Questions about arts-led research and the role of the
doctorate as a
qualification in the arts have become increasingly
central to
understanding where art education - and so the arts
themselves -
might be heading. These questions are in turn closely
related to the
wider issues of the role of creativity, the
'subjective' and
interdisciplinarity in research. In turn these
questions challenge
many assumptions that underpin the traditional claim
to lead the
production of new knowledge central to the authority
of universities.
Driven by issues of professional status, debates on
these issues
rarely make explicit the underlying psychosocial and
professional
tensions that inform them, masked what is really at
stake in the
current debate. As a former Chair of the National
Association for
Fine Art Education, the author brings a wealth of
direct experience
to an analysis of these tensions, using a critical
discussion of the
process of his own art-led research to identify the
importance of
understanding educational changes in relation to the
new role of the
artist/teacher/researcher within institutions now
facing the
challenge of major social and environmental changes.