2/artist: One of the things I like about these groups is that they were groups. They
worked together and they argued the points and they talked about the materials to be
used and not used and why.
Dialogue and collaborative work are rarely seen in art and design because teachers
tend to valorise individual expression. In secondary schools, research has repeatedly
shown that pedagogic power relations are predicated on the reproductive role of
modernist schooling [28]. In this scenario the teacher reproduces dominant cultural
and social values so that they come to appear natural and inevitable. This is in stark
contrast to the opposition to normative values within modernist art practices [29].
Might artists’ interventions therefore disrupt and possibly contest the status quo? In
the action research teams, although distinctive professional roles were retained,
oppositional positions were rejected in favour of negotiated ones, a mutuality that
pupils welcomed.
CF artist: You have to be willing to not only collaborate but to compromise and to
give up on every great idea being included.
This move towards negotiated decision-making led to increasing pupil collaboration
and a realisation that the ideas of others are a valuable resource for learning. By
engaging with different points of view pupils recognised that their own learning can
be enriched and expanded, a process that builds an empathetic learning environment.
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