ABR Training for Educational Research:The Global Classroom project

Arts-based approaches and languages are valuable resources for the field of education, with the potential to enhance both educational work (Zuccoli, 2020) and educational research (Biffi, Zuccoli, 2019). In educational research specifically, Arts-Based Research Methods (ABR) (Baron, Eisner, 2012; Cole, Knowles, 2008) – understood here as a range of approaches that recognize the artistic process itself as a mode of inquiry – may usefully be adopted alongside or in combination with other research methodologies. However, implementing such approaches requires specific competence in both art-based languages and research methods. In this paper, we present a project entitled the Arts-based Research-Global Classroom, a training course designed to provide PhD students and early career researchers with the knowledge and skills they need to deploy ABR methods in educational settings. The course is jointly delivered by the University of Milan-Bicocca and Drexel University, Florida. The concept is that of a learning laboratory, where students are given the opportunity to critically and reflexively discuss and evaluate perspectives, philosophical positions, and research questions that can lead to the design of collaborative research projects using art-based research methods. The course takes place over eight monthly sessions, each lasting around three hours. Part of the sessions takes the form of workshops based on artistic practices such as collage, assemblage, dance, drawing, and small group work.