students use it themselves is needed (Henderson et al. 2017). We suggest, that learning
about the connections between MSE, online music tutorials preferences, and learning habits may assist
educators with directing their students towards a beneficial way of using online music tutorials. We
believe that dependent online music tutorials, while a useful aid when time is of essence, might foster
learners who remain dependent on online music tutorials and may therefore be associated with low MSE.
Amateurs or music students using online music tutorials as a self-directed learning approach, may benefit
from educators’ professional point of view on self-directed techniques, including effective use of online
music tutorials.

A deeper understanding of autonomy vs. dependent online music tutorials use might aid music educators
that acknowledge the amateur field, popular online materials and the preferences of their users. Further
research on the subject, as well as on the connection between different learning and playing habits and
MSE, is therefore recommended. The issue of the possible moderation of amateur musicians playing
alone vs. playing with others should also be addressed.

Data collection for the present study was done pre-COVID-19 lockdowns which were pursued as policy
worldwide (Rubin & Wessely, 2020). Social distance has affected the ability to sustain music lessons, forcing
some to go online and some to be ceased completely and may have increased online music tutorials use.
It would be interesting to explore any reshaping of learning and playing habits following the lockdowns,
exploring any change in preferences. Also, the lack of causality between online music tutorials preferences
and MSE presents a certain limitation of the study. Another limitation is the ages of participants, spread
over a wide range. Focusing on different age groups would be an interesting contribution to the subject.

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Music learners use online music tutorials in addition to or as a substitute for formal learning. Since
it affects MSE, and since MSE is a vital element for building confidence, perseverance, and excellence
in music learning and that, we find informal guidance within the formal learning framework to be
beneficial for music students. Presenting students with online learning options allows them to continue
autonomously during their leisure time and be more in charge of their schedule (Johnson & Hawley, 2017).
Addressing both the need to incorporate more popular music in the curriculum and the advantages of
autonomy online music tutorials, teachers have an opportunity to demonstrate their own online music
tutorials selection and filtering: picking out a song or two, reviewing some tutorials, and indicating the
differences between them, labelling some of them as autonomous and some as dependent, would offer
the students some recommendations with structure. This allows substantial freedom for each teacher
to use their preferred materials and favoured instrument, their own time, and their own definition of
‘proper autonomy online music tutorials’ while promoting their students’ MSE.

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62
Talent management of music teachers and its
implications for school leaders

Zeynep Bulgulu Asrar

[email protected]

Abstract

Talent management is seen as a critical factor and strategic priority in successful businesses, and it is just
as critical a factor for schools. In recent years, the number of private and charter schools has increased
because demand for them has increased. These schools claim to offer more with their extracurricular
activities or varied subjects than regular public schools. As varied subjects gained popularity and their
importance turned out to be more obvious, talent management has become a hot topic for private and
charter school leaders. School leaders’ critique or evaluation plays a key role in talent management.
Individual differences with talent can take music education to a place where it is more effective and
successful. Therefore, an administration that can effectively manage teachers’ talents can be the most
influential in reaching goals set in schools.

This paper presents a qualitative case study in which there were involved teachers and other
administrative personnel who in some way shape or direct music education. To understand talent
management of music teachers in-depth, semi-structured interviews and field notes were used.

Findings have shown that teachers appreciate and are motivated when they are observed and their
efforts are acknowledged. More importantly, they reported they also believe that their “creative thinking”
is stimulated. Using teachers’ talents wisely keep teachers happy, active and innovative. This, in return,
helps the organization. Especially for private schools, it means human capital is well managed.

Keywords. Talent Management, Music Education, Qualitative Research, Charter Schools, Teachers
Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 2. Innovative estrategies for enhacing teaching

Introduction

Talent management is seen as a critical factor and strategic priority in successful businesses, and it is just
as critical a factor for schools (Davies & Davies, 2010). In recent years, the number of private and charter
schools1 has increased because demand for them has increased (National Center for Education Statistics,
2017). These schools claim to offer more with their extracurricular activities or varied subjects than
regular public schools.

As varied subjects gained popularity and their importance turned out to be more obvious, talent
management has become a hot topic for private and charter school leaders. Talent management can be
described as to “ensure the person is in the right job at the right time” (Jackson & Schuler, 1990, p. 235), or it
is the systematic effort to recruit, develop and retain highly productive and promotable people (Rothwell
and Kazanas, 2004). Talent management is a success factor for human resources and school leaders
because it includes hiring a right person, training personnel according to their interests, and benefiting
teachers’ talents from (in a case of school).

It is important for anybody to be guided for their careers as it is also important for them to make
informed decisions about developing their skills. Whether this individual is a student or a working adult,
school leaders’ critique or evaluation plays a key role in talent management. Individual differences with
talent can take music education to a place where it is more effective and successful. Music teachers go
through lengthy training processes in terms of both education and performing arts. However, they need
guidance the most when they start teaching. Therefore, an administration that can effectively manage
teachers’ talents can be the most influential in reaching goals set in schools.

Theoretical Framework

Talent management has so many dimensions. Desired talent management activities can vary based on
school levels or different types of schools. Budget cuts or pressure to prepare students for standardized
tests might impede talent management efforts. Increased competition, shifting markets for private
schools, and unforeseen events make it more difficult than ever to attract, develop, and retain the skilled
teachers schools need (McCauley & Wakefield, 2006), so leadership and management responsibilities
play a vital part in schools’ talent-management processes. Therefore, this study aimed to explore and
understand talent management of music teachers at K-12 schools from the perspectives of school leaders
and teachers.

Research Questions

This research study aimed to seek answers to the following questions:

- Can talent management be applied in educational institutions?

- How is talent management related to music subject at schools?
- What affects talent management of music teachers?

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Methodology

The design of this research study was a qualitative case study. The most distinctive characteristic of
case study research is the ability to understand a complex social phenomenon by asking how and why
questions and delimiting the object of study (Yin, 2008). Case studies also gets as close to the subject of
interest as they possibly can (Bromley, 1986). The case in this study is teachers and other administrative
personnel who in some way shape or direct music education.

Participants (n=22) in this study were music teachers (n=16), instrument educators (n=3), school
department heads (n=3), school administrators (n=5), and other teachers who are related to talent
management (n=6). Music teachers were chosen as participants because, first of all, music requires
talent. Being an educator and a musician is only possible by developing skills in the right direction and
with a rigorous planned process. This systemic approach as a whole must further be supported with
talent management. Private and charter schools (no participants from a charter school yet) were chosen
because, as mentioned before, they offer more with their extracurricular activities or varied subjects than
regular public schools.

To understand talent management of music teachers in-depth, semi-structured interviews and field
notes were used. Case studies, often times, cannot be generalized. However, they might present valuable
information with its discovery mode and the findings might shed light to other cases. Transcripts from
the interviews and field notes were analyzed in an emergent thematic format by two raters with NVIVO
qualitative data analysis software.

Findings

Talent management and its impact on teachers, and school climate

Findings have shown that teachers appreciate and are motivated when they are observed and their
efforts are acknowledged. More importantly, they reported they also believe that their “creative thinking”
is stimulated. In regards to talent observation, for instance, Ms. Thomas said that “a good leader’s first job
is to make sure that the team members get personalized professional development. This would create a
climate where teachers show loyalty and perform better.” She also said that she would be “honored” if her
principal knows of her “knowledge capacity, skills, and tools”

Talent management activities and teacher retention

A school administration (not necessarily only principal, but assistant principals or department heads)
that knows teachers’ talents is a step ahead in organizational awareness. Ms. Rose stated that “I am
always thrilled to take on new tasks, and to contribute to innovative activities because I learn new things,
and I test my potential. This makes me happy. As I am also a department head, I try to think of different
tasks for my colleagues for their interests.” Using teachers’ talents wisely keep teachers happy, active and
innovative. This, in return, helps the organization. Especially for private schools, it means human capital
is well managed.

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Identifying individual differences in personnel and its benefits

Subject-specific teachers are basically more knowledgeable with their own subjects than others in a
given school. They are ‘experts’ in their classes, but offering teachers various tasks might help them
identify their strengths and weaknesses in different areas. The notion of ‘knowing oneself’ is one of the
fundamentals in education, but it is not easy and it might take years or decades for someone to know
themselves. Such opportunities can be offered in schools, and the benefits are rewarding, as principal
Ms. Peters stated: “I know I was promoted [to be a principal] because of my managerial skills. Even
though I have been a principal, and I like it, I realized I also like music. I had helped teachers organize
musical events, but I was never acknowledged. Now, everybody in my school knows that I love music
and I encourage teachers to prepare musical events. I even get requests from our department head, and
this motivates me greatly. This, in turn, motivates others in the school.” Therefore, identifying teachers’
talents when hiring and even after being hired promotes organizational justice, trust and effectiveness in
personnel.

Music and talent management

Musical talent is personal. Music subject is also diversified, and it applies to schools. For example, a
teacher graduates from a department that focused on stringed instruments. This same person can also
have skills in playing piano. If this teacher works at a private school, and if this teacher is not given any
chances to explore her skills, this would be a loss of opportunity for the organization. Especially, this
is true in a competitive market of private schools where “reputation” means a lot. Ms. Ocean explained
it this way: “Today, we are asked for many things, such as high achievement at national tests or a rip-
roaring end of year musical event. Especially if you care about your brand, this is the case, or this demand
is directly from the parents of the students. So, having teachers who are talented in various music
instruments and who can teach them becomes very important. I think school administration plays a
critical role in this regard.”

Talent management in educational institutions

Findings suggest that subjects that are related to talent should be carefully evaluated in terms of their
organization and management because it is directly associated with raising the standards and creating
a hospitable climate in schools. “We should never forget that talents such as music, speaking a foreign
language, or painting might disappear in time if not used. With the help of talent management activities,
we can identify those who are looking forward to maintaining their talents or interested in exploring
their possibilities.” (Ms. Ocean).

Even though there were some diversity in responses especially between those who are experienced and
those who are new, but in general, based on the findings we can conclude that:

a) Human resources departments should be the first to focus on talents, but talent management is
sidelined or piled under other managerial tasks.

b) Some small private schools manage to survive with a small number of personnel with the help
of talent management.

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c) Most challenges or opportunities in regards to musical talents are applicable to other subjects of
talents.

d) Almost all music educators believe that talent management activities in their schools would
bring about positive changes.

e) Teachers with 5-10 years of experience think critical of talent management. Novice teachers’
responses were more protective of their institutions, and seasoned teachers were able to see the
good and the bad in their organizations objectively.

Discussion

While some private schools in the case proved to successfully handle talent management in their schools,
some schools admit that they cannot do it. Teachers whose talents were ‘managed’ in their schools
are, in general, happy with the results, and they directly tie this to their school leaders’ visions. Whether
it is music or any other subject, and whether it is teachers or administrators, appreciation of efforts and
promotion based on these efforts make school personnel motivated.

Research also support this idea that Davies and Davies (2010, p.424) said “talented people need to feel
valued and that their contribution is making a difference.” Schools where teachers can test and develop
their talents have strong employee loyalty and volunteerism. This, in turn, helps teachers love their jobs
and creates a positive climate in their schools.

Significance of the study

Talent management is used in various institutions such as private companies, nonprofit organizations,
and governmental agencies. In most cases, human resources departments are responsible with talent
management, but in educational institutions, it is unclear that talent management is properly operated.
Interviews and field notes conducted under this study aimed to clarify to what extent and how talent
management is utilized.

This study also aimed to contribute to the literature by looking at the issue from school leaders’ and
teachers’ perspectives. When this project is finalized, we believe that schools will greatly benefit from the
findings as talent management is rather an unexplored area in educational institutions. This study is also
significant in terms of helping school administration adopt new perspectives, raise the school-work life
quality, and helping keep promises given to parents in regards to diversified extracurricular activities.

Notes

1. Charter schools are public schools, but they act more like private schools in regards to offering extra
curriculum such as arts, music, or technology.

References

Davies, B., & Davies, B.J. (2010) Talent management in academies. International Journal of Educational
Management, 24(5), pp.418-426.

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Bromley, D. B. (1986). The case-study method in psychology and related disciplines. John Wiley & Sons.

Jackson, S. E., & Schuler, R. S. (1990). Human resource planning: Challenges for industrial/organizational
psychologists. American psychologist, 45(2), 223.

McCauley, C., & Wakefield, M. (2006). Talent management in the 21st century: Help your company find,
develop, and keep its strongest workers. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 29(4), 4-7,39.

NCES (2017). The condition of education. Retrieved from nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgb.asp

Rothwell, W. J., & Kazanas, H. C. (2004). Improving on-the-job training: How to establish and operate a
comprehensive OJT program. John Wiley & Sons.

Yin, R. K. (2008). Case study research: Design and methods. Los Angeles, CA: Sage publications.

68
3. Posthumanism in learning
and teaching practices
Posthuman approaches to Arts: A review of literature

Alejandra Pacheco Costa 1

[email protected]

Julia Mañero 1
[email protected]

José Carlos Escaño 1

[email protected]

José Juan Roa Trejo 2

[email protected]

1
University of Sevilla
2
University Loyola Andalucía

Abstract

In the last ten years, posthumanism has become a relevant theoretical approach in arts education
research. This research has found a way of dissemination through scientific journals, and has spread
from visual and digital arts, to other artistic fields, such as performative or sonic studies. The wide range
of concepts, trends and approaches embedded under the idea of posthumanism makes it necessary to
review the last ten years of research. The PRISMA model for literature review has been applied, and
adapted to the particularities and aims of this review. The final corpus of analysed articles has reached
56 publications, which have been subject to content analysis in order to identify the main theoretical
approaches to posthumanism, the reference authors, the artistic field of the research, and kind of actions
implemented in them. Our results show how key concepts such as affect have been widely used, with
a increasing accuracy in their definition. The results show the preference for certain authors, such as
B. Massumi, K. Barad or Deleuze and Guattari, and the differences between the amount of research
depending on the artistic field, where this new path was initially opened by visual arts research, and
contributions from sound and performative arts have experienced a later arousal. This review shall be
completed in the future with the review of books and book chapters.

Keywords. Arts, Education, Posthumanism, Post-qualitative, Review

Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 3. Posthumanism in learning and teaching practices

Introduction

The concept of posthumanism encompasses a diversity of concepts ranging from new materialism to
diffraction (Barad, 2007), affect (Massumi, 2015), new materialism (Bennett, 2010) or intra-action (Barad,
2007). As proposed by Barad (2007), Jackson and Mazzei (2012), or MacLure (2013), posthumanism is more
than a theoretical concept and has become a research method. As a method, it relies on the denial of the
subject-object duality and the role of the researcher as a source of knowledge, which may be presented to
the reader using verbal language as the fundamental tool for gathering data and for the representation
of reality. The rejection of a representationalist use of language (Barad, 2007), considered as a form of
manipulation of reality from the outside, has led to a search for new ways of obtaining research “data”
(MacLure, 2013). In this context, posthuman methodological approaches tap into the so-called “crisis of
data” and post-qualitative research methods, and arts have become a key source for researchers, as it
offers clues to transcend the representational use of verbal language.

Aiming to redefine the foundations of research according to a posthuman approach, Jackson and
Mazzei (2012; 2017) propose the term “thinking with theory”, which they describe as “something that is
to come; something that happens, paradoxically, in a moment that has already happened; something
emergent, unpredictable, and always rethinkable and redoable” (Jackson & Mazzei, 2017, p. 720). This shift
in the power relations that define the research process within a posthuman lens leads to new ways of
understanding research, considered as a process and a “dynamic becoming” (Jackson & Mazzei, 2017).
Therefore, research acquires the capacity to unsettle (MacLure, 2010). Poetry, sound, movement, play (Boldt
& Leander, 2017; Hackett & Somerville, 2017; Hackett & Rautio, 2019) become ongoing ways of enacting
research, based on creative forms of human and non-human assemblages. The dynamic nature of this
concept of research, therefore, opens the door to ‘actions’ that can be carried out from arts and creativity.
In them, intra-action of matter takes place and a new world is defined through experiences that combine
visual arts, music, sound and any other forms of creation (Hackett, Pahl & Pool, 2017; Rousell & Fell, 2018).

Due to the increasing amount of research in arts and education with a posthuman perspective, we
have carried out a systematic review of literature from the last ten years. Through this review we aim
to offer an overview of the main trends and challenges in this field, and the multiple ways in which
the posthuman body of theory is reconfigured and rebuilt. Our review of literature has focused on a
descriptive analysis of the current posthuman approaches to research in arts within educational contexts.
In this sense, we have to keep in mind that posthumanism has been present in arts from some years
before, as in other fields such as environmental studies, or gender studies. Which is new is to connect this
approach to education, and to particular artistic fields, such as dance or music.

Methodology

Our research may be described as a systematic review, bearing in mind that this term designates both
the process of conducting a systematic review, and the product itself of the review, which is analysed
and synthesized in a methodical, logical, and transparent manner (Alexander, 2020, p.8). Our method has
adapted the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) model,
developed by Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff and Altman (2009). This method is structured in four phases:

1. Identification

2. Screening

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3. Eligibility

4. Inclusion

Identification

Our first stage was to identify the research about our field of interest in databases and bibliographical
sources. We focused on research articles in WoS (Web of Sciences, including its different databases) and
Scopus, since they represent a compendium of relevant scientific research. This first search was based on
the key concepts “posthuman” AND “arts” AND “education” AND “visual” OR “sound” OR “sonic”, within
the time span running from 2010 to 2020. We refined the selection and chose Scopus database as the single
source of study, due to the richness and breadth of the results in the first search. In this second search
we applied the filters of English language and the Scopus areas of knowledge “Arts and Humanities” and
“Social Sciences”. This search offered 298 articles, which were analysed in the second phase of the review.

Screening

The screening phase incorporated the application of a checklist applied to Title, Abstract and Keywords of
the 298 articles selected. The checklist was adapted from PRISMA, and focused on the methods, aims, and
the arts and posthuman approach of these contributions:

Table 1. Checklist - Screening phase

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Eligibility

As a criterium for the eligibility in this phase of the review, we chose those papers accomplishing six of
the items contained in the described checklist. The 56 articles matching this criterium configured the final
body for our review. In this process, it is significant that the first documents are dated in 2014. In other
words, even when our review aimed to cover a ten-year time span, only the most recent research fulfilled
at least six of our criteria.

Included

Finally, we developed the last phase of this systematic review. The selected 56 articles were analysed
in full, attending to the authors and concepts in their theoretical and methodological approach, their
methodologies and their approach to arts.

Results

A quantitative analysis was developed upon three different topics: the posthuman concepts or ideas on
which each article draws, the authors of reference in the theoretical frame and approach, and the arts
field in which the research was performed. A descriptive analysis of each field was carried out in order
to highlight the different results, and to try to build relations between them. Data obtained have been
represented in three different line graphs.

Figure 1

In Figure 1, we can observe how “posthuman” is the most general term used for referring to this way-to-
look-at, faced to “more-than-human”, whose use has increased in the last two years. While the concept of
“agency” has remained stable along the two-thousand-tens decade, the concept of “rhizome” as stated by
Deleuze & Guattari (1987) has been used rarely.

One of the most common concept is “affect”. A closer attention to the way in which this term is applied
shows that, especially in the earlier articles analysed, affect is a term used in a variety of senses, not only
the most common among posthumanist, which draws on the conceptualisations by Brian Massumi (2015)
and possess neo-Spinozan and Deleuzian roots (Hemmings, 2006).

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Figure 2

Regarding the authors’ graph, as shown in Figure 2, Massumi is not one of the most referred authors,
even when affect was one of the most popular concepts (Figure 1). This fact reinforces our initial surmise
that, despite affect is one of the most common concepts in these researchers, its presence does not
necessarily mean that its conceptualisation is directly linked to Massumi or a posthuman approach.
The conceptualisation of affect draws also, and with more intensity in the last three years, on Deleuze
and Guattari’s approach, even when their work is more complex and focused on linguistic field. Aside
from this, our analysis shows how a considerable amount of articles are based Braidotti’s and Barad’s
theoretical works, although some of Barad’s theorised topics, such as agency or intra-action, are not the
most frequent in the analysed articles.

Figure 3

Figure 3 shows the artistic field where the analysed researches were carried out. Visual Arts is the most
recurrent area, followed by Plastic, which has been used to refer to the area where crafting and sculptures
experiences are included. In this way, it is possible to link visual and plastic arts because the mode of
communication of both is visual.

A similar parentage could be applied to sound and music fields, which lay far behind visual and plastic
arts in the analysed articles. Hence, we have highlighted the lack of studies that delve into the intra-action
between sound and posthuman ideas, although interest in aural topics has increased in the last few years,
along with performative arts, which have been incorporated into the posthuman approach to arts as a

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mean of gathering non-representational data. This way, drama and other performative arts have been
turned into an abstract concept and method, offering new perspectives to researchers.
Finally, we can observe in all graphs a significant rise of the number of articles after 2017. This rising
interest may be explained by the permeability of academic journals to qualitative and post-qualitative
research, the multidisciplinary approaches carried out in recent years, and the ability of research in arts
to provide divergent answer to educational issues.

We have also performed a qualitative descriptive approach of the records collected. This analysis was
conducted with the aim of highlighting the main methods or artistic actions carried out within the
analysed articles. This analysis was carried out through an inductive coding of the methods or artistic
actions most relevant to the field of posthuman and educational knowledge. Inductive coding allows
the most significant categories to emerge during the analysis, which implies that there are no previously
defined categories.

Table 2. Most relevant codes by frequency and percentage

Table 2 shows the 17 categories that emerged during the analysis, the number of segments coded for
each of them and their frequency as a percentage. These categories refer mostly to theoretical studies or
reflections on the potential of artistic practices in the educational and posthuman field, ethnographies
through artistic processes or the creation of musical, visual or audiovisual artifacts from a posthuman
perspective.

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Figure 4. Distribution of codes by frecuency

As it can be seen in Figure 4, the most popular categories were examined according to their frequencies.
First, the category “new approaches” refers to those articles that present theoretical reflections or reviews
of relevant studies in the field of education, the arts and the posthuman perspective. An example of
this would be the appearance of the concept “Entanglement Art Education” to refer to what happens in
artistic actions through intra-actions. Secondly, there are two more frequent ethnographies based on
artistic processes: either through drawing or sound creation with musical instruments. These two types
of ethnographies are followed by ethnographic research conducted in literacy workshops or lessons. In
relation to the artistic resources or actions, the most important ones are the performative ones such as
plays and visual resources.

Finally, from a visual point of view, the following code cloud is presented in which the codes are grouped
in relation to their frequency (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. Tag cloud

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Conclusions

Our descriptive analysis has showed an increasing interest in posthuman research on arts in educational
settings, specially in the last five years, and a clearer definition of key concepts, such as agency and
affect, with an increasing appeal to Barad and Massumi as reference authors. This shift is especially
remarkable in the field of sound and performative studies, which are becoming more present in this field
in the last five years. It is also significant that research on arts from a posthuman approach is finding a
way to be incorporated into the more relevant forums for disseminating research in academia. Scientific
journals are increasingly more porous and sensitive to arts and qualitative, ethnographic, and non-
representationalist research.

Our review points that posthuman approaches, both theoretical and methodological, offer a suitable
frame for arts research, and it facilitating its incorporation to academic channels of dissemination.
However, our study still has be to completed with the review of books and book chapters, which
constitute a big part of all the research published in this topic.

Funding

This publication is part of the I+D+i PID2019-104557GB-I00, funded by MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/501100011033/.

References

Alexander, P. A. (2020). Methodological guidance paper: The art and science of quality systematic reviews.
Review of Educational Research 90(1), 6-23. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654319854352.

Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the Universe Halfway. Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and
Meaning. Duke Univerity Press.

Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant Matter: a political ecology of things. Duke University Press.

Boldt, G. M., & Leander, K. (2017). Becoming through ‘the break’: A post-human account of a child’s play.
Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 17(3), 409–425. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798417712104

Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. University of
Minessota Press.

Hackett, A., Pahl, K., & Pool, S. (2017). In amongst the glitter and the squashed blueberries: crafting
a collaborative lens for children’s literacy pedagogy in a community setting. Pedagogies: An
International Journal 12(1), 58-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2017.1283994.

Hackett, A., & Rautio, P. (2019). Answering the world: young children’s running and rolling as more-than-
human multimodal meaning making. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education
32(8), 1019-1031. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1635282

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Hackett, A., & Somerville, M. (2017). Posthuman literacies: Young children moving in time, place
and more-than-human worlds. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 17(3), 374–391. https://doi.
org/10.1177/1468798417704031

Hemmings, C. (2006). Invoking affect. Cultural Studies 19(5), 548-567. https://doi.

org/10.1080/09502380500365473.

Jackson, A. Y., & Mazzei, L. A. (2012). Thinking with theory in qualitative research. Viewing data across
multiple perspectives. Routledge.

Jackson A. Y. & Mazzei, L. A. (2017). Thinking with Theory: A New Analytic for Qualitative Inquiry. In
Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (Eds.). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research (5th edition, pp. 717-737).
Sage Publications.

MacLure, M. (2010). The offence of theory. Journal of Education Policy 25(2), 277-286. http://dx.doi.
org/10.1080/02680930903462316

MacLure, M. (2013) Researching without representation? Language and materiality in post-qualitative

methodology. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(6), 658-667. https://doi.org/
10.1080/09518398.2013.788755

Massumi, B. (2015). Politics of affect. Polity Press.

Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D., & The PRISMA Group. (2009). Preferred reporting items
for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: The PRISMA statement. PLoS Medicine 6(7), e1000097.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097.

Rousell, D., & Fell, F. (2018). Becoming a work of art: Collaboration, materiality and posthumanism in visual
arts education. International Journal of Education through Art 14(1), 91-110. https://doi.org/10.1386/
eta.14.1.91_1

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Reconstituting collective and care spaces in a context of
social estrangement in a university course of arts-based
research1

Fernando Hernández Hernández

[email protected]

Marina Riera Retamero

[email protected]

University of Barcelona

Abstract

During the 2020-2021 academic year, all teaching plans were disrupted by the virtual teaching format. As
soon as the academic year began, our university decreed to move to an online format due to the pandemic
situation. Starting from Michel Foucault’s notion of care of the self, this proposal aims to give an account
of the pedagogical dynamics that took place in an Arts-Based Research subject taught at the Faculty of
Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona during the virtual learning format. Both authors of this proposal
teach in the mentioned course. What is this self that we must take care of as a collective of students and
teachers to be able to take care of others? This question made sense in the praxis of care that unfolded
in the course, insofar as taking care of oneself is fundamental not only in terms of the singularity of
subjects but also in terms of others. How this displacement took place last year, with the encounter
between relationships, bodies, and knowledge blurred by virtuality, is the subject of this communication.
Specifically, we will focus on three movements carried out by the students in which care was evident: 1)
the creation of a collective blog; 2) the organisation of informal (virtual) meetings outside the classroom
space; and 3) a collective inquiry around the notion of exceptionality. 

Keywords. Care Spaces, Arts-based Research, Collective Inquiry, Virtual Teaching, Higuer Education
Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 3. Posthumanism in learning and teaching practices

What are we talking about when we talk about care?

Our approach to care is based on Foucault’s (1994) notion of care of the self, a notion that defines a way
of being, an attitude, forms of reflection linked to the history of the practices of subjectivity. This concept
interests us because pedagogical relations, as practices of subjectivity between students and teachers,
must do, as Lanz (2012) points out, “with training not to learn something external, a body of knowledge,
but an education to foster the exercise of reflection of the learner - and of the teacher - with respect to
oneself, with respect to one’s experience of oneself” (p. 40, paraphrased).

But this self-care is not only about our actions, about how we behave with respect to ourselves, but also
with respect to others. In this sense, Foucault situates care around an attitude that unfolds with respect
to oneself, with respect to others, and with respect to the world (Foucault, 2001, p.28). The individual
who cares for himself, is at the same time capable of caring for others. But to reach this situation it is
necessary to deliberate and reason about what one wishes for oneself (Lanz, 2012, p. 40). Therefore, self-
care is something we are always obliged to think about if we want to educate others and want to educate
ourselves with others.

But this self-care is not only about our actions, about how we behave with respect to ourselves, but also
with respect to others. In this sense, Foucault situates care around an attitude that unfolds with respect
to oneself, with respect to others and with respect to the world (Foucault, 2001, p.28). The individual who
cares for himself, who cares for himself, is at the same time capable of caring for others. But to reach this
situation it is necessary to deliberate and reason about what one wishes for oneself (Lanz, 2012, p. 40).
Therefore, self-care is something we are always obliged to think about if we want to educate others and
want to educate ourselves with others.

We have taken this obligation to the teaching experience that we report on here, through the question
that has crossed us during the weeks in which we stood in front of the computer screen: what is this self
that we must take care of as a collective of students and teachers to be able to take care of others?

This question made sense in the praxis of care that unfolded in the course, insofar as, as Foucault points
out, taking care of oneself is fundamental not only in terms of the singularity of subjects, but also in
terms of others. But as Pagni (2012) states “it is not by learning to care for others that these subjects
establish their connections with ethics, but it is precisely because they care for themselves” (p. 3). Maria,
a student on the course, exemplify the importance of this approach to care when she says to us: “in order
to learn I first need to take care of myself”. Taking care of oneself entails a knowledge of oneself that
unfolds in the care of others. In this way, the pedagogical relationship from the perspective of care is
configured on the basis of listening to oneself and to others, attention to oneself and to others, reciprocity
that articulates the care of oneself in the entanglement with the care of and with others, and in the
recognition —in our case— of care through affection (the awareness of feeling affected, displaced from
our place of departure) that is generated in the collective and its materialisation through strategies that
make it possible to “show” the circulation of care.

Arts-Based Research as part of a collective learning device

Arts-Based Research (ABR) is an optional subject offered in the university degree in Fine Arts. This
course is presented as a collective learning device, where we try to dilute the dichotomy between teachers
and students and work together in the process of a shared enquiry. To this end, students are invited to
participate in a collaborative enquiry project (which can become self-managed) in which, horizontally

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and from different positions, histories and knowledge of each person emerge. Moreover, pedagogical
relationships are woven in which we have shifted the first and Freirian sense of this notion (‘we learn
when we teach’) to ‘we learn when we teach ourselves’.

During the term, we experimented with strategies and methods that establish bridges between post-
qualitative research and artistic praxis, such as visual cartographies, relatograms, narrative writing,
theory performativization, and photo- and video essays. As we approach the foundations and genealogies
of ABR, we experiment with its possibilities in the development of a collective course project, weaving
together shared interests through the consolidation of a common framework of understanding. The main
characteristics of the course are the following:

The notion of “collective learning device” to which we allude is inherited from Paul Preciado’s approach
to the Womanhouse project, in connection with the re-editing by the curator-activist collective le peuple
qui manque of Johanna Demetrakas’s video documentary Womanhouse (1974, 47m) on this pedagogical,
curatorial, and artistic project. Although our proposal does not employ theatrical and performance
techniques, it does take up some of the premises enunciated by Chicago and Sarachild (the word as a
collective action, breaking the theory-practice dichotomy, the articulation of autobiographical narratives)
to develop a pedagogical, artistic, and experimental proposal.

The irruption of virtuality. Collaboration and lockdown: expanding the meaning of

caring for oneself, for others

During the 2020-2021 academic year, all teaching plans were disrupted by the irruption of the virtual
teaching format. As soon as the academic year began, the University decreed to move to an online
format that would be extended into the second semester. This situation presented us with the challenge
of reconfiguring the shared space of the classroom, which we were beginning to sketch out, through a
virtual format. This movement contributed to shaping an experience of care based on the exchanges,
contributions and listening that the members of the group carried out. And we did this by letting
ourselves be carried along by the group’s movements and asking ourselves: what strategies can we
develop to maintain the collective space and care of the classroom in the virtual classroom? In this
sense, we learned to ‘take care of ourselves in virtuality’, first through collaborative strategies and then
through self-management in which ‘the collective’ was the referent that guided us as we groped our way
through silences, claims, listening relationships, and discoveries. We went step by step, without following
a predetermined path, as reality made us rethink where to move to at each meeting.

In this displacement, first the classroom and then the relationship marked by virtuality became a place
for the exchange of knowledge and experiences in which the hierarchy that defines the relationship
between teachers and students is diluted in a collective lab. In this transition, we considered Hard and
Negri’s (2003) conception of the political hegemony of immaterial labour to explore how academic
spaces —now restricted and redefined by virtuality— usually destined to produce knowledge, are
shifting towards what Sheikh (2009) has called spaces for thought. In the academic and cultural field,
this relationship has been consolidated under what Kauffman (2011) has called the logic of cognitive
capitalism. In the face of this she proposes to elude the determinism of knowledge production in spaces
for thinking, that are generated —we say, and we try— in relations of care.

In the case of ABR, this displacement can be seen in the idea of artistic praxis that we activate in the

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classroom. The artistic is not conceived as an object to be produced or as an end to be achieved, but as a
series of gears that are activated during the processes of learning and inquiry. The arts configure modes of
experimentation and thinking that disrupt the structures traditionally conceived to produce knowledge,
based on the systematic acquisition of content. In this way, the arts can contribute to the construction
of common spaces, introduce the sensitive dimension (beyond the cognitive) in the processes of inquiry
and learning, and encourage the strategies inherent to creative processes, such as intuition, openness, and
improvisation.

How this displacement took place last year, with the encounter between relationships, bodies, and
knowledge blurred by virtuality, is the subject of this communication. As what happened was rich in
contributions, we will focus on three movements in which care was evident.

Some movements articulated as pedagogies of care

Movement 1. Based on the text Beatriz Preciado (2013) “Back to the Womanhouse”, guest blog of the Jeu de
Paume Peau de Rat:

Students made a collective blog inspired by the Womanhouse project where they shared questions,
referents, ideas, and concerns related to the course.

The aim of the group was to transfer the principle of the “collective learning device” of Miriam Shapiro
and Judy Chicago’s project to the virtual format that we were experiencing at the time:

https://thewomanhouse.hotglue.me/

Movement 2. Based on the text by Eva Lootz (2020, “Entre Könisgberg y Tlatelolco” (review of the book
“Crónica visual del saber solitario” by Aurora Fernandez Polanco, at the cultural web page Campo de
Relámpagos: http://campoderelampagos.org/critica-y-reviews/9/2/2020 ):

The students organized a series of informal (virtual) meetings outside the classroom space, under the
name “Tertulia del Vacío” (the void chat room) which the group proposed “as a space of care where we
learn to live as the wound through the collective sharing of our bodies damaged by the logics of capital”.
Usually organized over the weekend, it functioned as a hinge between experiences in and out of class, and
as a space for socialization and trust in the midst of a context of social distance:

https://tertuliadelvacio.hotglue.me/?start

Movement 3. A research process around exceptionality made it possible to move an investigation based
on the personal and common experiences of the group. Our trajectories and gazes were put in relation
to a genealogy around the notion of exception and we traced a tentacular structure from the thought
of Giorgio Agamben (2004) projected towards multiple lines of flight: visual, aesthetic, conceptual,
philosophical, and performative proposals. These contributions interweave experiences, socio-political
contexts, spheres of thought, and sensorial practices, generating an assemblage from a collective voice
that allows aspects that otherwise remain invisible to be made visible.

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To assemble what Agamben’s text allowed us to think about, we proposed that each person in the course
should produce a multimodal narrative outlining possible answers to two questions: how does the notion
of exceptionality resonate with you? and how does it affect you? Figures 1, 2, and 3 show four visual
strategies that enabled sketches of responses.

Figure 1 (Anna Pallerola, 2021)

Figure 2 (Anna Pallerola, 2021)

Figure 3 (Mikel Iniesta, 2021)

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During the virtual classes we went to the faculty every Monday and Tuesday. We asked for the key and
sat on a platform, in front of a computer, in an empty classroom. Being together was our way of sharing
before, during and after the meetings with the students. It was a way of reacting to the isolation to which
the measures taken by the university authorities forced us. In these spaces we shared our doubts about
the progress of the course, the movements of the students, the changes that were taking place in the life
of the group, the surprises that were offered to us in the form of decisions ranging from collaboration
to self-management. Also, the day they all returned to the classroom to decide on how to carry out the
evaluation in a course that ended, as we have pointed out, in a self-managed way.

Final reflections

In the minutes of 18/01/2021 of one of the meetings that the students held in parallel to the classes, they
shared the following:

During the course, a collaborative way of working has been put in place. Beyond the collective
nature of the final project, we have tried to maintain a dialogic learning proposal throughout the
course that has affected both the class dynamics and the organization of the contents. How do you
value the experience of collaborative work? What possibilities and tensions do you find?

- It has helped us to be more transparent and we have found emotions and feelings.

- Discovering new possibilities and ways of working in a group and generating a common
environment.

- Finding academic knowledge and care in the same space.

- The working process is slower, but the result is richer. (Not wanting to continue with the dynamic
of producing, producing, and producing).

- We have been finding the middle ground between talking and listening.

- We were able to redirect the moments that went into a loop by complaining (the concept of
exceptionality also came out of this).

Deconstructing dynamics.

- As a teacher being involved in the collaborative process is an exercise in constant re-adaptation

(putting yourself in standby mode, even if you want to redirect it).

Working as a group involves a different pace, you must adapt to the tempo of the group.

Tension: who speaks more and who speaks less. Listen, try not to repeat yourself in collaborative work.
Learn to speak from me and not about me.

Obligation to participate like the others (there are those who can speak in a group but have felt obliged to
work individually).

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We pick up the thread we have left to approach, from relationships and in the pedagogies of care, what
happened in the course and what the students wrote, and we see that they managed to crystallize a
sense of care based on the recognition and well-being of the other and of themselves join a network of
relationships. Weave in which, as Luigina Mortari (2016) suggests, threads are entangled that have to do
with: a) being available on a cognitive and affective level; b) having empathy, understood not as projection
but as receptivity, as a feeling that allows us to perceive the other; c) being attentive, considering attention
as a deliberately intense concentration. It follows that attention is an ethical stance linked to the
availability and may involve; d) giving security; e) being discreet (stepping aside, having a constant but
discreet presence so that the other takes responsibility for the task of caring for his or her life); f) being
able to wait; g) cultivating positive and healthy feelings; and h) being reflective. This is what the students
seem to reflect in themselves and in us, and it is what moved during a course that offered isolation,
withdrawal, and silence.

Notes

1. This paper is related to the teaching innovation project “ Promote collaborative learning strategies based
on creative methods to encourage the active participation of students in group actions”.2020PID-UB/021

References

Agamben, Georgio (2004). Estado de excepción. Pretextos

Foucault, Michel (1999). La ética del cuidado de sí como práctica de la libertad (conversation wiht H. Becker,
R. Fornet-Betancourt, A. Gomez-Müller, 20 de enero de 1984). Estética, ética y hermenéutica. (394-415)
Traducción Ángel Gabilondo. Paidós

Foucault, Michel (2001). La hermenéutica del sujeto. México. Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Hardt, Michael & Negri, Antoni (2003). Labor of Dionysus: A critique of the state-form. University of
Minnesota Press.

Kauffman, Theresa (2011). Art and Knowledge: Towards a Decolonial Perspective. In: Art/knowledge:
overlaps and neighbouring zones [online].

Lanz, César (2012). El cuidado de sí y del otro en lo educativo. Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana, 17(56), 39-46.
Mortari,Luigina (2016). For a pedagogy of care, Philosophy Study, 8(6), 455-463

Pagni, Pedro. (2012). El cuidado ético de sí y las figuras del maestro en la relación pedagógica: reflexiones a
partir del último Foucault. Revista de Educación, January, 1-14.

Preciado, Beatriz (2013) Volver a Womanhouse. Peu de Rat.

http://paroledequeer.blogspot.com/2015/02/volver-la-womanhouse-por-beatriz.html

Sheikh, Simon (2009). Objects of Study of Commodification of Knowledge? Remarks on Artistic Research.
Art&Research, 2(2) pp. 1-8.

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Cartography: An Artistic Method to Promote an
Affective and Meaningfully Learning

Sara Carrasco Segovia

[email protected]

University of Barcelona

Abstract

This proposal introduces the experience lived in a workshop carried out in the department of Art
Education at Concordia University as part of my postdoctoral research. The project “Cartographies of
Affects. Learning Trajectories in Art Education Students” carried out with eleven grad students sought
to understand how students build their trajectories as artists, teachers and emerging researchers, both
inside and outside of university. By employing artistic methods and visual cartographies, we pay attention
on how affects are activated in this process, taking account cultural and social contexts. This Arts-based
research project was conceived from a post-qualitative perspective and the new materialisms based on
rhizomatic relationships. There were three central ideas involved in this process: 1) Affect/affection; 2) The
corporeality; 3) Artistic cartography. This project took three months and involved three different stages:
the first one, including three training sessions on the cartographic method; the second one focus on the
production of artistic cartographies and the third one where we carried out two artistic exhibitions as
part of the dissemination of the project. Finally, the dissemination of such artistic methodologies is very
important to show how to put into practice other ways of understanding formal education, the learning
process and researching. In addition, to build another kind of academy based on respect, care and
affection that brings a meaningful learning that affects us and displace us moving beyond the traditional
idea that learning is about accumulation, repetition, and purely cognitive and academic skills.

Keywords. Cartography, Affect, Meaningfully Learning, Artistic Methods, Body.

Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 3. Posthumanism in learning and teaching practices

General description

The purpose of this paper is to present a project that attempts to trace alternative paths to understand
the learning process within a higher education institution, at graduate degree level, since it represents
the beginning of the research career and the introduction to the academy world. These alternative paths
to understand the students’ learning process are based on some ideas. On the one hand, that learning
is an affective and embodied process. On the other hand, as Dennis Atkinson (2011, 2012) proposes,
learning by reception and repetition and then reproduce to measure it is not the same as a meaningfully
learning. Dennis Atkinson’s notion of Real Learning “implies a movement toward a new ontological state;
it confronts a problem of existence, in contrast to normative learning” (Atkinson, 2012, p.9). That is, the
experience of learning is a slippery notion (Fendler, 2015) that fades when you get close to it by trying to
quantify it and turn it into data. The real (meaningful) learning is neither measurable nor quantifiable.

This proposal introduces the experience lived in a workshop carried out in the department of Art
Education at Concordia University as part of my postdoctoral research project. The project entitled
“Mapping Affection in the Learning Process” aimed to understand how university students are learning
and build their trajectories as artists, teachers, and emerging researchers, both inside and outside of
university. For this purpose, I focused on a group of graduate students to explore and analyse their
learning experiences by Arts-based research. By employing artistic methods and visual cartographies, we
pay attention on how affects are activated in this process, taking account cultural and social contexts.

The main objectives were: 1) Mapping the environments in which students learn; 2) Detecting learning
experiences and what kind of learning notions emerge; 3) Identifying and reveal affections activated in
the learning process; 4) Carrying out teacher training activities using cartographic method to promote and
contribute to improve Art Education; 5) Disseminating results through artistic exhibitions, papers, and
conferences.

There were three central ideas involved in this project. Firstly, affect/affection (Camps, 2011; Massumi,
2015; Rivera de Rosales, 2011) refers to the emotions activated in the learning process. Learn is a process
that affects us. It’s related to the potency of the body to affects and how the body it is affected by
human and non-human forces. Learning process is something that involves bodies, affects, movement
and displacements. So, we learn in a meaningful way when something affects us, moves us to another
place, when we see ourselves reflected in other people or in some significant personal experience. This
affectation enables the inquiry process to be configured as a relational process where we are attentive not
to what we expect to find, but to what is happening in a process that is not lineal, but full of bifurcations,
doubts, and unknown places. A process that makes it possible to face a sense of research that reviews and
interrogates some principles and practices about what is normalized as research (Hernández, 2019).

Secondly, artistic cartography (Guattari, 2000; Guattari and Rolnik, 2006; Guyotte, 2017) as an
entanglement in which all elements –bodies, matter, materiality, texts, situations, ideas, affects, ways
of doing, spatiality, geography, and so on remain assembled. In others words the human, non-human
and more than human. Cartography is not only a way to visualize our thoughts (what we want to say)
and mapping, but also It reveals strategies that allow us to position ourselves biographical, spatial, and
temporarily, and makes possible narratives, reflection, and possibilities to connect with situations and
experiences inside and outside educational institutions. So, cartographies allow connections with the lives
of students.

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Thirdly, the presence of the body. Here, the notion of corpor(e)ality (Grosz, 1987, 1994, 2004) becomes
central for educational process because the body is understood beyond the physiological, symbolic,
cultural, and biological feature. The body as matter connects with the world, so corporeality focuses on
the areas of proximity between the body and the world. Corporeality recognizes the body dynamics
within and beyond the human expressed by Deleuze and Guattari (2007), and “shifts the focus of
theoretical investigation from the human being (subjectivity and subject) to reality (the world, ontology,
life itself, materiality) through concentrating more on relations, entanglements, and connections than on
individuals” (Rogowska-Stangret, 2017, p. 63).

I believe that these three flows of the project can help us to reinvent and rethink our position as teachers,
researchers, and artists from an unstable and unknown place to be open to what may arise from the
experience of learn. Also, trying to construct another kind of Academy based on care and affection that
takes us away from individualism and the hegemonic and mainstream thinking. The presence of affect,
cartography and corpor(e)ality in teaching process constitutes entanglements by relationships, friction,
and mediations within the constitution of become teachers, artists, and researchers.

Methodology

This postdoctoral project, under the supervision of Dr Anita Sinner, was held at the Concordia University,
specifically within the Department of Arts Education with 10 graduate students. The participation was
voluntary, after a formal invitation extended to the students and the presentation of the project and
activities to be developed. The criteria for participation were very broad because they had only to be
graduate students (MA or Ph.D.) of Art and Education Department.

The project took three months and included three principal actions: the first one, was the training
sessions on the cartographic method. The second, the production of individual cartographies. And
the third one, the performance of two artistic exhibitions to show the individual cartographies of the
students and a final one elaborated in a collective way.

Employing artistic methods and production of visual cartographies I intended to understand how this
group of art education students were learning; and how they were building their research, artistic and
teacher trajectories, both inside and outside university; paying special attention to the affective process.
That is, how affects are involved in the educational process, taking account cultural and social contexts.
Understanding that meaningfully learning is when we feel affected. For that, was important to a support
this process with conversations and dialogue based on what cartographies allow us to think and sharing
our experiences relating to movements and personal biographies. To gather data, audio and video
recording were made.

This project was conceived from a post-qualitative perspective and the new materialisms. Both
perspectives allow to access to ‘places’ of learning and research trajectories, which are defined in terms of
processes and rhizomatic relations. I articulated this project about mapping affections understanding the
body from the perspective of New Materialism, that is, not as a social construction that only depends on
human forces, but also as Karen Barad, 2012; Elizabeth Grosz, 1994, 2004; and Monika Rogowska-Stangret,
2017 proposed, an experience and a zone of indeterminacy, connections, movements, and relations.
Because of that, the production of cartography as an artistic method was fundamental. Cartographies are
visual thinking strategies that help us explore issues and experiences, mapping and representing physical,

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mental, and emotional territories. It helps to visualize our thoughts by means of metaphor, abstraction,
and translation, but, especially, it does not present hierarchies, it is rhizomatic. Therefore, cartographies
are not units but relational. Cartographies are also versatile, since they express meanings through
different mechanisms: written language, visual, sonorous, spatial, gestural, performative, corporeal, etc.

Figure 1. Working process. Linking experiences

Figures 2, 3, 4, 5. Different formats and materials to produce cartographies

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Figure 6. Cartography as a gestural, performative,

and corporeal process

Arts-based research (ABR), as an interdisciplinary methodology, use different production processes

(audiovisual, artistic, literary, performative, media) to investigate through artistic practice and human
experience. ABR allows us to generate ruptures with traditional ways of doing and thinking about
research; it is the search for critical positions against hegemonic discourses. In this way, new possibilities
are produced within the creative practice (Nava, 2005). Regarding that, the decision to carry out
cartography as an artistic method to research opened a wide range of possibilities.

From this cartographic process emerged, at least, five main notions:

• Notion of sharing. Cartographies are not made to us, but to put them in relation with others.

• Notion of transformation. Cartography is always movement and transformation. Here emerges

the relevance of the process, the becoming and affection.

• Notion of learning. The learning as an unexpected process and as a space of/for conversation.

• Notion of collaboration. Collaboration and share allow to understand our cartographies in a

different way.

• Notion of possibility. There are no instructions, there are no obligations, but possibilities. The
cartography is a field of/for experimentation.

As can be noticed in these ideas that emerged from the very process of doing and researching, artistic
research acts as a place of denormalization and is related to the production of embodied and collective
interdisciplinary knowledge. Artistic research places us in a state of tension and invites us to be in a
permanent questioning. It encourages to inhabit the spaces of not knowing as a relational space.

However, this requires exploring not how to analyses the cartographies but how to consider them as
spaces of encounter that allow us to think through them about concepts related to learning: affects,
corporeality, personal experience, biography, etc.... This implies paying attention to the movements,
the entanglements, the gestures, the ‘planes of reality’ (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012) that intersect the
cartographies and the narratives that the students have constructed in their thinking about how they
learn.

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Outcomes

The dissemination of such artistic research methodologies is very important to show how to put into
practice other ways of understanding formal education, the learning process, research, and, in addition, to
build another kind of academy based on respect, care and affection.

As part of the dissemination of the project, two artistic exhibitions were carried out to show what had
been done during the workshop regarding the production of individual cartographies on how they learn,
and a collective cartography carried out by all of us together based on a process of conversation and
collaboration.

In addition, several ideas arising from the research process were very relevant to think about the learning
process and formal education from other points of view.

• Learning is a process that affects us. It is related to the power of the body to affect and how
the body is affected by human and non-human forces. The learning process is something that
involves the body, affects, movements and displacements.

• The rhizomatic logic (Deleuze & Guattari, 2003) that characterizes cartography allows to develop
an educational encounter grounded on diversity, complexity, movement, and disruption.

• Considering affections, personal experience, the body, and the artistic methods as central
elements of an educational relationship, set up different kinds of relationships in the university
and other ways of understanding educational processes.

• The cartographic method improves due to a great variety of materials (images, documents,
quotes, narratives, spaces, things, etc.) to visualize our thoughts. The diversity of material and
media helps to experimentation and to more fertile, interesting, and varied visualizations.

• The importance of philosophical discussions: space of conversations, reflections, and debate.

As we were talking about the concepts and ideas arising from conversations, we were thinking about
theoretical relationships that allowed us to think and generate ties between the different experiences
of all of us. At the same time, this helped us to shape more complex ideas behind the production of
cartographies.

Finally, to carry out an educational process from affection, body and visual methods involves:

• Moving in company, sharing processes, and creating knowledge in a collective way, encourages a
continuous rethinking.

• Collective and bodily processes activate affective forces.

• When students feel recognized and appreciated, learning is most significant.

• In the thinking process, it is not important who makes the decision or how it is made, but rather
how we think in relation, how we construct knowledges.

• Cartography allowed us to go beyond the text. The importance of connecting and subsequently

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understanding.

• It allowed to go from theory to practice, while still allowing us to create places of thinking.

• These kinds of processes help to shape positionalities in relation to others, in a specific space and
time.

References

Atkinson, D. (2011). Art, Equality and Learning. Pedagogies Against the State. Sense Publishers.

Atkinson, D. (2012). Contemporary Art and Art Education: The New, Emancipation and Truth.
International Journal of Art and Design Education, 31(2), 5-19.

Barad, K. (2012). Thinking with intra-action. In A. Y. Jackson and L. A. Mazzei (Eds.), Thinking with theory in
qualitative research. Viewing data across multiple perspectives (pp. 118-136). New York: Routledge.

Camps, V. (2011). Spinoza: La fuerza de los afectos, El gobierno de las emociones, Anales del Seminario de
Historia de la Filosofía, 29(1), 370-373.

Grosz, E. (1987). Notes toward a Corporeal Feminism. Australian Feminist Studies, 5(1),1-15.

Grosz, E. (1994). Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Grosz, E. (2004). The Nick of time: Politics, Evolution, and the Untimely. Durham, NC: Duke University
Press.

Guattari, F. (2000). Cartografías Esquizoanalíticas. Buenos Aires: Manantial

Guattari, F. y Rolnik, S. (2006). Micropolítica. Cartografías del deseo. Madrid: Traficantes de Sueños.

Guyotte, K. (2017). Encountering Bodies, Prosthetics, and Bleeding: A Rhizomatic Arts-Based Inquiry.
Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 8(3), 53-65.

Hernández-Hernández, F. (2019). Investigar en educación desde una posición de no saber: dar cuenta de los
tránsitos de una investigación en torno a cómo aprende el profesorado de secundaria. Investigación
en la Escuela, (99), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.12795/IE.2019.i99.01

Jackson, A., & Mazzei, L. (2012). Thinking with theory in qualitative research: Viewing data across multiple
perspectives. NewYork: Routledge.

Massumi, B. (2015). Politics of Affect. Cambridge, UK. Malden, MA: Polity Press.

Rivera de Rosales, J. (2011). Spinoza y los afectos. Exit Book: revista de libros de arte y cultura visual, 15, 38-49.

Rogowska-Stangret, M. (2017). Corpor(e)al Cartographies of New Materialism: Meeting the Elsewhere

Halfway. The Minnesota Review, 2017(88), 59-68.

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Research Experiences Workshops in Higher Education.
Bodies and Books as Places of Creative Learning

Ana Rita Teixeira

[email protected]

Ana Serra Rocha

[email protected]

Instituto de Educação - Universidade de Lisboa

Abstract

Our purpose is to share the process of research experiences workshops at the Study Group of
Participative and Artistic Processes in Research and Education (GEPPAIE) at Instituto de Educação
- Universidade de Lisboa, run by professors and Ph.D students in education, art education and
teacher training. GEPPAIE develops proposals to collaborate on each other’s research, reflecting on its
methodologies to boost community involvement into visualizing research. Based on different themes
according to each researcher’s individual project, the workshops anchor on a creative and collaborative
process inspired by arts based research (Irwin, 2013). Due to worldwide pandemic GEPPAIE had to
reconsider a passage from physical to digital presence. The willingness to sustain our community of
practice took us to explore an online body that could use digital platforms, thinking across screen borders.
Following the exploration and the combination of visual and nonvisual methods in a creative and
collaborative practice, the Ph.D projects from the authors encountered on the creation of a workshop,
‘Playing Scenes’. The aim is to compose visual narratives, performing live dynamics of online bodies
moving, playing-back meanings of learning. This led us to the question: how could we co-create a spatial
cardography of the process of playing back meanings within experiences workshops, combining the idea
of bodies and books as places of learning?

Keywords. Creative Methods, Education, Arts, Research, Practices, Participation

Proceedings ECER 2021 - NW29 3. Posthumanism in learning and teaching practices

General description

During our research we come across the reflection about how we stand at Arts Education. To think
education in relation to situated sociocultural experiences, addresses learning into a “commitment to
a way of being in the world” (Irwin, 2013, p. 201). Considering this premise, the idea of learning through
experience issues an invitation to: reflect on what we mean when we talk about experience; how
and by whom the experience is called upon to ground learning processes. According to Dewey “the
central problem of an education based upon experience is to select the kind of present experiences
that live fruitfully and creatively in subsequent experiences” (1997, pp.27-28). Experience is thought and
problematized as a movement that continuously enhances potency for curious action, opening critical
understandings in relation with oneself, others and the contexts we take part and belong. That very
notion of a continual and relational process guides us to the awareness that, although the experience
is situated in the social, cultural and educational environments and relations where it happens, it is
sensed, perceived and embodied by each individual involved in the process of learning. Thus, to be an
active informer of our own experiences is a central key to empower individuals to become participants-
researchers of their learning processes, to find and create critical meanings. Pointing out the meaning
of participation and collaboration, we step back from notions and practices that undertaken learning as
a reproduction of knowledge frameworks, and interrogate how can we come closer of a “learning that
emerge centripetally from the spatio-temporal configuration of the learner and which produces a new
alignment of thinking and action” (Atkinson, 2012, p.9).

Arts based research, while creative practice by the exploration of different artistic languages, has
advanced perspectives that “look at the individual and the narrative that accounts for the experience”1
(Hernández-Hernández, 2008, p.90). These proposals have been contributing to sow questionings in
education, of how to envisage learning methods based in the everyday experiences of individuals, and
how this same experiences is what enables it’s continual relational inquiry (Bickel et. al, 2011). More than
supporting the learning of an artistic language or the production of an artistic object, we are interested in
the activities of research and reflexibility carried out in artistic experience (Hernández-Hernández, 2008).

Teixeira has developed her research project about symbolic creativity, processes of learning and
embodiment theory at Instituto de Educação - Universidade de Lisboa. Her aim is to understand how
collaborative artistic practices develop symbolic creativity, when the body is called upon to create
critical meanings of learning, by young people, within higher educational contexts. This process is being
developed as a cycle of workshops with students, invited researchers, as for example Ana Serra Rocha, and
the teacher of the curricular unity, Education and Artistic Dynamics, where the workshops take place.
Rocha’s purpose of research is related to the book’s experience as a place of epistemological reflection in
art education. How can arts based research be introduced at the art education Ph. D? The author extends
her work by using Seminars and Conferences to do research workshops for their investigation, doing
scientific writing afterwards using the workshops results, as she is doing her Ph.D by articles.
Our encounter as P.h.D students (figure 1), based on our study objects, bodies and books as places of
creative and relational learning, started when Ana Rocha challenged GEPPAIE to participate in the ECER
2021 edition.

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Figure 1. Frame 9 (Teixeira & Rocha, 2021)

GEPPAIE is a non-formal Group Study on Participatory and Artistic Processes in Research and Education
composed by professors, researchers (masters and Ph.D students) in the fields of education, arts and
education and teacher training, from Instituto de Educação - Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. Created
1 year ago, the group gathers twice a month, and each encounter is organized by a different member,
according to each own research needs, curiosities, doubts, challenges, upcoming events, etc. It was meant
to be a relational space, to ask creatively together about our researches within the formal educational
system.

We can consider that our common ground is to learn and understand how to develop collaborative
research processes. Something that is important to consider is that like every relationship we needed to
co-create a space of trust and respect within the group, based in a ethics of care (Caetano, 2019), that we
believe it has been happening by our commitment to participate and collaborate in the encounters, but
as well to self-reflect and be vigilant about the ways we have been developing the multiple meanings
and values of what a participative research process is or can be to us; the ways we communicate between
us; how we use the materials we co-create or the ones each participant-researcher shares in the group;
how we are sensitive and aware of the different hierarchical traditions of knowledge that influence and
constrain our possibilities to use alternative ways of thinking and producing research (figure 2).

Figure 2. Frame 12 (Teixeira & Rocha, 2021)

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In the beginning of GEPPAIE we used to gather at university but when pandemics started, encounters
were suspended and we re-started via zoom. When we got back to university after the first lockdown, the
contingency plan was very clear about not allowing us to move the furniture, worst, they didn’t allow us
to move our bodies. We felt like we were thinking only with our heads… Do you think that is possible?
So, we decided to try to meet online, using digital platforms (Moddle, Padlet, Canvas, Zoom) that was
something totally new to all of us. Therefore it became very important to stand in the position of the
apprendice or of becoming learner as Fendler (2013) suggest. That’s how we started to appropriate and (re)
position learning in relation to our everyday social and educational experiences.

Methodology

During ECER presentation we guided the participants through a/r/tography (Bickel et. al., 2011; Irwin, 2013)
as our methodological path, performing a live body dynamic supported by a storyboard. We were inspired
by Nick Sousanis Ph.D Thesis, “Unflattening: A Visual-Verbal Inquiry into Learning in Many Dimensions”
(2015), presented as a comic book. We intended to reveal our ways to do and feel research, as a performative
and dialogical act, to discover new ways of seeing and incorporating a body of knowledge, recalling
Atkinson’s disruptive sensitivity of the event to, “accommodate unpredictable or unexpected directions
in learning” (s/d, p.3). That’s why during the presentation participants could see us inside, outside and in
between frames (figure 3).

Figure 3. Frame 3 (Teixeira & Rocha, 2021)

By performing our understandings (Cosson et.al., 2003), through body movements, we recall and signify
our research study objects and purposes, creating visual narratives. In this sense, we get in line with
Fendler and Hernández, “From a pedagogical perspective, we consider visual culture as not so much a
thing (objects, images…) but as a relational site where meaning is constructed” (2015, p.286).

A/r/tography open up possibilities to perform creative methods. We are interested in the “inventive
potential” (Massumi cit. by Irwin, 2013, p.200) in the relational views and spaces (figure 4), between the
identities of artist/researcher/teacher, but more than that, between the ambiguity of meanings co-
created with the participants, that become researchers, artists and teachers during the research process,
“complicating the notion of an authorial singular voice through interactive co-writing” (Bickel et. al., 2011,
p.88).

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Figure 4. Frames 25 - 27 (Teixeira & Rocha, 2021)

Moved by the premise and awareness of the mixtures of meanings within arts based research, ‘Playing-
Scenes’ was created as a participative and collaborative workshop, to understand how meanings of critical
learning through body movement, drawing and writing can be developed and re-signified. We play it to
deepen our understanding about our study objects, but it can be experienced based on different themes
and contexts. It has been developed as a creative research inquiry method that combines visual and
nonvisual language, resulting in materials to compose visual narratives, combining bodies and books as
places of creative and relational learning. By ‘Playing-Scenes’ we want to share (re)significations through
bodies and books movement processes; entangle connections between the participants’ openness to
knowledge and each one’s research purpose.

Playing-Scenes was first explored online (february 2021) with(in) GEPPAIE, between researchers from
different educational areas, arts and education, somatic education and education and training, and was
presented on 8th Meeting on Research Practices in Art Education (may 2021) in Faculdade de Belas Artes -
Universidade do Porto, Portugal. During our presentation at ECER we invited the participants to play with
us (figure 5). Just follow our movements (figure 6).

Figure 5. Frame 16 (Teixeira & Rocha, 2021)

Figure 6. Frames 17 - 20 (Teixeira & Rocha, 2021)

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Inspired by the search for different methods, body movement and drawing graphies give us inputs to
re-define knowledge construction. In this sense, Cardography as a rhizome (Deleuze & Guatarri, 2011)
from artography, came up as a learning event (Atkinson, s/d) from the research contexts where we have
been developing our practices. Meaning (c)ontext, (a)artistic, (r)esearch, (d)oing, has been thought as
a collaborative method to create artistic practices based on cards as book pages, to support learning
processes in a more entangled way within theory and practice.
The analyses of the workshops focus on understanding the processes of the composition of the graphies
through movement as, “forms of representation of reality that allow us to show - from their complexity
- experiences and relationships that normally are rendered invisible by the traditional ways of reporting
the evidence and the analysis that underpin the narrative of investigation”2 (Hernández-Hernández, 2008,
p. 87).

At the end of the workshops we facilitate a dialogue with the participants to share the paths undertaken
in the web of the re-significations of their meanings of learning. When this is not possible we ask the
participants to write some feedback notes, reflections, doubts and suggestions, to be retrieved by us to
keep re-signifying our research questions and practices.

Outcomes

Our discussion panel striked us with the question: “What do you expect students to learn and what’s the
researcher’s ethical responsibility in the learning processes?” (Anniina Suominen). The desire to reframe
the question as our own, provokes a turning point on a pedagogical perspective, as all participants assume
to be researchers: What do we expect participants-researchers to learn, when we don’t know what to
expect to learn from the research process? The concern with the artistic experience as an investigation, is
shared with our colleagues during the presentations of the panel (figure 7).

Figure 7. Frame 30 (Teixeira & Rocha, 2021)

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Vansieleghem in her visual work considers “camera practice as an operation that installs a space in which
what we look at invites us to look, and urges us to investigate what we see”. Pahl & Pool, focus “on the
idea of what emerges within the act rather than driving research aims and objectives through predefined
questions”. Riera & Hernández-Hernández search for a collective inquiry “in relation, collaborating
and co-creating dialogically with our interlocutors”. In this regard, we might account that our ethical
responsibility cares more about abandoning a stance that constrains the possibilities of knowledge
construction and its results, and come to a shared compromise to co-create research processes. Entangle
the interests of the academics and the participants, opened to include themes, questions, desires and
thoughts that emerge in its course and in relational dynamics (Caetano, 2019).

However, affirming a participative and collaborative research approach presupposes that “all participants
are called to take responsibility for the decisions and actions carried out on behalf of the community,
building a shared horizon”3 (Taylor cit. by Caetano, 2019, p.60). Therefore the researchers are called to
be willing to reflect about decisions that can motivate tensions between the individual projects of each
participant-researcher and the aims of institucional projects. Something that caught our attention during
the discussion was the fact that the children that participated in Pahl & Pool project, didn’t give the
consent for them to share images of the visual work they created collaboratively. In this case, negotiations
between power and control in taking decisions about data dissemination, need to be mediated through
an ethical sensibility to the other, in order to respect the participants and sustain confidentiality (Banegas
& Vilacañas-de-Castro, 2015; Caetano, 2019), once “participants can be open to us and tell us their stories in
confidence but refuse to allow us to use their data’’ (Banegas & Vilacañas-de-Castro, 2015, p.63). But when
our research findings are the visual compositions itself, how to find solutions in order to be able to share
data with the scientific community?

From the different encounters with researchers and professionals we were glad to be invited by Judit
Ònses to collaborate with her on the seminar, Investigación Based en las Artes (IBA), where she is the
responsible teacher in the scope of the Master’s in Artes Visuales y Educación, in Barcelona University.
Since one of the goals of NW29: Creative Methods in Educational Artistic Practices and Research, where
this communication was presented, is to create networks between researchers, it shields some of the
ethical issues we reflected upon. The need for a pedagogy of care and act that see “students as drivers of
their learning processes” (Judit Ònses), but as well the recognition of the importance of collaboration to
encourage new pedagogical events, that can rely on the autonomy, curiosity and willingness among peers.

The seminar collaboration took place in november 2021, during four sessions of four hours each, in a
blended learning mode, with 15 students from different nationalities. Guided by the question ‘Why do we
think and visual document what we think and visual document?, each day was dedicated to a specific
colour connected with an artist’s work, and a scientific article, in order to: introduce and learn about arts
based research by doing a participative and collaborative cartography, as a visual mapping of the process;
explore body dynamics as a mediator to embody theory.

Since then we have been expanding the rhizomatic movements created, as for example to submit a
communication for ECER 2022.

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Notes

1. Free translation from “miran al sujeto y a la narrativa que dá cuenta de la experiencia” (Hernández-
Hernández, 2008, p.90)

2. Free translation from “formas de representación de la realidad que permitan mostrar - desde su
complejidad -experiencias y relaciones que normalmente quedan invisibilizadas por las maneras
tradicionales de dar cuenta de las evidencias y los análisis que sirven de fundamento a la narrativa de la
investigación (Hernández-Hernández, 2008, p. 87).

3. Free translation from “todos os participantes são chamados a assumir a responsabilidade pelas decisões
e atos realizados em prol da comunidade, na construção de um horizonte partilhado” (Taylor cit. by
Caetano, 2019,p.60).

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