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

MEDIATED ACTION AND AESTHETIC LEARNING
what passes as research is very propositional and speculative. Very little international
research is grounded in empirical studies; very little research is
collaborative. Much of it is the work of single, often first-time, researchers
and many do only one piece of research.
These trends are confirmed by the bibliography of Swedish studies from
1995 onwards (Appendix 1), despite high-quality work by individual researches
and research teams. Some of the best samples are covered earlier in
this chapter. Nevertheless, during the previous thirteen years, only six persons
(Karin Aronsson, Lena Aulin-Gråhamn, Lars Lindström, Anders Marner,
Jan Thavenius, Hans Örtegren) or five per cent of the listed authors,
published more than five titles in visual arts research. Eighty-six per cent
of the authors presented no more than one or two titles, including research
oriented articles and chapters in professional journals and books as well as
contextualized reports of developmental work. Seventy-two per cent of the
titles are the work of single authors. Ninety per cent of the listed titles are
in Swedish.
Teaching and learning in the arts – a research agenda
The “depressive” condition of the field is probably not the result of individual
shortcomings but is more likely a consequence of an imperfect infrastructure.
Decisive for the “success stories” (> 5 titles) so far, have been (a) affiliation
with a university, (b) at least one research partner, (c) funding for a major
project and (d) postdoc studies abroad.
At the Getty symposium on future research in visual arts education
(Robinson, 2005), John Steers’ group made two specific recommendations
to improve methodologies in research and the impact of research on educational
policy: (a) the establishment of a research institute to support the
development of research methodologies in visual arts education and the
arts in education more generally, including programmes of mentoring and
quality assurance, and (b) the development of professional networks to debate
and disseminate the research in visual arts education and their implications
for national and regional policymaking.
However, nothing like this happened as a consequence of the Getty
meeting (Steers, personal communication, 2008). But the scheme may
nevertheless be feasible when transformed and implemented on a national
and Nordic scale: (a) by the establishment of national doctoral schools for
the study of education in the arts; these should be grounded in educational
research methods and contribute to the development of domain-specific
theories, and (b) by activating the Network of Nordic Researchers in Visual
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