| Opis: | The scientific monograph Contemporary Art Practices and Interdisciplinarity in Primary Education provides a comprehensive examination of the role of contemporary visual art in primary education and offers an in-depth analysis of its pedagogical value and didactic impact in the context of contemporary educational challenges. The point of departure for the study is the recognition that contemporary visual art, through its conceptual openness, social engagement, process-oriented nature, and interdisciplinary orientation, offers exceptional potential for fostering creativity, critical thinking, reflection, and active citizenship. Despite this potential, contemporary art is still frequently addressed in school practice in a marginal, unsystematic, or merely illustrative manner. The monograph therefore responds to the need for a didactically grounded, research-based, and pedagogically reflective model for integrating contemporary art practices into visual art education.
The theoretical section of the monograph establishes an expanded conceptual framework for contemporary art that transcends stylistic and formal definitions and understands it as an art of ideas, relationships, processes, and context. Contemporary art is presented as an open and polysemic field of practices that responds directly to current social, cultural, political, and environmental conditions, foregrounding issues of identity, values, responsibility, and the role of the individual in contemporary society. Such an understanding of art carries important pedagogical implications, as it requires a shift from a transmissive model of teaching toward dialogue, problem-based learning, and reflective didactic approaches. Within this framework, the learner is no longer a passive observer but an active co-constructor of meaning, an interpreter, and a critical participant in the learning process.
The monograph further addresses visual art education in primary school and highlights the need for its substantive and didactic renewal. Visual art is understood as a key educational field that significantly contributes to the development of creative, conceptual, and visual thinking, visual literacy, emotional sensitivity, social competencies, and the ability to critically assess visual and social realities. In this context, contemporary art practices prove to be an exceptionally effective didactic starting point for problem-based teaching, inquiry-based learning, and the design of open-ended learning tasks that support differentiated and individualized approaches to learning. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of the teacher as a didactic mediator who, through a thoughtful selection of artworks, methods, and guiding questions, enables a gradual transition from description and aesthetic preference toward understanding, interpretation, argumentation, and evaluation.
The core of the monograph is an empirical study designed as action research and conducted during the third educational cycle of primary school. The research was implemented through three consecutive action research phases, enabling a spiral process of planning, implementation, and reflection of pedagogical approaches. Participants in the research included seventh- and eighth-grade students, a visual art teacher, two teachers of Civic and Homeland Education and Ethics, and a curator from a contemporary art gallery. This research design facilitated the integration of formal and non-formal education and created conditions for examining interdisciplinary didactic approaches within authentic learning environments.
The first action research phase focused on introducing contemporary visual art into visual art education and examining its motivational, creative, and conceptual potential. The findings revealed increased student motivation, greater originality of ideas, a higher level of personal engagement, and a more profound relationship to the addressed content. A key pedagogical contribution of this phase lies in the recognition that contemporary art effectively stimulates higher-order thinking, while simultaneously highlighting the need for clear didactic structure, expert explanation, and the gradual development of conceptual thinking. This phase thus contributed to the understanding that the pedagogical value of contemporary art is not self-evident but is realized through a carefully planned instructional process.
The second action research phase was designed as a gallery visit and direct engagement with authentic artworks. This phase significantly expanded the didactic framework of visual art education and confirmed the role of the gallery as an active learning environment. The multisensory, spatial, and experiential encounter with artworks proved to be a key factor in understanding contemporary art, as it enabled in-depth dialogue, confrontation with personal preconceptions, and the gradual development of interpretative competencies. The curator’s professionally guided interpretation had a pronounced didactic effect, functioning as a catalyst for reinterpretation and reflection. This phase contributed to the development of visual and cultural literacy and fostered a more open, inquiry-oriented attitude toward art among students.
The third action research phase provided a further extension of the acquired experiences through interdisciplinary integration of visual art with Civic and Homeland Education and Ethics. Within this framework, contemporary visual art emerged as a highly effective didactic medium for addressing complex social, ethical, and identity-related issues. Students began to perceive art as a form of public communication and as a tool for articulating personal and social positions, which was reflected in increased engagement, higher levels of conceptual thinking, improved argumentation, and enhanced reflective capacity. The pedagogical value of this phase is also evident in the strengthening of collaborative learning, the development of dialogue, and the effective integration of learning objectives across subject areas.
The overall action research process confirms that the pedagogical value of integrating contemporary art practices extends beyond immediate learning outcomes and is primarily reflected in the development of a didactic model based on a spiral process of planning, implementation, and reflection. The research demonstrates that a thoughtful and reflective integration of contemporary visual art contributes to higher quality teaching, the development of students’ creative, cognitive, affective, and social capacities, and the professional growth of teachers. The monograph thus offers theoretically grounded and empirically validated foundations for the renewal of visual art education and substantiates interdisciplinary integration as a key pedagogical strategy for contemporary schooling and education in the 21st century. |
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