Overview

AERG is an inter-disciplinary group and has strong links with arts education organisations nationally and internationally. This collaboration not only facilitates the potential for lively and enriching inter-disciplinary exchange across a number of disciplines, but also serves to provide an important focal point for research in the area of the Arts in Education in wider society. Although in its early years of operation, AERG has been successful in developing valuable networking opportunities between organisations and institutions involved in arts education, and who are also interested in engaging in researching their own practices.

Students on the associated M.Ed. (Drama in Education, Music in Education) and B.Mus. Ed. programmes, and doctoral students have engaged in collaborative practice and research with the National Gallery of Ireland, the Abbey Theatre, the National Association of Youth Drama, Creative Ireland, CREATE (the national government agency for community arts), Aspire (Asperger Syndrome Association of Ireland), the Arts Council, Education Centres, Youthreach, Youth and Education Service for Refugees and Migrants, Fingal County Council's early childhood and arts offices, a regional Travellers' Association, and over 100 kindergarten, primary and secondary schools to date. Distance learning students associated with AERG are similarly involved in research projects in over 15 countries at the moment.

The establishment of the Arts Education Research Group is enhancing our ability to prioritise its vision in a belief in the value of arts and learning as an intrinsic component of human culture that deserves formal recognition in schools and wider society, and as a way of transforming and renewing educational systems to achieve valuable personal, social and cultural objectives which will benefit all children, young people and lifelong learners of all ages.

Research Focus

The Arts Education Research Group has a developing programme of activities across the arts generally, with several areas of specialism. It is concerned with research into the policy and practice of arts and aesthetic education. Its current areas of expertise include Drama and Theatre in Education, Music, Museum Studies, Dance, Creative Writing, Puppetry, Early Childhood Arts, Environmental Arts Education, the Visual Arts, Second Language Learning and Embodiment, and Artistic Biography. It is particularly interested in teaching and learning issues with respect to inclusion and special educational needs. It is also currently building networks to bridge the arts and sciences, and exploring the ways in which the two can inter-relate in policy and practice.

The Group is engaged in the following major strands of research activity currently:

• Drama and Inclusion: Focusing on drama in education, inclusive arts, sociodramatic play, and critical pedagogy, with specific attention to autism and neurodiversity
• Arts and Forced Displacement: Examining socially engaged practices, performance, music-making, decolonialism, community-based arts initiatives with refugees and migrants.
• Drama and Language: embodiment in language education, performative language teaching, creativity and bilingualism, Irish language education
• Music and Society: Exploring choral music education, music pedagogy, and the intersection of music with society, including informal, non-formal, and formal learning.
• Arts in Early Education: Researching primary arts education, music education for generalist practitioners, and the role of arts in early childhood development.
• Teacher Training and Pedagogy: Investigating initial teacher education, co-teaching, music pedagogy, and interdisciplinarity in teaching practices.
• Sustainability and Equity in Arts: Focusing on social and performing arts with themes of equity, sustainability, and inclusive practices.
• Health and Artist Support: Addressing the health and well-being of artists, with specific research into conservatoires and the broader artistic community.
• Applied Theatre and Health: Exploring the intersections of drama education, applied theatre, and health-related practices.
• Artistic Identity and Biography: Analysing artistic biographies, interdisciplinarity, and situated learning within creative practices.

This work has generated a number of peer-reviewed publications, conference proceedings, and conference presentations.

AERG includes public performance and academic events in the range of its activities, and hosts an annual series of student concerts on campus. Over 500 research seminars have been organised since 2012, with several highly successful international conferences taking place. Members of AERG are regularly invited to give presentations, workshops, keynote addresses and CPD training to teachers and arts educators and practitioners in many parts of the world.

AERG Publication

(2023). Arts Alive: A literature review to support curriculum specification development for the area of Arts Education.

https://ncca.ie/media/6543/literature-review-for-arts-education.pdf

Written by Carmel O’Sullivan (Co-PI), Elaine Clotworthy (Co-PI), Mary Nugent, Susanne Colleary, Eileen Keane, Erika Piazzoli, Edmond Gubbins, Linda Krakaur, Marita Kerin, Susan McCormick, Louise Heeran Flynn

Book Publication

'Who am I? 'Who can tell me who I am'? The Importance of the Social and Political in Children’s and Young People’s Drama, edited by Carmel O’Sullivan, Susanne Colleary and David Davis. The book is part of the Trinity Education Papers, published 2023.