Arts Culture and Education
Full time Master of Philosophy (MPhil)
Part time Master in Education (MEd)
The aim of this route is to provide a broad-based intellectual exploration of the arts in culture and education. It examines issues in the arts from a range of perspectives, providing an opportunity for students to engage with different discourses between arts and culture and the processes of teaching and learning. It includes contributions from a range of disciplinary specialists including drama, music, visual art, art and design technology, and moving image. Cross-domain theories and principles are examined, and key concepts such as creativity, performance, and aesthetics are viewed from philosophical, psychological, cognitive and cultural perspectives.
The objectives of the route are to enable participants to:
- become familiar with key debates and concepts in arts education;
- develop the capacity to reflect on and to analyse their own practices in arts education and gain a deeper insight of the role of the arts in culture;
- develop a critical understanding of and ability to bring together domain-specific and general theoretical and practical perspectives, so that there is reciprocity between them;
- develop a critical understanding of and skills to apply research methods related to arts-based methods and related methodologies and the capacity to judge their appropriateness for educational enquiry;
- develop the ability to contribute to informed development of policy and practice in arts and educational contexts
- carry out a research based study of one aspect or issue in the arts
The first two modules, The arts, creativity and the individual and The arts and artists: educational partnerships and communities of artist-practitioners, are linked, and aim to introduce and explore key ideas, theorists, and research in arts enquiry and arts-education from an interdisciplinary perspective. They draw on perspectives from aesthetics, postmodernism, creativity and their interrelationship. The block will provide students with opportunities to explore and reflect upon issues in relation to their own practices.
The ACE route consists of 2 strands. These relate to one another, but either can be combined with a strand from another MPhil route.
Strand 1: Key Concepts in Arts Education
The arts, creativity and the individual (Introductory Module) considers key ideas, theorists and research in arts inquiry. Students will explore and reflect upon issues in relation to their own practices from an interdisciplinary perspective. Ideas such as aesthetics, postmodernism and creativity will be examined.
The arts in teaching and learning (Advanced Module) focuses on current research in the light of key debates on the value of the arts in institutional learning contexts. Students will explore theories related to the nature of art and the nature of learning in arts education, rationales for arts education, the debates about learning in and through the arts, and relationships between arts subjects.
Strand 2 : Arts, Cultures and Practices
The arts and cultures (Introductory Module) focuses initially on the study of relevant theoretical concepts and methodologies developed by social anthropologists to study visual and artistic forms in different cultures, including ethnic, popular, youth and child cultures in the modern world. Students will consider different ways of analysing an art form that help to locate it (i) within a particular cultural historical matrix, (ii) within the development of one particular form and technology, (iii) within dominant and subaltern cultures in today's society.
The arts, artists and educational partnerships (Advanced Module) focuses on contemporary debates about the salience, provision and role of the arts, artists and artist-practitioners as they are manifest in diverse communities, institutional structures and disciplines. Students will examine the psychological, social, cultural, economic, and political influences on artists and artist-practitioners working in schools and communities considering government initiatives and innovations in community arts and in educational contexts. They will also examine practice-based research approaches to collaborative and creative partnerships.
Route Co-ordinators: Pam Burnard and Mary Hilton