FLAKS

The RESEARCH LABORATORY FOR ARTS IN SCHOOLS (FORSCHUNGSLABOR FÜR KÜNSTE AN SCHULEN (FLAKS)) allows teachers of fine arts, music and theatre to conduct research based on their personal experience of teaching these subjects in schools. New contributions are made to education research in the fields of visual art, music and theatre education by adopting art-based methods applied in action and team-based research: Through their research contributions, trainee practitioners and students develop their own practice of art teaching methodologies, and, at the same time, contribute to the professionalization and relevance of the subjects. Educational research at FLAKS thus questions and develops the potential of visual art, music, and theatre production taught in schools.

FLAKS was established as part of the Institute for Art Education (IAE) at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). It is supported by research associates in the role of “critical friends” who assist the visual art, music, and theatre pedagogues in their research. They provide assistance with issues such as how to phrase a question, offer advice on research methods, and act as mediators between theory and everyday practice.

The aim is to achieve self-determined and self-reflective research practice in visual art, music, and theatre pedagogy that involves schools as well as universities of the arts.

The background to FLAKS was a “Research and Development Centre for Art Education” (“Forschungs- und Entwicklungsstelle Kunstunterricht”) that was established at the Institute for Art Education at ZHdK. The head of the institute, Carmen Mörsch, together with Heinrich Lüber, head of specialization in the MA in Art Education, describe the motives of this step undertaken in an article from the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung of 31 March 2010. By establishing a research and development centre for art education, the aim was to build on the school subject of visual art, starting with contemporary art and to be developed further.

In August 2011, the “Research and Development Centre for Art Education” was expanded into the “Research Laboratory for Arts in Schools – FLAKS”. The expansion was enabled by setting up staffing interfaces for the theatre pedagogy course, as well as for the teacher training course in music, both at the ZHdK. The task of FLAKS was to foster the interdisciplinary connection between research, teaching and professional practice in the fields of arts and music education, as well as theatre pedagogy in schools.