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Education Sciences
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Contemporary Arts Education Through the Lens of Social Justice: Insights...
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Contemporary Arts Education Through the Lens of Social Justice: Insights from Research and Practice

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (16 November 2025) | Viewed by 2026

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Judith Dinham

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University, Perth 6102, Australia
Interests: arts education; teacher education; online education

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to provide a forum for recent research developments, including innovations in curriculum and pedagogy, that relate to equitable access to good-quality, relevant and meaningful arts education from birth and across the school years. This area of research falls within the aspirations expressed in the UN Sustainability Goal 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. For this Special Issue, “the arts” refers to the arts collectively, as well as separate disciplines such as dance, drama, media arts, music and visual arts. We welcome a diverse range of research papers that bring insights about developments in good-quality arts education in and for contemporary contexts. Papers must demonstrate rigorous methodology and highlight the significance of the research in terms of advancing thinking, curriculum and pedagogical practices. The possible topic areas include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Arts education and wellbeing;
  • Arts education and diversity, including neurodiversity, social, cultural and gender diversity;
  • Decolonising the arts curriculum;
  • First Nations perspectives and learning practices in arts education;
  • Social engagement and exploration of social justice issues through the arts curriculum;
  • Socially just arts education pedagogy and learning environments;
  • Arts education, alternative narratives and cultural resilience;
  • Access to arts education in formal education and alternative setting;
  • Developing agency through opportunities for creative thinking, self-expression and collaborative engagement;
  • Arts education in the digital age, including online education;
  • Supportive learning environments for innovative arts education;
  • Arts education and global citizenship.

Dr. Judith Dinham
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • equitable arts education
  • access to arts education
  • arts education and social justice
  • decolonising the arts curriculum
  • arts education and neurodiversity
  • arts education and social change
  • arts education and alternative narratives
  • arts education and agency

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 3088 KB  
Article
Art-Based Museum Programs for Teacher Wellbeing: A Delphi Study for a Socially Just and Sustainable Framework
by Carmen Basanta and Carmen Urpí
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(11), 1532; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15111532 - 13 Nov 2025
Viewed by 366
Abstract
Teacher wellbeing is a matter of social justice since burnout syndrome disproportionately affects those working in under-resourced and diverse educational contexts by limiting their ability to foster inclusive and equitable learning. To this situation, art museums respond as pedagogical spaces for wellbeing while [...] Read more.
Teacher wellbeing is a matter of social justice since burnout syndrome disproportionately affects those working in under-resourced and diverse educational contexts by limiting their ability to foster inclusive and equitable learning. To this situation, art museums respond as pedagogical spaces for wellbeing while contributing to socially just and sustainable arts education. School teachers are offered new opportunities for ongoing professional development tailored to their well-being needs, such as burnout prevention. A two-round international Delphi study with experts from universities, schools, museums, and arts-and-wellbeing organizations (n = 26 1st round, n = 17 2nd round)—rather than focusing on teachers’ personal accounts—develops consensus on a pedagogical framework for art-based programs designed to prevent teacher burnout and enhance wellbeing. The findings identify nine pedagogical guidelines highlighting participatory approaches—audience, objectives, content, methodology, scheduling, facilitators, activities, evaluation, and program adherence. By positioning art museums as democratic, inclusive, and relational spaces, the framework advances the role of the arts in addressing systemic challenges in education, such as supporting teachers’ wellbeing. This research contributes to the international debate on socially just arts education by demonstrating how teacher wellbeing can be fostered through innovative, evidence-based museum practices aligned with SDG 4. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Arts Education Through the Lens of Social Justice: Insights from Research and Practice)
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22 pages, 1621 KB  
Article
Dancing Dialogues: Mapping and Discussing Access to Dance in Portuguese Upper-Secondary Schools
by Joana Mesquita, Eunice Macedo and Helena C. Araújo
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(7), 905; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15070905 - 16 Jul 2025
Viewed by 950
Abstract
This article analyzes the role of dance and the arts in European and national educational policy agendas and maps the provision of dance in upper-secondary schools in the district of Porto, Portugal. To understand the role of dance in educational policies, we conducted [...] Read more.
This article analyzes the role of dance and the arts in European and national educational policy agendas and maps the provision of dance in upper-secondary schools in the district of Porto, Portugal. To understand the role of dance in educational policies, we conducted a document analysis of regulations and decree-laws inspired by Stephen Ball’s policy cycle approach. To explore how these policies materialize in educational contexts, a mapping approach was conducted in upper-secondary schools within the district of Porto, Portugal. Results show that, at the public education policy level, although there is no specific debate about dance, the arts are gradually being included in the educational agendas, but still in a scarce way and with a more instrumental approach. At the institutional level, access to dance in education is not sufficiently democratized, reinforcing social and territorial inequalities. Despite its local scope, the study contributes to the broader international debate on equity in access to education with the arts, mainly dance. It offers insights from Southern Europe—a region often underrepresented in global research—which can inform research and policy development aimed at more inclusive educational systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Arts Education Through the Lens of Social Justice: Insights from Research and Practice)
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