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

MEDIATED ACTION AND AESTHETIC LEARNING
Arts & Professions was created and moved to the Faculty of Science, in order
not to be swallowed up by the giant Faculty of Social Sciences or sharing the
meagre cake of the Faculty of Humanities. In April 2008 Arts & Professions
(Sw. praktiska kunskapstraditioner) was accepted as an autonomous research
discipline within Stockholm University, with the right to recruit, train and
examine doctoral students.
Sceptics have criticised the tendency to regard research and academisation
as a panacea for improving teacher education. They argue that the
implementation of research has, in fact, meant replacing of the faculty of
practitioners with academics, and moving the focus of education from creation
and problem solving in the medium to picture analysis and textual production.
They accuse the academics for having moved the students from the
studio to the lecture hall and the seminar room, thus transforming visual
arts education from a practical-aesthetic activity to an academic one.
Opponents to this scepticism argue that research, pluralism and academic
degree projects exclude dogmatism and authoritarian attitudes and should
vitalise the professional discource. Lee Cronbach (1975), known as a hardnosed
empiricist, once remarked that in a complex and changing world, the
contributions of the social sciences are largely of an indirect nature:
Though enduring systematic theories about man in society are not likely to be achieved,
systematic inquiry can realistically hope to make two contributions. One reasonable
aspiration is to assess local events accurately, to improve short-run control. The other
reasonable aspiration is to develop explanatory concepts, concepts that will help people
to use their heads. (p. 126)
Nevertheless, the two aspects of academisation represent a factual dilemma
(Borg, 2007). The crucial question, however, is not whether to reintroduce
apprenticeship as a basis for teacher education or to continue striving for
academic recognition; the challenge is rather to develop a modern, researchbased
apprenticeship and to elevate the position of experience-based knowing
in teacher education.
Children’s drawings in a visual culture
Until the mid-1960s, children’s drawings was one of the most popular themes
in Swedish professional writing on art education. Then suddenly, this topic
almost disappeared from the agenda, not to return until the 1990s. The focus
of curricula, teacher training and research shifted to picture analysis, popular
forms of visual communication, and to cultural studies.
NORDIC VISUAL ARTS EDUCATION IN TRANSITION 53