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

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