Harmonizing Vocational Education and the Arts: Exploring the Role of Aesthetic Experience in Conceptual Development

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 4 November 2025 | Viewed by 851

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Education, University of Sunderland, Sunderland SR6 3SD, UK
Interests: arts-based educational research
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Dewey (1934/2005), (Eisner 1993, 2002) and Greene (2005) remind us that meaning is not limited to what words can express, aesthetic qualities are not restricted to the arts, and not everything that matters in education can be measured and not everything that can be measured in education matters. Illuminating pedagogic devices capable of heightening human vitality, sparking imagination and contributing to the development of the mind and character of learners in vocational educational contexts is central to discussion. Building the capacity of vocational teachers and their learners to imagine and engage in new pedagogic practices is therefore central to the discussion. Harnessing the expressive powers of aesthetic experience, including many artistic forms such as literary, visual, performing, digital, musical and dramatic arts, frame the parameters of this Special Issue. A further intention is to identify aspects of aesthetic experience, pedagogic devices and “epistemic shortcuts” or heuristic devices which may be of interest and use to a wider audience of teacher-educators, teachers and others involved in supporting the improvement of educational practice in a wide range of educational settings. The principles of arts-based educational research (ABER) are employed to bring experiences of arts-mediated vocational education to life, including shared aspects of the relationship between aesthetic experience and what we really mean when we talk about “good education”.

(1) Aim: The aim of the of the Special Issue is to bring a broad range of international teacher-researchers together from a wide range of vocational subjects and disciplines to enable them to share practical examples and theoretical perspectives surrounding this field of study. This aim relates to the scope of the journal in its focus on education philosophy and theory of education, curriculum studies, pedagogy, sociology of education, vocational education and teacher education.

(2) Suggested themes for this Special Issue may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Arts-based educational research;
  2. Aesthetic experience and the arts in teacher education;
  3. Aesthetic experience and the arts in vocational education (for example, engineering, construction, metal crafts,);
  4. Aesthetic experience and the arts in adult literacy and language development;
  5. Games for learning;
  6. Learning through stories and narrative accounts of experience;
  7. Learning through popular culture, film, digital and creative media;
  8. Learning through roleplay table-top games and dramatic arts;
  9. Vocational pedagogy;
  10. Multi-modal assessment in vocational education;
  11. Integrated curriculum planning in vocational education;
  12. Models of educational change and improvement in vocational education. 

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Prof. Dr. Maggie Gregson
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • aesthetic experience
  • vocational education
  • arts-based educational research
  • epistemic shortcuts
  • teacher education
  • vocational pedagogy
  • multimodal assessment

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 561 KB  
Article
Supporting Teacher Agency and Aesthetic Experience for Sustainable Professional Development
by Martin James Hoskin
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(9), 1130; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15091130 (registering DOI) - 30 Aug 2025
Abstract
Significant time, money, and energy are invested in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) across Further Education (FE) colleges in England, with the aim of enhancing teaching strategies, sharing “best” practices, and improving educational quality. Despite these intentions, practitioner perceptions of CPD’s value remain mixed, [...] Read more.
Significant time, money, and energy are invested in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) across Further Education (FE) colleges in England, with the aim of enhancing teaching strategies, sharing “best” practices, and improving educational quality. Despite these intentions, practitioner perceptions of CPD’s value remain mixed, highlighting concerns about the effectiveness of current approaches. CPD managers often face competing financial and operational demands, alongside pressure to comply with external requirements, resulting in CPD that is frequently instrumental, mandatory, and delivered through one-off events. These practices reflect a data-driven, prescriptive management culture that prioritizes measurable outcomes over meaningful educational experiences. Consequently, teachers are compelled to demonstrate compliance within a system where accountability is unevenly distributed. This medium-scale, multi-method practitioner research study investigates how such compliance-driven CPD practices divert attention and resources from genuine educational improvement. This study explores an alternative model of CPD rooted in teacher agency and enriched through engagement with the arts and aesthetic experiences. Drawing on surveys, semi-structured interviews, critical incidents, and narrative accounts, the findings suggest that this approach fosters more democratic, creative, and impactful professional development. In promoting teacher agency and challenging dominant power structures, this study offers a vision of CPD that supports meaningful educational transformation, with practical examples and recommendations for broader implementation. Full article
19 pages, 276 KB  
Article
Creating Cultural Conditions for Collaborative Professional Learning in FE and HE Communities of Practice: A Case Study
by Clare Power, Catriona Warren, Eleanor Neff, Tracey Anderson and Joan Slevin
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(7), 863; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15070863 - 4 Jul 2025
Viewed by 326
Abstract
This research is situated within the Irish tertiary educational space, between higher education (HE) and further education and training (FET). The higher education organisation in which this research is set is the Literacy Development Centre (LDC)—South-East Technological University (SETU), and the further education [...] Read more.
This research is situated within the Irish tertiary educational space, between higher education (HE) and further education and training (FET). The higher education organisation in which this research is set is the Literacy Development Centre (LDC)—South-East Technological University (SETU), and the further education organisation is the Longford Westmeath Education Training Board (LWETB). This study focuses on the provision of a 30 Credit NFQ Level 6 qualification entitled Certificate in Adult Literacy Studies. Methods include multiple focus groups to capture the differing accounts of experience. The findings of this research present a unique 360-degree view of experiences of the blended delivery of this curriculum programme. Voices reported here include all stakeholders, specifically the people who logistically manage the programme from both the HE and FE perspectives, the lecturers and their students. The research focuses specifically on the opportunities, the positives, the challenges and the lessons learned for all the research participants involved in delivering this programme within this tertiary space. This article concludes with a discussion of the impact of this type of academic delivery upon the students and other respective organisational stakeholders from both the HE and the FE perspectives. Full article
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