1/good: She [the artist] talked to us much more as if we were adults,.
2/live-wire: Z was babying us and we found [it] really irritating... then this person
that had supported all of our work before, suddenly turned around and agreed. I
know they probably had their reasons, we still felt hurt that we weren’t trusted.
2/artist 2: I think, like most young people, the pupils enjoyed being treated like adults
and being given responsibility for their own work/exhibition.
An alternative to teacher-directed models can be found in heuristic education where
teachers and pupils work together to discover solutions for themselves through a
process of trial and error, a way of problem-solving that provides a certain mutuality
in pedagogic relations [13]. Some artist-led initiatives have moved beyond this
mutuality by developing a more engaged approach where pupils are invited to
instigate projects based on their own interests and lived experiences rather than on
problems provided by others [14]. Freire calls this approach ‘problem posing’ as
distinct from ‘problem-solving’ education [15]. However, the evidence from Critical
Minds suggests that initially, action researchers doubted pupils’ capacity to work
from their own experience because schooling discourages and disempowers such
approaches.
2/artist 2: Going into schools rather than gallery education I’ve become aware that
there isn’t the chance for people to develop their own ideas. Projects are set, and
what’s nice about going in as an artist is that you don’t necessarily have to follow
that model.