A visual culture learning community (VCLC) is an adolescent or young adult group engaged in expression and creation outside of formal institutions and without adult supervision. In the framework of an international, comparative research project executed between 2010 and 2014, members of a variety of eight self‐initiated visual culture groups ranging from manga and cosplay through contemporary art forms, fanart video, graffiti and cosplay in five urban areas (Amsterdam, Budapest, Chicago, Helsinki and Hong Kong) were studied through interview, participant observation and analysis of art works. In this article, collaborative group practices and processes in informal learning environments are presented through results of on‐site observations, interviews and analyses of creations. VCLCs are identified as inspiring, collaborative spaces of peer mentoring that enhance both visual skills and self‐esteem. Authors reveal how identity formation is interrelated with networking and knowledge sharing. Adolescents and young adults become participants of global communities of their creative genres through reinterpretation and individualisation of shared visual repertoires. In conclusion, implications for art education from the VCLC model for creative collaboration are suggested.
Teachers in arts education frequently struggle with their professional identity. When asked, arts teachers often answer that they believe that their main responsibility is education at the expense of understanding themselves as artists. The Mexican‐American artist and teacher Jorge Lucero questions whether an occupation as teacher necessarily impedes a creative practice. The finding that both progressive pedagogy and conceptual art share certain characteristics forms the basis for his concept of ‘teacher as conceptual artist’. In short, Lucero proposes that a teacher’s practice, in and beyond the classroom, simultaneously can be his or her creative practice. This qualitative intervention study explored whether or not the concept of teacher as conceptual artist holds the possibility to narrow down the gap between teacher and artist identities. The intervention consisted of a three‐day project led by Lucero in which nine arts teacher students were familiarised with modes of operation as a conceptual artist. In the three following months, these students implemented lessons in primary and secondary education based on those modes. Prior to the project, ‘elicitation‐interviews’ were used to explore how students perceived their professional identity and at the end of project semi‐structured interviews were conducted. The findings suggest that through the modes of operation as a conceptual artist, students who mainly identified as an artist were able to integrate a teacher identity in their artist identity, but the modes of operation also gave students who withheld their artist identity from the classroom an opportunity to live their artist identity in the classroom.
Bring Fake News into the World is an evaluative research study that explored how principles of authentic art education can be implemented in Dutch elementary schools. Central to the evaluation were the pupils’ responses elicited in the first lesson of a lesson series about fake news and socially engaged art, designed by generalist teachers according to the method of lesson study. The lesson series was executed in 15 Dutch schools and evaluated through observations, observer questionnaires, worksheets, and learner reports. Through both statistic and qualitative analysis, the study sheds light on how state-of-the-art content matter can be applied in elementary schools and how pupils are encouraged to develop cross-curricular skills in art class. The empirical data underline how generalist teachers can design and implement art education that addresses topical societal issues, makes meaningful connections with contemporary art and popular culture, and appeals to 21st-century skills, including critical thinking and creativity.
This chapter explores the characteristics of informal visual networks. The findings of this study offer insights into the informal cultural production and of today’s youth and allows the author to formulate alternative approaches for formal art education practices. He found support for the conclusion that today’s art teacher is part of a world in which visual knowledge and production can be learned in various communities of practice, which are empowered by technology and globalized networks. A formal curriculum that is open to these various communities of practice might be capable of keeping pace with the rise of participatory cultures while remaining meaningful to students. A teacher in such a curriculum is a tour guide at a lively junction where communities of practice of visual professionals and informal visual networks meet.
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