EXPLORING AND EDUCATING CULTURAL LITERACY THROUGH ART

The overall aim of EXPECT_art is to identify current barriers and potentials for promoting critical cultural literacy by means of arts education, education through arts and uses of arts in education within and across different educational contexts in Europe, to generate and activate knowledge on how to enhance critical cultural literacy and understanding among European citizens. The objectives of the project are: 1. Identification of existing measures and barriers for critical cultural literacy in arts education, education through arts and uses of arts in education at the national and local levels through secondary data analysis and the study of existing practices through fieldwork 2. Exploration of the impacts and potentials of decolonization of arts education, education through arts and uses of arts in education to foster critical cultural literacy, by conducting in-depth case studies of schools and local communities in six countries applying critical ethnography and community-based research in Art Exploratoriums 3. Development and dissemination of interventions and workshop formats for enhancing critical cultural literacy through formal and informal arts education. EXPECT_Art utilizes an approach to cultural literacy that is informed by critical pedagogy and decolonial theory. This is operationalized by a community-based research design, including art-based methodologies, involving children, teachers and citizens directly as research participants. The research design consists of three interconnected parts: Researcher Art Exploratorium, Community-Based Art Exploratoriums and Cultural Literacy Hubs. The project will be implemented through field research in 12 schools and local communities in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Spain and involves research institutions and cultural and creative industry partners in each country.