Aesthetic learning processes in visual education for children and young people with special educational needs: Learning and participation from the students' perspective
The doctoral project investigates the significance of aesthetic learning processes in visual education for learning for children and young people with extensive special support and educational needs, for example pupils in special education schools (schools providing additional support for pupils with special educational needs). By deepening the understanding of what aesthetic learning processes can mean for these pupils’ learning, the study aims to contribute with new knowledge, shed light on the school's prevailing norms and show alternative ways of thinking about both teaching and inclusion.
The focus is on the pupils' own experiences and voices: how they experience the work with aesthetic learning processes as part of teaching, and in what ways these processes can support or hinder learning, socialization, development, inclusion and participation. By combining special education and visual education perspectives, the project aims to contribute new knowledge about how creative and shared aesthetic practices can function as supportive tools in school for a group of students who are often on the fringes of the school system. The issue is about students' right to a school where democracy, values, human rights, ethical principles, inclusive learning environments and didactic development are accessible to all.
The most important actors in the study are children and young people. The vision is a dynamic and reflexive investigation of how aesthetic learning processes can be implemented and adapted to support students in difficult school situations - with the goal of strengthening learning, motivation and participation.
The project thus aims to contribute with increased knowledge about the role of aesthetic learning processes for students in need of special support and to work towards the identification of didactic methods within visual education that can strengthen learning and participation. By creating collaboration between cultural actors and resource and treatment schools, the study hopes to provide a basis for the development of more inclusive teaching methods.
Hanna Andersson is a doctoral student in aesthetic learning processes with a focus on educational science at Konstfack, in collaboration with HDK–Valand at the University of Gothenburg.
She is a trained teacher in Art and Design at Konstfack (IBIS) and a special education teacher at Stockholm University. For many years, she has worked in primary school and in special education groups, where she developed a strong conviction that aesthetic learning processes and artistic expressions can open paths to learning, participation and inclusion for students who often end up outside the school community.
Hanna is the founder of Den Pedagogiska Designbyrån, an organization that develops methods in the meeting between art, design, craft and pedagogy in collaboration with schools, cultural actors, municipalities and other organizations. Her professional practice is at the intersection of pedagogy, art, participation and social inclusion – something that now forms the basis of her doctoral education.
Her research interests revolve around the potential of aesthetic learning processes in schools, especially for students who are on the margins of the education system. She investigates how special education and visual education can interact and how aesthetic practices can create new approaches to learning, motivation and participation for students in difficult school- and life situations. Her approach is qualitative and practical, focusing on the social, didactic and discursive dimensions that surround aesthetic learning in resource schools.
A central question in the dissertation work is what place aesthetic learning processes are given in today's schools, and what this says about the school's view of knowledge and inclusion. By taking students' experiences of creation seriously, Hanna wants to contribute new knowledge that can challenge prevailing norms and show alternative ways of thinking about teaching and inclusion.
Main supervisor: Simon Ceder
Admitted to: HDK-Valand
Project period: 2025 - 2029