The ABR Global Classroom Experience. Art as Language and Strategy in Educational Research Training

Artistic approaches and languages are a valuable resource for pedagogy in the domains of both educational work (Zuccoli, 2010) and educational research (Biffi and Zuccoli, 2019), where their role has gained increasing recognition in recent decades. Within this framework, Arts-Based Research methods (ABR) can make a crucial contribution (Barone, 2012; Cole and Knowles, 2008). Deployed especially in the social sciences, arts-based research makes «systematic use of the artistic process […] as a primary way of understanding and examining experience» (McNiff, 2008: 29) that is inaccessible to more traditional forms of knowledge and methods of inquiry. This article presents the Arts-Based Research – Global Classroom, a training course for PhD students and early career researchers. The University of Milano Bicocca delivered the course in partnership with Florida State University and KU Leuven. The course was designed as a learning laboratory to exchange knowledge and competence in using ABR methods for educational research. This paper aims to explore the structure, the contents, and the opportunities offered by ABR Global Classroom.