Ana Ward-Davies

8.9 Walking Lines of Inquiry in Conversation: Five Perspectives on Art Education Futures (Paper)

Ana Ward-Davies – SWISP Lab, Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne, Australia

Anna Farago – SWISP Lab, Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne, Australia

Yvette Walker – SWISP Lab, Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne, Australia

Abstract:

Five graduate researchers from the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, present emergent conversations arising from their a/r/tographic inquiries. As artists, researchers and teachers they walk in conversation, alongside and in between histories and praxis to meet at the intersection of art education’s uncertain and precarious future paths. Using ‘line’ as an opening they wander between and within the lines they draw, play, make, cast and trace. These lines converge and story their aspirations and aims for art education futures.

Through visual examples this presentation shares the methods and practices that support “being open to unexpected directions and unpredictable turns” (Irwin, 2006) and invites contemplation for what transformative possibilities emerge when we; walk with the land; collaborate with communities; support teachers in crises; use tiktok as method and trace the in-betweens. They share the ways they trouble the shifting grounds: Cassie’s experience as a child of Asian refugees in so-called Australia, opens a slippery space in quest/ion/ing race and colonialism. Let’s respect lines as we move forward. Anna considers what facilitators and participants gain from engaging in collaboration with local places and people and troubling social issues together. She crafts lines as a shared pathway forward. Ana’s data tells a story of visual art and design teachers in crisis. These teachers told stories of walking fragile lines, precariously poised. Her line twists. It needs to play. Angie’s TikTok as method affords creative opportunities for researchers to engage with audiences in ways that challenge the separateness of public/private experience. She thinks of this as casting a line. Yvette looks toward current art education methods and movements for innovative research approaches and reparative pedagogies. Her line traces the layers. We walk the slippery, flexible and fragile lines as metaphors for creative inquiry and pedagogical processes. These lines are not just drawn, they are re-drawn and re-imagined together. We think with lines as the marks they make, what they open, what lies between them and how they intersect. Co-authors: Angie Hostetler, Cassandra Truong; Supervision: Kathryn Coleman – University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education, Australia