Theory and practice between art and pedagogy in the art school

Constructing a Reflective Site was a fine art practice-based Ph.D. project, which considered the relationship between art practice and teaching. The project set out to explore what the critical potential could be for a practice and teaching interrelationship, through a Ph.D. research project within the art school undertaken from a dual position on practice: art practice and teaching as practice. This article outlines how this dual Ph.D. research employed a transdisciplinary approach towards an exploration of subject specificity in Fine Art education, by drawing on constructions of sites, towards an artistic position as well as a theoretical framework. Within these sites, notions of reflection, as found in philosophy, art and pedagogy, were used to elucidate and question this relationship between forms of knowledge as found between them. By mapping reflection across art practice, teaching practice and theory, historically, cognitively and in epistemology, reflection was found to not necessarily constitute the same experience across pedagogy and art practice. Correlating theory and practice needs to be critically productive, not just for the process of undertaking a Ph.D., but also within broader fields of art and art pedagogy. This article discusses a coupling of critical and productive in relation to a dual or expanded practice relating to the field of art.

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