Research in Visual Arts Education - The National Society for ...

ART, DESIGN AND ENVIRONMENTAL
PARTICIPATION
Themes in Norwegian Studies 1995–2007
Liv Merete Nielsen
Introduction
Throughout the last ten years, the position of the field of art and design
education has been strengthened at all levels in the Norwegian educational
system. This is a result of an increased general awareness of art, design and
architecture. It has become more evident that artefacts play a central role in
our lives and our culture, they tell stories about the conditions under which
we live and work, as well as how they communicate values and interests we
want to be related to. This extended role of the artefacts, beyond the functional,
is a part of the societal changes and as such included into the general
education for citizenship. The role of the artefacts has been strategically
channelled into the national curriculum for general education.
As art, design and architecture have such a central position in our lives
and culture, relevant research is required as a base for the design of our
physical environment and as a background for implementing adequate goals
for, and content of, general education. Research within the traditional university
disciplines, such as psychology, education and art history, seems not
to be able to offer sufficiently tuned “tools” to develop a relevant knowledge
base. Several attempts to generate such “tools” have been observed
internationally. Among them can be noted some efforts made at the Oslo
School of Architecture and Design (AHO) where the concept of making
professions and making disciplines (Dunin-Woyseth & Michl, 2001) have been
developed. The Norwegian educational policies and strategies require also
that all education at the university level is based on relevant research. As
a consequence of these guidelines, a process of building the research field
within art and design and the education related to these subjects has been
strengthened. This article will give an overview of some central aspects of
how the Norwegian art and design education, as well as research within this
field, have developed during the recent ten years. It will also introduce some
strategies for developing this research further.
NORDIC VISUAL ARTS EDUCATION IN TRANSITION 127