Research in Art and Design Education

Issues and Exemplars

Richard Hickman

• Publisher: Intellect Books
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9781841501994
• eBook ISBN: 9781841502533
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

Although educators are increasingly interested in art education research, there are few anthologies tackling the subject.  Research in Art and Design Education answers this call, summarizing important issues in the field such as non-text based approaches and interdisciplinary work. Contributions from internationally renowned researchers explore a broad range of topics in art education, highlighting particular problems and strengths in the literature. An indispensable and engaging resource, this volume provides a long-awaited aid for students and teachers alike.

 

"Research in Art & Design Education confirms Picasso's claim that artists do not seek, but find; thus capturing the real meaning of art's doing and how in doing art, we learn. From their respective positions, this book's contributors converge in making a strong case for art and design research as a horizon of specificities; as a wide and ever-expanding ground of autonomous plurality; and as a discipline that is neither restricted to the empire of fact and measure, nor to generalist platitudes. Under Richard Hickman's careful editorship, this book boldly makes the case that research in art and design education is not a subject-in-waiting and less so an affair restricted to arcane practices. Rather, it is a discipline invested in the exciting prospects of art's humanity and the design by which humans work together for a better world."—John Baldacchino, Columbia University

 

1

THE NATURE OF RESEARCH IN ARTS EDUCATION

Richard Hickman

Introduction

My focus here is on visual arts education, although I have chosen to use the generic term ‘arts’ in the title as there are overlapping issues and claims made by arts advocates which might be peculiar to the arts in general, but are not peculiar to discrete areas such as art and design. Amongst these claims is the notion that the arts facilitate or employ a particular ‘way of knowing’¹. The arts are said to be concerned with, to some extent, the notion of tacit knowledge and intuitive knowing; I would suggest that such phenomena are not amenable to quantitative investigation. That is not to say that there is no place for quantitative research methods in the arts, but it helps explain the preponderance of qualitative approaches. It could be said also that there might be some reluctance on the part of researchers interested in the arts to be involved with quantitative methods on the basis of a genuine intuitive antipathy towards quantification, as if this in some way diminishes the phenomena being examined.

This chapter has two parts – in the first, I consider the range of approaches that researchers within art education have adopted, describe the key characteristics of particular approaches, define terms and identify examples from the field. In the second part of this chapter, I make an argument for the use of arts-based methodology within educational research, underpinned by the notion that the arts can provide a particular way of understanding the world.

Approaches to Research in Arts Education

There is a plethora of descriptive research in arts education, and a consequent need for clarity in understanding the nature of the research enterprise. An American professor of anthropology and education, H. F. Wolcott² has expressed concern about the lack of precision in the use of related terms in qualitative research. Within arts education, Ettinger³ taking the lead from Wolcott, compiled a useful taxonomy of descriptive research for art educators and I will draw upon this where relevant.

Research terms are rather like colour theory, with interchangeable and overlapping concepts (like chroma, hue, tone, value and shade). The terms are not always mutually exclusive, for example, a case study (a detailed examination of one ‘case’) can be a piece of action research (designed to effect social change) using ethnographic research methods (concerned with cultural interpretation), such as participant observation. At this point, it is worth distinguishing between two related terms which litter the field of educational research: methodology and method. For the purposes of this paper, I will use a straightforward definition based on the etymology of the word – methodology at its most basic refers to the study of method; it does, however, go beyond that, referring to the theoretical background to research and its implications for the particular research method employed. For example, one’s methodology might be interpretive, working within a constructivist paradigm, and one might employ particular qualitative research methods, such as interviews and focus groups.

The two overarching approaches, the quantitative and the qualitative, both occur within the arts and social sciences; for the purposes of this chapter, I will focus on the latter. The notion that reality is socially constructed – ‘constructivism’ – has a particular resonance for those working within the arts and it is within this world-view or paradigm that many, perhaps most, arts educators operate. Qualitative approaches are sometimes known as naturalistic, in that naturalists gather naturally occurring data. However, ‘naturalism’ can be said to be directly connected to scientific method and it implies being able to study the social world as one would study the natural world, with the implicit assumption that the researcher is detached. Strictly speaking, ‘qualitative’ can be seen to be more of an ‘umbrella’ term, in that it refers simply to the use of non-numerical data. Lincoln and Guba⁴ have written authoritatively on ‘naturalistic’ approaches and have drawn up a useful list of five axioms, contrasting positivistic with naturalistic world-views. The first of these is concerned with the nature of reality (ontology): while positivists believe that there is a single (measurable?) reality, naturalists believe in socially constructed and therefore multiple realities. In terms of theory of knowledge (epistemology), in view of the positivists’ ontological perspective, the knower and the known are each independent of the other, while naturalists believe the two to be inseparable. The role of values in inquiry (axiology) is another area of friction, with naturalists (as defined by Lincoln and Guba) believing that all research is value-laden, while the positivist stance is that research can be value-free. The ‘generalizability’ of research is often an issue and in this area too there is the positivist belief, not shared by naturalists, that generalizations can be made that are independent of context. A final area of profound disagreement is that of ‘causality’: naturalists believe that it is impossible to distinguish causes from effects while positivists believe that there are real causes that precede effects (and can presumably be hypothesized about, examined and measured).

Mixed Approaches

In stating fundamental differences in such clear and divisive terms, Lincoln and Guba⁵ have perhaps over-emphasized the notion of paradigm purity, a position where if one belief is held, then it is not possible to simultaneously hold another opposing belief. However, a pragmatic position has emerged which acknowledges the fact that in the day to day reality of gathering data and investigating phenomena, both qualitative and quantitative approaches can be used. This gives rise to what is commonly known as ‘mixed method’, sometimes also known as ‘hybrid’. Mixed approaches to research are becoming more popular, probably because they work, combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches in a practical way.⁶

A recent example in the field of arts education is the UNESCO project on the impact of the arts in education.⁷ Professor Anne Bamford compared data received from key people involved with arts education from around the world. Apart from a quantitative analysis, case studies of ‘arts-rich programmes’ in more than 35 countries provided further data. The use of a combination of quantitative data and descriptive narrative in the report provides information which highlights particular issues in a meaningful way. It is interesting to note, from a methodological perspective, the link between the nature of the arts and the nature of educational research. Bamford asserts that

Like a good artwork, there are no simple predictable patterns […] Just as one would not judge a song against the same criteria one might judge a watercolour painting, the nature of the reporting process should align to the characteristics of what is being studied. (p. 25)

And later:

We contend that the value of the arts is most likely to be revealed through approaches that accord most closely to the creative nature of artistic expression. (p. 45)

This quotation seems to reveal that although the ‘hybrid’ approach of mixing both quantitative and qualitative methodology is compelling, research within art education is more comfortably located within the naturalistic paradigm: the ‘nature of artistic expression’ is often defined by the centrality of the individual and the individual’s perceptions, and, therefore, multiple constructions, of reality.

Interpretive Approaches

Notwithstanding the importance of the individual in art-making, artistic events, like educational events, can be seen to be intrinsically social and both lend themselves to interpretation. It is to be expected then that much research in arts education is characterized by interpretive approaches. The art (and for that matter, science) of interpretation is known as hermeneutics. There is, however, a subtle distinction to be made between a hermeneutic approach and an interpretive one: the former is strictly speaking concerned with the interpretation of texts (which can include artworks) while the latter is more concerned with the interpretation of social phenomena. Within the field of arts education, Maitland-Gholson and Ettinger⁸ have investigated hermeneutic methodology with regard to its use in (visual) art education.

The discipline of anthropology provides the source for several approaches which have been adopted by researchers in arts education. Perhaps the principal methodology derived from this source is ethnography. Ethnography is concerned with cultural interpretation and is a naturalistic approach which seeks to uncover and interpret the shared practices of a particular cultural group (this can be distinguished from ethnology which is used to compare differences between groups). A characteristic of ethnography is the primary importance of observation, usually participant observation, where the researcher is totally immersed in the phenomena observed. Non-participant observation is less concerned with immersion and more with detachment, but the issue of the researcher’s influence on the data collected is still important. There is a need for ethnographic researchers to acknowledge this with considered, analytical reflection on the role and influence of their presence. In arts education, it is common for researchers to engage actively and creatively with their respondents and this can be seen as a strength in terms of ‘getting on the inside’ of the observed phenomena and achieving some kind of empathy with the other players; this is known as an ‘emic’ approach. Emic knowledge is considered essential for an intuitive and empathic understanding of cultural phenomena, and it is essential for conducting effective ethnographic fieldwork. It can be contrasted with an ‘etic’ approach which uses data that is expressed in terms of the conceptual categories that are regarded as meaningful and appropriate by the scientific community. An etic construct is correctly termed ‘etic’ only if it is in accord with the epistemological principles deemed appropriate by scientific method, that is they must be logical, replicable and observer independent.

An interesting example of ethnographic work in the arts is John Finney’s study⁹ which set out to interpret and understand pupils’ experience of learning music and their teacher’s experience of teaching music in their weekly music lesson. A class of pupils, in their second year of secondary schooling, together with their music teacher, were observed and interviewed over a two-term period, ‘creating an ethnography of their classroom musical lives’. Finney refers to the ‘unfolding story’ which showed pupils giving meaning to their music lesson; such a description – that of an unfolding story’ is characteristic of ethnographic work of this kind, where, like an anthropologist, the educational researcher is immersed in the phenomena observed and reports on the emerging issues in a narrative style, often in a creative way.

Phenomenological Approaches

Phenomenological approaches to research have a particular attraction with arts educators because phenomenology is concerned principally with individuals’ lived experience, focusing on individuals’ consciousness and how it influences their relationship with the world. For example, a researcher interested in the creative process might look introspectively into their own creative processes, setting aside prejudices and examining phenomena as they occur, free from preconceptions. As in ethnographic approaches, an awareness of the impact that the researcher (as an individual with a particular social and cultural identity an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Nature of Research in Arts Education
• Chapter 2: The Art of Research: Art Teachers’ Affinity with Ethnography
• Chapter 3: Systematic Reviewing: Lessons for Art and Design Education Research
• Chapter 4: Using Participatory Visual Ethnography to Explore Young People’s Use of Visual Material Culture in Place and Space
• Chapter 5: ‘When is Yesterday Coming Again?’ The Impact of Arts-rich Partnerships in Early Years’ Education
• Chapter 6: Daily Life: A Pre-service Art-teacher Educator and her Work
• Chapter 7: A Dual Inheritance: The Politics of Educational Reform and PhDs in Art and Design
• Chapter 8: Practice-based Research Degree Students in Art and Design: Identity and Adaptation
• Chapter 9: School Art: What’s in It?
• Chapter 10: A Preliminary Survey of Drawing Manuals in Britain c. 1825–1875
• Chapter 11: Early Obsessive Drawings and Personal Development
• Chapter 12: Young People, Photography and Engagement
• Chapter 13: Constructing Neonarratives: A Pluralistic Approach to Research
• Chapter 14: The Narrative Approach in Art Education: A Case Study
• Chapter 15: A Cross-cultural Study of Art-teacher Education in Taiwan and England
• A Glossary of Research Terms in Arts Education
• Notes on Contributors
• Index