Arts-Designly Co-Physis methodology

“It is not enough to listen to young people – we need to integrate them into decision-making mechanisms at all levels.

[Working together collaboratively and constructively in] “intergenerational solidarity ... to achieve a more equitable, just,

and inclusive world for all people”. UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, International Youth Day (2022).

“Arts-Designly Co-Physis” Methodology; Using Arts-Design Praxis as Lens and Prism

for Learning within the UK, Department of Education (DfE) National Curriculum.

Case studies with explanations are here:

High res PDF download is here:

The Arts-Design Co-Physis menu on homepage constitutes an earlier version)

Abstract

A., (4), raises his arms high, holding up his painting “LOOK!” He beams radiantly, his eyes wide in wonder and emotion, “Look

at this! Can you see what I see?” He excitedly and imaginatively deciphers meaning in his abstract, painterly gestures. Last

week, we looked at Rorschach painting (“RoarrrrR ShaCK”), and they understood. The class enthusiastically crowds around,

further elucidating what A. sees.

Here, abstract, designly qualities like colour, line gesture, shape, contrast, spatial arrangement, pattern, and texture express a

raw phenomenological, communicative syntax that may or may not be recognisable (legible). How might Arts-Design Co-Physis

introduce an organising structure and shared framework to transform, for example, an Early Years Foundation Stage class’s

abstract expression (priceless Twomblys, Matisses, or Picassos), into a visual tool for heuristic learning?

As something children love to do, how can art and design be further utilised (instilled) as qualitative praxis, an interlocutor lens

and prism for other subjects? Child-led and curiously discursive, AD CP has potential as an integral, organising principle within

the UK DfE and across the National Curriculum from Early Years Foundation Stage to Key Stage 5 (ages 4-18). Since, as our

research demonstrates, a transdisciplinary, horizontal axis of arts-design praxis across and uniting DfE curriculum subjects is

possible, most especially in ‘Early Years Foundation Stage Reception, and Key Stage 1’, (as robustly tested in our practice-

based work). Over nine years of iterative practice, our AD CP comfortably co-existed with traditional modes of DfE teaching

and learning.

1.1. Introduction

Firstly, every AD CP project has its élan in elemental and child-centric joy; play of imagination, and creativity,

on their terms and in their vernacular. Positioning learning in socialisation: classmate camaraderie, friend-

ship, joy, heuristic play, and improvised creativity is a natural prerequisite for “sky high” child engagement

and makes for the making of happy memories at school.

“… [T]he joyous affirmation of the play of the world and of the innocence of becoming, the affirmation of a world of signs without fault,

without truth, and without origin which is offered to an active interpretation". Jacques Derrida, 1966.

In this section, I posit using arts-design praxis as method, lens, and prism for child/ adolescent learning within the UK, DfE National Curriculum.

Whereby AD CP is methodological framework for “co-researcher” sēnsī – moving from somatic sentience, to sense-certainty, to sense-making.

Primary and secondary research were practice-based; a series of helical, interlacing and overlapping cycles.

Here, “education is child-led creative inquiry” that is “research-based”, “knowledge-producing”, and

material. Each collective engagement, camaraderie, and entanglement is novel.

Research findings offer an insightful, useful, and critical interpretation of a research problem: does the DfE and Ofsted focus on assess-

ment and “accountability” (“bankability”) of academic learning outcomes (meting, maintaining, and monitoring by testing, measurement,

and analysis) inhibit serendipitous “flow” of child learning? Within the National Curriculum is Art and Design, “just art?” Post English

Baccalaureate (EBacc) relegation and a 50% reduction in State funding for arts education to prioritise “enshrined”, “high-value subjects”,

it is vital to reassert validity claims for creative praxis across the curriculum. This paper presents a proposal to heal a gap in the making;

the loss of Art and Design subject categories, disciplines, and their material, transferable practice.

1.2. Field-site and community of practice (COP):

“A. is our home; I mean my second home". (H, 11)

This paper is based on frontline, immersively embedded, and experiential, professional practice as a DfE Primary school teacher within a

secular, Independent Primary school. Developed, tested, and iterated by children within the National Curriculum and within UK, Gov. DfE

ethical, safeguarding, and pastoral care guidelines, our AD CP was peer-reviewed and positively assessed twice by Ofsted. Case studies

(here) photo-document the adaptive agency of this method in the classroom.

A. Primary School is a large family house with approximately 105 co-ed pupils over seven classes. Participating co-researchers were Class

1: Early Years Foundation Stage - Reception; Class 2: Key Stage 1; and Class 3: Key Stage 1. Children were Infants and Juniors between the

ages of 4-7, oftentimes working collaboratively across class years. A longitudinal study, research took place every Monday, (Tuesday), and

Friday, over a nine-year period with a Lower School cohort that varied from 75 to 17. Findings are based on deductive and inductive analysis

of collected qualitative and empirical data: photo-documented and archived (descriptive) Arts-Design Co-Physis; discourse analysis of

dialogical interactions and my anecdotal and observational notes.

According to Alain Badiou, “The principle that there is a single world does not contradict the infinite play of identities and differences.” With

an internationally vibrant and largely multicultural cohort, A. school prioritises a sense of ‘school as [heterogenic] family.’ There is an establish-

ed, holistic community of support and care in the form of an intricate network of family, relational, and societal ties, and a neighbourly,

local community kinship.

2. Methodology:

I use a mixed-methods approach to child pedagogy, as “[a] mixed method design is useful to capture the best of both quantitative and qual-

itative approaches.” Interdisciplinary theory-building uses methods such as phenomenology, aspects of co-creation, co-design, and Super-

structuralist educational pedagogies with qualitative interplay between philosophical ideas and empirical research. With an academic, visual

communications background; the pluralistic and inquiry-based Reggio Emilia Approach “of a hundred languages” was helpful in open-mindedly

working with multi-cultured children. The elemental simplicity of Russian Suprematism and the (utilitarian) responsiveness of the VKhUTEMAS

school were also influential.

AD CP is ‘a learning pedagogy’ designed to be co-opted and adapted by co-researcher children or adolescents: serendipitous and inventive

mixing of methodologies is illuminating, as each (re)configuration offers different levers, levels, and scales of dynamics of practice. In their practice,

“[p]ractice theories are a kind of ‘modest grand theories’ as they offer […] frameworks of categories and assumptions for developing substantial

theories on specific practices.” Is “arts-designly praxis” then the new imperative, materialism, and ontology? If so, why aren’t we experimenting,

trying things out and practising more?

(As Creative Commons, (CC BY NC DD: Attribution + Non-commercial + No Derivatives) and self-funded research; Arts-Designly Co-Physis, (AD CP) is intentionally

copyrighted – so it cannot be made commercial: commodified, marketed (advertised, sold, or purchased) as written materials, a toolkit, a service, training, or used

(withheld) for profit. (I work prosocially and entirely from within issues, so fairness, equity and egalitarian access is important to me.)