Promoting Child Agency Through Art Education: Integrations Between Education and the Artistic Fields

Abstract

Art constitutes an essential element for all human becoming and it has always been a sort of kaleidoscope of the world and a call to see things critically or differently — thus the role of art in society has always been fundamental. This paper tries to articulate how the integration between art and education makes a valuable contribution in terms of enhancing children’s agency and participation in formal or informal settings. Engaging with the challenging future, requires a good education of the arts and nurturing towards the development of artistic sensitivities, which in addition contributes to an increased sense of autonomy, purpose and self-discovery. The object of study refers to the idea how arts education provides a “space for agency”, where all actors involved – teachers, parents, children, art professionals or curators etc. exchange ideas and become empowered in their communities. The value of art based learning can sometimes be neglected due to the attributed importance to maths, language or other domains and on the other hand, integrating art education in the school context can be quite challenging. Therefore, digging deeper into how to better integrate the arts especially in the school context is necessary. In addition, this paper tries to give a few recommendations towards the integration of art education starting from early childhood. Furthermore, this paper discusses also the possibilities that art education presents in special regards to education in schools, as an additional tool for social and personal development.