Clemency Wood
- Česká sekce INSEA
- Jun 30
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 2
8.32 Preliminary Insights from a Qualitative Study Concerning Knowledge and Anarchy in the Art Classroom (Paper)
Clemency Wood – University of Cambridge, UK
Abstract:
This paper presents preliminary insights from an ongoing PhD research project titled: Deschooling Art Education. The project explores shifting grounds in art education by addressing changes in the design and delivery of secondary school art curricula. Conducted in a state school in England with Year 9 students, the research engages with an arts-based research (ABR) methodology to co-create, deliver, and experience an alternative art curriculum spanning one school term. The curriculum challenges a so-called ‘school art syndrome’ – characterised by representational depiction and replication of pre-defined outcomes – and instead seeks to increase student autonomy and experimental crafting. Through this evolving curriculum design, the project promotes a process-oriented approach to artmaking, valuing exploration and critical material engagement over traditional outcome-driven practices. This presentation discusses how the alternative curriculum was co-created with students and implemented within the constraints of a state school art classroom. It reflects on the evolving processes of artmaking and curriculum development and their capacity to disrupt entrenched pedagogical norms. The findings highlight the tensions and opportunities of shifting towards a deschooled vision of art education. The research project contributes to the broader discourse on transforming art education practices to reflect shifting cultural and educational values, offering a pathway toward more liberated and meaningful approaches to art education in schools.
13.20 Arts-Based Research Photography: The Death of School Art Education (Artwork)
Clemency Wood – University of Cambridge, UK
Abstract:
A series of photographs taken as part of an arts-based research project investigating secondary school Art education in England. These photographs emerged from unease over what has been deemed a ‘failure to mourn’ long-established practices in school Art education. What remains is a husk of what Art education could be, if only it were allowed to die and live anew. These double-exposure photographs, taken within the space of a lifeless Art classroom, speak to this and materialise notions of shift, repetition, tracings, disorientation, alignment, and anachronism. They function as both artefact and metaphor. Their purpose is grounded in an arts-based research methodology that positions artful acts and outputs as agents of affective knowledge communication.
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