Art-Based Projects as Cultural Tools for Promoting Sustainability in Preschool and Compulsory School

• Through the use of artistic and cultural tools in daily educational and aesthetic practice, participation and cultural inclusion for children can be achieved. The chapter includes examples of art educational work in early childhood education and compulsory school that aims at enhancing children’s rights to participation in society with artistic and cultural tools. Aesthetic practice is (Bendroth Karlsson & Karlsson Häikiö, 2014), and sustainable education has become, an important part of preschool and school and is today emphasized as over-arching goals in the curriculum for early childhood education and for compulsory school in Finland as well as in Sweden. A growing diversification and globalization are part of society today, and therefore it is necessary to highlight questions about sustainability and interculturality in education. An increasing diversification challenges a conception of society as culturally homogeneous (Nejadmehr, 2012), and brings forward a need to highlight a variety of methods for learning about ways to establish knowledge aquisition, as well as promote critical and inclusive practices. In an increasing multicultural, visualized and global society, it becomes crucial to reflect on changing conditions, and a revision of the traditional educational methods in preschool and compulsory school becomes necessary. This chapter asks how we can we work with methods to encompass more complex questions in relation to education and learning and what part work with art education, sustainability and participation can have in this? In the chapter is discussed how agency and cultural participation can be created for children and young people by using art and culture as tools in the formation of knowledge and learning through art experiences and art education. Later on I discuss how cultural activities and organization of environments can be used as opening for reflection on issues about sustainability using explorative processes and creative dialogues in public spaces, the preschool atelier or in the art classroom. In the chapter there are examples of writings in the curriculums for early childhood education and compulsory school in Finland and Sweden that have implications for environmental ethics and sustainable education, and the role of education in creating an inclusive and sustainable society.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Kulturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Cultural Studies (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Övrig annan humaniora (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Other Humanities not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Lärande (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Learning (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

aesthetic practice

cultural tools

early childhood education

compulsory school

sustainability

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kap (ämneskategori)