The challenges of educational inclusion: arts education in and as alternative education in England

Howard, F ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8493-5721 and Thomson, P, 2025. The challenges of educational inclusion: arts education in and as alternative education in England. In: Klepacki, T, van Meerkerk, E and Østern, TP, eds., Arts and cultural education in a challenging and changing world. Yearbook of the European Network of Observatoriesin the Field of Arts and Cultural Education (ENO) (3). Singapore: Springer, pp. 45-59. ISBN 9789819718955

Text 2435279_Howard.pdf - Post-print Full-text access embargoed until 27 April 2026. Download (476kB)

Abstract

The arts are often assumed to be inclusive because they offer a wider range of media, platforms, processes, and genres than are usually found in other academic subjects. For this reason, the arts often feature in programmes intended to include students on the edges of schooling, or those who have already left formal education. This chapter reports on a national vocational arts education award in England which makes just such claims.

The chapter is based on an ethnographic study of sites where the award was taught. These sites range from mainstream high schools to alternative education provision. We used a critical incident approach to interrogate two alternative education projects. One project focused on street dance and another on graffiti. Graffiti art activities, creating artwork using spray cans, is a common practice within alternative education provision. But, as we show, the art form’s rebellious and subcultural image was superseded by engagement in the acquisition of demanding artistic and performative skills. Similar to graffiti art, the second art form, dance offers a space for identity-formation and embodiment through which young people can express themselves, explore ideas, and communicate their experiences. However, this only happened for some members of the group.

We draw on three related bodies of literature –the pedagogies of poverty, funds of knowledge and the performative cultures of contemporary formal and informal education to suggest that the arts do not necessarily promote inclusion. We argue that the pedagogies employed with these most economically vulnerable young people were largely exploitative. Students were denied access to the social, political, and historical aspects of the artforms and their rich repertoires of practice, international influences and situated creation. We argue that these critical incidents allow us to understand how an arts curriculum can perpetuate rather than counter injustice.

Item Type:	Chapter in book
Creators:	Howard, F. and Thomson, P.
Publisher:	Springer
Place of Publication:	Singapore
Date:	27 April 2025
Number:	3
ISBN:	9789819718955
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/978-981-97-1896-2_4 DOI 2435279 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	12 Aug 2025 10:27
Last Modified:	12 Aug 2025 10:27
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/54164

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads