Joint research project involving teachers, students and school pupils: FLAKS is a platform for subject-specific team- and arts-based research on art, music and theatre education in schools. The research involves, and is intended to assist, teachers, drama teachers and students.
The RESEARCH LABORATORY FOR ARTS IN SCHOOLS (FLAKS) allows teachers of fine arts, music and drama to conduct research based on their personal experience of teaching these subjects in schools. The use of team-based action research, with reference to arts-based research in education, is an approach that is leading to new contributions to educational research in the areas of Fine Arts, Music and Theatre Education. In other words, practitioners and students are developing their teaching practice in the area of arts education while also collectively contributing to the professionalization of careers in the arts. Educational research at FLAKS revolves around the question of the relevance and potential of contemporary art, music and theatre production taught in schools.
FLAKS was established as part of the Institute for Art Education at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and is supported by research associates who assist the arts and drama teachers with their research, in the role of “critical friends”. They provide assistance with issues such as how to phrase a question, offer tips on research methods, and act as mediators between theory and everyday practice.
The aim is to achieve self-determined research practice in art, music and theatre education that involves schools and universities of the arts.
FLAKS received funding from the Federal Agency for Vocational Education and Technology (BBT) from January 2011 to July 2014. Over this period, the “Calculation and contingency” research project, based on the results of the first team research projects, was developed and carried out, with funding from SNF. FLAKS will remain a permanent fixture of the Institute for Art Education, independent of external funding, providing a vehicle for interdisciplinary educational research that relates to courses at the ZHdK and what is taught in schools.