When we speak about the methods of learning within the arts, it opens up a huge field for potential research. It spans from existential questions about the purpose of arts education, to what the best preparation is for an uncertain professional practice. Dr. Fabiola Camuti has been investigating since January 2024 how education at HKU is shaped, along with identifying the educational needs.
The art of education
Camuti has a huge amount of research experience in the field of ‘the art of education’. In 2023, she finished her postdoc research into new methods of education, conducted together with students from ArtEZ. The focus was on the exploration of a caring and non-hierarchical multivocal pedagogy. Educational systems are currently still mostly traditional and normative. Breaking through this will be a point of attention at HKU as well. In the end, it is about a future generation of artists, designers and performers that needs to get the best-possible preparation for their daily practice. One that offers them the skills required to increasingly contribute to societal transitions. Are our learning processes indeed optimally tuned to this goal? That is the question at the core of this new professorship.
Participatory action research
In the coming years, Camuti’s professorship will be working towards a pedagogic vision via participatory action research among the Arts In Education courses at four schools. There will also be input from alumni in the work field. How can we develop art education that is at the heart of society and cares for the community? How can we make it sustainable and socially just? And what will be the role of research in this new curriculum? The latter question is a focus point that will be worked on at HKU-wide level: strengthening the connection between education and research. To achieve this, Camuti will cooperate with other professorships and schools to find more room for research in the curriculum..svg?ext=.svg){kind=logo}