Is it ‘all about having an opinion’? Challenging the Dominance of Rationality and Cognition in Democratic Education via Research in a Gallery Setting

McDonnell, J (2018) Is it ‘all about having an opinion’? Challenging the Dominance of Rationality and Cognition in Democratic Education via Research in a Gallery Setting. International Journal of Art and Design Education, 37 (2). pp. 233-243. ISSN 1476-8070

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Abstract

This article reports on findings from a research study exploring the potential for democratic learning in a gallery education project which took place in the UK in 2006–7. In doing so, it also explores a pressing issue for education today: the question of young people's democratic education in a time of political crisis in Europe. The focus of the article lies in a critique of the primacy of rational thought, cognitive skills and verbal discussion within democratic education, and an exploration of the potential role of the arts and art education in challenging this. Specifically, the article argues that there has been an affective and corporeal deficit in democratic education, and that some forms of gallery education are well placed to address this. Although the data discussed derive from a particular time and place (the UK in the latter days of a government that rigorously pursued an agenda of social and economic inclusion through both education and cultural policy), they also have relevance beyond their immediate context, illuminating the nature and dynamics of the process of democratic learning, and its aesthetic and artistic dimensions.