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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Når kunsten tar over: Betydningen av kunst som overordnet prinsipp i skolen

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This chapter examines what art as an overarching principle can be in a contemporary school context. The starting point is radical ideas presented by the Norwegian educator and psychologist Helga Eng in her book Kunstpædagogik from 1918. In the book, Eng argues in favor of a primary position for art in schools, including everything from the way teachers teach to the aesthetic environment in school. In this chapter, Eng’s extensive work is viewed in relation to the role of art in today’s school and society. The chapter examines the connections between Eng’s premises for art as an overarching principle and contemporary theoretical perspectives on art and education. The study contributes to an ongoing exploration of what the author terms a pedagogy of dissensus, wherein the disturbing, unforeseen and affective characteristics of art are used as approaches to education. In this chapter, art, and thus dissensus, is suggested as an overall principle in school. The chapter presents four areas that are important in relation to how this can be realized: the importance of the teacher’s teaching and time, the importance of resistance, the importance of sensory approaches to teaching and the importance of affect. In particular, the role of the teacher and teacher-education is addressed. Examples from recent research involving teaching students and pupils in primary school taking part in an art workshop in the context of the public arts program known as “the cultural school bag” (Den kulturelle skolesekken) are used in the discussion.