European societies are currently characterized by increasing intolerance towards cultural diversity, a tendency to a normative majority-driven approach to cultural literacy, a lack of inclusion of cultural expressions represented by minoritized and marginalized groups and digital cultures increasingly shaping people’s life. In this context, it is more important than ever to develop new educational pathways and policy solutions, that support the development of spaces where perspectives, narratives and voices of all people can be included and heard, regardless of their preferred artistic and cultural forms of expression.
‘Cultural awareness and expression competence’ is considered a key competence for lifelong learning, which implies an awareness of one's evolving identity and cultural heritage within a diverse society, and an understanding of how the arts and other cultural expressions can serve as both a lens for interpreting the world and a tool for influencing it. However, there is a lack of knowledge on how to strengthen cultural literacy through arts in education, including on best practices about how to further integrate it in both formal and non-formal settings.
EXPECT_Art aims to identify current barriers and potentials for promoting critical cultural literacy through arts education, education through arts and uses of arts in education within and across different
educational contexts in Europe, to generate and activate knowledge on how to enhance critical cultural literacy and understanding among European citizens. While existing cultural literacy approaches are predominantly majority-driven, the project goes beyond state of the art by developing a critical, bottom-up approach to cultural literacy driven by children and citizens.
The project focuses on different levels of formal and non-formal education. During fieldwork, which involves developing and employing different formats of using arts in schools and local communities in six countries (Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Spain), the project engages and impacts the targeted groups (i.e. children, youth and adults) directly. EXPECT_Art performs this work by developing a collaborative framework, the Art Exploratoriums, in two sites in each of the six countries between participants from schools, local communities, including participants from local institutions in the Cultural and Creative Industry (CCI), and in cooperation with CCI partners in the project.
In addition, by developing courses for student teachers and other higher education students, the project aims to provide critical cultural literacy thinking and practice to groups of professionals who will have an impact on children, youth and adults. These activities rest on the assumption that teacher education is particularly relevant for providing the space and opportunity for prospective teachers to obtain cultural literacy as a ‘mode of living’, which aids them in countering stereotypes and rethinking the status quo.
Lastly, cultural literacy hubs are established to ensure the maximum impact of the project on furthering cultural literacy through decolonising arts education curricula in partner countries and across Europe. In the cultural literacy hubs, practices reaped and developed in the community-based ArtEx are disseminated and further developed by the target groups: children, teachers, student teachers, teacher educators, adult citizens and policymakers across Europe.
Ultimately, through the research, education, communication and outreach activities outlined above, the project will contribute to social cohesion in European societies by promoting critical cultural literacy among children, youth and adults.
More information on the project’s activities can be found here:
https://www.expectart.eu/(opens in new window)
