Politics Practice Pedagogy Art

Abstract

Higher education in the UK has been subjected to many changes since the 1960s. The merging of institutions has resulted in art schools becoming absorbed into universities while expansion, the abolishment of grants and imposition of fees have challenged received ideas of what art schools are for. More recent changes have been essentially financial, structural and qualitative. Although these have impacted upon course content and pedagogy, there has been little formal consideration of fine art course content since the1960s. The largely defensive positions taken during periods of cuts and so-called reforms were not supplanted by progressive reviews during periods of reinvestment and expansion. Art and the art world have developed considerably over this period, with interdisciplinarity and socially engaged practices becoming commonplace, but such developments have hardly been reflected in the art schools. So, in uncertain times, what could an art school offer and what pedagogies should operate? In order to attempt to answer this question it is necessary to consider the history and politics around didactic and heuristic pedagogies and to explore how sustained periods of self-directed practical enquiry can be reconciled with the need to learn theories, methodologies, professional development and modes of practice.