Special Interest Group
Arts Based Education Research aims to understand education through arts-based concepts, techniques and practice. Practitioners use a variety of arts-based methodologies to undertake their research and / or to communicate their understanding through such diverse genres as autobiography, narrative, poetry, visual arts, drama, dance, music and performance. There is a relatively new but rapidly growing body of both literature and shared practitioner knowledge which directly addresses concepts of art as research, the nature of knowing aesthetically and learning aesthetically, the processes of making, and the use of art as a platform for recording and analysing data. We intend the ABER SIG to provide a platform for theoreticians and practitioners working in arts, education and other fields to discuss, share and reflect on research practice and outcomes, both illuminating and problematical. It will provide a focus for other parties and individuals who may be interested in ABER but who have, so far, not ventured into this particular domain. It will welcome and encourage transdisciplinary knowledge-making with fields such as business and policy studies as well as the social sciences and humanities more generally. This SIG has a close allegiance to the workings of AERA and the bi-annual UK Arts Based Education Research conference in that it will explore the genres of arts and social science research – both their similarities and their differences – and promote the use of arts-based methods of disseminating educational and human science research. It conceives of ABER as an inclusive, democratic, participatory ethical form of inquiry in which research participants are consulted and involved in the process rather than being done to.
University of Salford
Adam Hart is lecturer in music technology at the University of Salford. He has a background in secondary education and audio programming, and his research interests involve digital technology, musical communication and creative pedagogy. His PhD...
Arts Education Consultant/Author/Sessional Lecturer
Jill Lloyd-Jones is a Drama Specialist with an M.Ed. in Arts Curriculum and has been a popular teacher and consultant for schools and universities in Canada. As a teacher practitioner, her classroom was the focus of research by British and...
Doctoral Researcher at University of York
Laura Louise Nicklin is an Early Career Researcher from the Department of Education at the University of York. She is currently completing her PhD investigating Shakespeare Focussed criminal rehabilitation projects after spending the last few...
Discussion among researchers at the moment is mostly punctuated with references to Covid-19. From across the various fields that my research cross-sections – primary English, children’s...
Continue readingI love the fact that there is a wide range of technological media and various material to choose from for learning arts creation and for supporting creative learning. The rise of technology in...
Continue readingThe Covid-19 pandemic means that countless students and educational staff are expected to continue their work from home. The worldwide quarantine has been a game-changer, blurring the boundaries...
Continue readingThis event has now been postponed. To be kept updated on when this will be reschedule for, please email events@bera.ac.uk.
The BERA Early Career Researcher Network offers a limited amount of bursaries to the value of £75 towards travel for BERA Student Members only to most of our events. This has now been extended to...
The opportunity to make music together is an important strand of every child’s education, fuelling creative, expressive and social development. A recent report by the Musicians’ Union (2019)...
Continue readingThis autumn, thanks to generous support from BERA’s Early Career Network Event Fund, I attended the Theatre and Performance Research Association’s (TaPRA) annual conference. The purpose of...
Continue readingAesthetic education is usually concerned with the role of arts appreciation in students’ personal development. Its advocates often pitch it in opposition to instrumentalism, but in doing so,...
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