Arts, Cultures and Education

Report from the NERA Congress 2009 in Trondheim

2009-05-20T07:56:38Z

Dear NERA participant,

This year, 2009, there were 12 presentations in the network. Members from our network and also from other networks were discussing the interesting papers and presentations.

The focus of the presentations were on the concept literacy, which was found to be relevant in a discussion about the importance of aesthetic approaches to learning. The presentations were about perspectives on learning where aesthetical and ethical thinking are linked. Another focus of the papers was on learning processes where multimodal literacy is developed through work in different art forms in order to support cultural learning.

A symposium called Arts Education and Beyond was linked to the network Arts, Culture and Education. This symposium held three sessions. The purpose of the symposium was to contribute to the body of knowledge regarding arts education through reports from praxis based research in natural settings. Based on their findings the presenters discussed the importance of arts in children´s and young people´s lives. The intention is to publish the papers presented in the publication Arts Education and Beyond (Ed. Østern, A-L, & Kaihovirta-Rosvik, H). We will give further information on this website when the book is published.

During the network meeting PeD Eva Ahlskog-Björkman and PhD student Johan Vikström from Åbo Akademi University were appointed new coordinators/convenors. We had a discussion about the functioning of the network and made an e- mail address list to make the member list more complete.

We plan and coordinate the upcoming network session Arts, Culture and Education at NERA`s 38th Congress, ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP, which will take place the 11-13 March, 2010 at Malmö University, the School of Teacher Education.

Yours sincerely,

Eva Ahlskog-Björkman and Johan Vikström, convenors

NERA's 38th Congress 11-13 March 2010 in Malmö

2009-04-15T08:10:08Z

Welcome to the Arts, Cultures and Education session at NERA's 38th Congress ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP 11-13 March at Malmö University.

Report from Turku - 2007

2007-11-17T21:49:02Z

This year, 2007, there were 16 planned presentations in the network (One was withdrawn because of illness). This is a doubling compared to last year 2006, which is very hopeful for the development of the network in future. According to the list of participants, all together 235 listeners visited the sessions and that makes an average of about 15 - 16 listeners at each presentation. The members were listening to each other and asked questions about the very interesting papers and presentations. This opinion was mentioned and we really had a good time. Many participants even expressed how well organised they found the congress.

Arts Culture and Education deals with learning through art, play, music, drama and creativity; art as a resource for learning, learning about and with dementia by means of poetry, orientation to picture - based communication and explication, play and flow in children's musical activities, visual art and craft education, integrating arts and culture in childhood education, an ethical dimension of dialogue by aesthetic means, transcending learning frames through art, metaphors and models in research on conceptual change, art history and culture intertextuality, the culture of place and human identity, meta - communication between sociology students and art students, educational art partnership programs.

In the network meeting there were about ten people present. We had a discussion about the functioning of the network and made an e- mail address list to make the member list more complete. I have unfortunately not yet found out how to make this work but I will. And as we decided to use our homepage for abstracts and other activities between congresses it is of special interest and it is my wish that I will even work out were I can find the homepage and use it. Participants of the network meeting also expressed a wish to organise a symposium on the aim theme of the network, Aesthetics and Learning and we discussed a structure that focused on inviting commentators who would make inquiry about aspects of the subject matter. The network has not had any activities since the last congress in Turku. That means that we have not carried out our thought about a symposium yet, but it will come.

In time, before next congress in Copenhagen 2008, we decided to send out our written paper to everybody in the session and that each of us will read a specific paper from another member of the session to make interesting ideas and results possible to be even better discussed from different points of views. We discussed that a structure like this might make the sessions even more informative and that deeper knowledge might come out of this cooperation. We hopefully work this out for Copenhagen.

Thank You for a well organised congress!

Bästekille backar 2007-11-23
Elisabet Malmström
Coordinator of NERA network Arts Culture and Education