Tova Björkquist

2.8 Towards the Horizon, with Art as your Captain! (Paper)

Tova Björkquist – University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract:

What potential does art education have in a school form without criteria? Contemporary artistic perspectives do not have an obvious place in Swedish schools, which can be related to the criteria and measurability that schools struggle with. Therefore, this study examines how to work with such practices in a school form without criteria, specifically in the art courses at Swedish folk high schools (non-formal adult education). In focus group interviews, artists describe how they teach art based on their professional knowledge. The artists talk about teaching where the students are invited into unexpected situations, where they are active co-creators and thus part of the teaching practice itself. The teaching act depends on the interaction and relationships in the moment, which can be likened to the relational and participatory practices of art. Students are taken on adventures where there is an opportunity to engage in dialogue with the world. Questions that arise for the participants can be further explored in their own art projects. Theories by Biesta and Freire are used in the study to look at participatory and emancipatory perspectives. Through field visits to two folk high schools, students are interviewed about their studies and share events that have been meaningful to them. They highlight perspectives somewhat different from the artists, regarding the significance of the results for self-confidence and how they have deviated from the teacher’s instructions. The artists express ambivalence about, on one hand, socializing participants into the art world as it looks today, but on the other hand, simultaneously being critical of it. I will publish the full study as a Licentiate thesis at the University of Gothenburg in the fall of 2025.