Content and structure

Content

Learning, shifting, connecting – building, reflecting, preserving: the Major in Critical Social Practice in Art Education develops artistic-educational forms of work with a view to the dynamics that shape our everyday lives and its structures. It asks how artistic and social practices intertwine and how this can give rise to other forms of learning, imagining and collaborating.
Artistic-educational practice begins where people work, live and learn – in the midst of the social spaces and processes in which reality emerges. In our studies, we examine how these things, spaces and relationships are intertwined, how they came to be, and what forces and dependencies shape and change social, ecological and material conditions. 

Accordingly, artistic-educational practice is understood here as critical social practice: it reveals tensions, questions social routines and creates spaces in which connections can be conceived and shared in different ways. We focus on the material and social conditions under which educational and work processes arise and take effect, and we look for shifts in supposedly fixed structures.
Critical Social Practice in Art Education thus addresses issues of cultural work, cultural mediation and critical art education, and is part of the long history of social work by artist-educators at the intersections of art, education and society.

The Master's-level Major is aimed at people who are already working in education, mediation, culture or other socially effective contexts, or who would like to develop in this direction. They have a Bachelor's degree at university level and experience in the arts and social fields: those who understand artistic, educational and social practice as part of a joint effort to improve the conditions for learning, collaboration and care can deepen and professionalize their knowledge in the major ‘Critical Social Practice in Art Education’.

Structure

The Major ‘Critical Social Practice in Art Education’ is divided into four modules: ‘Projects,’ ‘Studio,’ ‘Discourses,’ and ‘Professionalization.’ These modules are interlinked and form a common field of practice, research, and reflection. These four modules prepare students for the final module, in which they write their Master's thesis.

The module area ‘Projects’ opens up spaces for joint design, negotiation and implementation. In cooperation within the group or in collaboration with communities, self-organized initiatives and institutions, students develop projects that have an impact on social, ecological and material contexts and create connections. Possible outcomes include collective spaces and learning environments, co-authored publications, care networks or artistic protocols of collective practice. Students learn to build structures within their own group, share resources and cultivate working methods based on mutual support. 

The ‘Studio’ module area covers formats for in-depth study of artistic and creative processes and techniques. Students' own creative work forms the starting point for research in which artistic and aesthetic processes touch on social infrastructures.

The ‘Discourses’ module area focuses on the practices of reading, listening, speaking and translating as collective experiences. Concepts related to the field of work, texts from related sciences, theory formation as embodied practice and various forms of knowledge are considered and discussed. Students have the opportunity to jointly select key topics in order to pursue their own and collective questions and combine these with artistic strategies.  

The module area ‘Professionalization’ covers study content that deals specifically with topics related to the professional field. Students reflect on possible work contexts, their roles as artistic-educational practitioners and the associated conditions and practices. Learning and work processes are actively designed in teams.
 

Competencies

Graduates:

  • can convincingly justify their professional actions in their work based on social space, situational, economic and ecological analyses,
    understand and use art as a social space for action, a medium of communication and an aesthetic horizon of experience,
  • can use the research references developed during their studies for the practice-oriented further development of the subject and the profession,
  • are able to develop and describe their own positions in subject-relevant fields of discourse (education, art, art theory, cultural and social analysis, philosophy),
  • have subject-oriented knowledge of theoretical and contemporary discourses in art, design, culture, media, society and politics, which they can relate conceptually and critically to both their artistic and creative work and their professional practice,
  • have skills in the areas of conception, planning, implementation, management and evaluation of design education programmes,
  • use flexible and varied forms and methods of communication and interaction in different teaching situations and can develop these in relation to and with those involved,
  • are team players, cooperative and act in a resource- and network-oriented manner, 
  • possess the skills necessary for professional independence in the aesthetic, cultural and socio-cultural fields.

Admission Requirements

In addition to professional qualifications in the artistic-creative or social-mediating field – demonstrated by a Bachelor's degree – the Major in ‘Critical Social Practice in Art Education’ requires a keen interest in educational, creative and transformative processes. Social and communication skills are also expected, as well as a willingness to engage in collective reflection and theory formation arising from artistic practices.

Candidates apply with a socially relevant question and a project portfolio that they have developed as part of their professional activity or bachelor's degree. Based on shared interests, students develop content-related focal points – for example, in the fields of ecology, politics or culture. These topics create links to related disciplines and current public debates.

Based on their own aesthetic, affective and socio-physical experiences, students work together collaboratively – both within and outside ZHdK – to realize educational projects with a transformative character. In doing so, they question and expand the conditions of institutional and non-formal contexts, participate in existing research contexts at ZHdK, or cooperate with actors in specific fields of work.
The diversity of the students is understood as a resource – as a starting point for learning processes in which differences are not resolved but made productive.