The Impact of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in formal, non-formal and informal education and its contribution to the Key Competences for Lifelong Learning in the EU Reference Framework

Project Information

ICH-Bildung

Grant agreement ID: 661385

DOI

10.3030/661385

Project closed

EC signature date 13 April 2015

Start date 1 May 2015

End date 31 December 2017

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 195 454,80

EU contribution

€ 195 454,80

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ICH-Bildung (The Impact of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in formal, non-formal and informal education and its contribution to the Key Competences for Lifelong Learning in the EU Reference Framework)

Reporting period: 2015-05-01 to 2017-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is typically knowledge that derives from practical experience and includes knowledge which cannot be easily articulated, since it is often non-conscious (or tacit). This makes it difficult to identify how teachers of those artistic/cultural forms acquire that kind of expertise over time, how teaching quality in emotional education can be improved, and how technology can develop teaching expertise in such area.

Tacit knowledge in teaching those artistic forms develops through practice and experience is important for society because it enhances our understanding of teaching strategies and how students learn. As the most important part of teachers’ knowledge is not “subject knowledge” but the unarticulated pedagogical knowledge (i.e. tacit knowledge). This in turn highlights how tacit knowledge of teaching is central for understanding the complexity of classroom interactions and keeps pace with the rapid technological change. Despite the widespread emphasis on teachers’ “subject knowledge”, Europe has reached an unprecedented political consensus in reconsidering the relationship between teachers’ unarticulated tacit knowledge and formal knowledge. (see the The European Framework for Key Competences for Lifelong Learning). This conception of education is not about teaching or learning a specific value system but providing the intellectual ‘tools’ needed for questioning perceptively and thinking independently.

The overall aim of this project is to understand tacit knowledge in teaching art forms of ICH and to develop teaching mechanisms through the use of technology to improve art teachers’ practice and skills. In the project proposal (section 2.1) the notion of ‘ICH experience in education’ made reference to a ‘case-study’ to be identified by the supervisory committee. In this regard it was agreed to select an art form inscribed in the UNESCO list of ICH in Europe and Flamenco dance was selected. Accordingly, the objectives of the project were adjusted as follows: (i) to examine assessment tools for the process of tacit knowledge in teaching flamenco dance; (ii) to examine the role of digital preservation to support best practices in flamenco dance training; (iii) to examine the role of cutting-edge technologies for flamenco dance training.

The results showed that the application of value-based indicators for teaching based on combining Grounded Theory (GT) and Action Research (AR) approaches is adequate for integrating variables with the typology of “procedural knowledge” and distinctive in Flamenco dance such as “emotional education” and “tacit knowledge”. Digital preservation of Flamenco dance repositories is adequate for supporting a collaborative network of trainers/teachers of flamenco dance and share practical experiences (i.e. know-how) as an epitome of tacit knowledge. However, it presents a significant number of legal issues related to copyright and intellectual property rights that hamper the financial viability of such digital initiatives.

Lab experiments involving the use of two cutting-edge technologies (eye tracking and binaural sound) in flamenco dance were undertaken and two interesting technical protocols are currently being selected for further characterization in flamenco dance training. Since meaning and understanding are correlative notions, the main conclusion of this Marie Sklodowska Curie action is that I have identified tools for explaining the meaning of tacit knowledge in teaching dance at two levels: as a conceptual artistic form and as a physical art form.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

"Objective 1: to examine assessment tools for the process of tacit knowledge in teaching flamenco dance. Firstly, I carried out a literature review of qualitative and quantitative impact assessments about education and ICH. However, given our Personal Enquiry conception of education, understanding tacit knowledge in teaching means assessing intrinsic values and how the delivery of teaching is a matter for teachers’ personal choices. Secondly, to express the similarity of intrinsic values between teaching and ICH I delivered a Think-Piece document to the project’s network as well as (ICCROM, IDEA-Istituto Centrale per la Demoetnoantropologia and the Spanish Ministry of Culture). Their feedback was related to the conciliation of the “product model” in the National Curriculum with the “process model” espoused in the Personal Enquiry conception and how arts/cultural education might be located. This gave me insights into how to characterise my case study of Flamenco Dance and value-based indicators for teaching in a context of non-formal education.

Objective 2: to examine the role of digital preservation in support of best practices in flamenco dance training. In order to identify good practices in preserving digital materials to support a collaborative network of trainers for practical experiences in flamenco dance, first I created an international and multidisciplinary network called Digital Heritage (http://europa.eu/!Dj36VP ). Second, with this network I created a model proposal about how dance heritage audio-visual media could be understood by software programmes to work with semantic enrichment and content-based video retrieval systems.

Objective 3: to examine the role of cutting-edge technologies for flamenco dance training. For this I selected eye-tracking analysis and binaural sound to test. Using two lab experiments 2 protocols were identified for further characterization of understanding tacit knowledge through dance performance.

The model proposal detailed in Objective 2 has been presented in video in the Annual EC-JRC Conference: ""EU4Facts: Evidence for Policy in a post-fact world"", in Brussels (26/09/17). Lab experiment data in Objective 3 were presented in a workshop at the Andalusian Institute of Flamenco, Regional Government in Andalusia (Spain).
"

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The understanding of tacit knowledge in teaching ICH art forms and teaching mechanisms through the use of technology to improve art teachers’ practice and skills has been greatly improved as a result of the Marie Sklodowska Curie action. Tools for explaining the meaning of tacit knowledge in teaching dance at a conceptual artistic and a physical (i.e. audio-visual) level have been identified, and new knowledge about the opportunities presented by technology to provide higher quality arts/cultural teaching has been acquired. The tools analysed in the project have touched directly on questions of emotions and individual’s ability to express and interpret emotions.

Lab experiment results have been presented at The University of Granada (Spain), Department of Ethnomusicology as part of a workshop. The project led to a new international network which includes the: Department of Computer Science, Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands); University of Granada (Spain); Andalusian Ballet of Flamenco (Spain); University of Alberta (Canada); ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Australia); Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway); International Society for Ethnology and Folklore in Amsterdam (The Netherlands); and Coalition of Dance Heritage (CDH), (United States). I am preparing a publication with the Yamaha Music Foundation (Nagoya Institute of Technology), Japan to determine patterns of audio-visual behaviour among flamenco dance learners.

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