Arts Education in Ireland

From Pedagogy to Practice

Edited by Dervil Jordan, Jane O'Hanlon

Publication date:

Q3 2025

Publisher

Intellect Books

Dimensions:

244x170mm
7x10"

ISBN-13: 9781835951286

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

This book examines the distinctive nature of Arts Based Learning in Education (ABLE) in the context of a changing curriculum in Ireland. It draws on recent research on the state of the arts in Irish schools from early years, primary schools, post primary to higher education institutions.

The wide range of perspectives from pedagogy to practice draws on research in the visual arts, literature and the arts within teacher education. Teacher identity formation and students’ perceptions of learning within the writers in school’s scheme are some of the themes within the book. It also includes examples of collaborative, interdisciplinary practice between educational and cultural institutions. The book is situated within a rapidly changing curriculum policy framework and examines the relevance of arts-based learning against the backdrop of the drive for 21st century skills.

List of Figures

List of Tables

Foreword

Maureen Kennelly, Director of the Arts Council of Ireland

Acknowledgements

SECTION 1: PHILOSOPHY AND POLICY

1. Introduction: ‘Thoughts, Acts and Meanings’

Jane O’Hanlon

2. Cúinne an Ghiorria: Arts Education, a Core Curriculum and the Conundrums of Policy

Gary Granville

3. An Incredulity to Meta-narratives: Postmodern Philosophical Perspectives

Jones Irwin

4. A Posthuman Perspective in Arts-based Research with Children

Lucy Hill

SECTION 2: PEDAGOGY

5. ‘To Let my Imagination Grab My Pen’: Perceptions of Learning within the Writer-in-Schools-Scheme

Jane O’Hanlon

6. Visual Thinking Strategies: Practicing in the Field

Liz Coman

7. Quavers to Quadratics – An Interdisciplinary Science and Music Programme for Children

Shane D. Bergin, Marita Kerin and Nigel Flegg

8. ‘Cranking’ Composing: Reflections on Collaboration and Integrated Arts-based Performances

Michael Flannery and Mary Nugent

9. Signature Pedagogies of the Art Teacher

Dervil Jordan

10. ‘Beneath the Surface’ the Freud Project: A Cross-institutional Collaboration between NCAD School of Education and IMMA’s Engagement and Learning Department

Helen O. Donoghue, Dervil Jordan, Fiona King, Noel Guilfoyle and Mark Maguire

SECTION 3: PRACTICE

11. In my Craft or Sullen Art: A Writer in the Classroom

Siobhán Parkinson

12. Getting the Art of Hearing: Storytelling, Literacy, Literature, and Cognition

Patrick Ryan

13. The Write to Read Programme: Research-informed Pedagogies for Communities of Readers Writers, and Thinkers

Eithne Kennedy

14. Teacher Artist Partnership (TAP): Understanding, Entanglement, and Exploration through Creative Learning Relationships

Jenny Buggie and Vera McGrath

15. Artist Teacher Identity Formation

Dervil Jordan

16. Setting Learning Free: The Art of the Librarian in Education

Aidan Clifford and Kathleen Moran

17. Writing from Life: A Conversational Pedagogy for Creative Writing

Kevin McDermott

18. Making a Difference: Engaging Young Refugees in the Civic Space of the Museum

Tadgh Crowley

SECTION 4: ARTS-RELATED RESEARCH

19. The Affordances of the Digital: The Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository (ACERR), Ireland

Orla Murphy

20. The Change Lab: An Arts-based Research Approach in Initial Teacher Education

Fiona King and Lucy Hill

21. Returning to Research in Art Education: Notes from the Field

Dónal O’Donoghue

22. Postscripts and Future Foci

Mary Shine Thompson

Notes on Contributors

Index