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Artistic approaches and languages are a valuable resource for pedagogy in the domains of both educational work (Zuccoli, 2010) and educational research (Biffi and Zuccoli, 2019), where their role has gained increasing recognition in recent decades. Within this framework, Arts-Based Research methods (ABR) can make a crucial contribution (Barone, 2012; Cole and Knowles, 2008). Deployed especially in the social sciences, arts-based research makes «systematic use of the artistic process […] as a primary way of understanding and examining experience» (McNiff, 2008: 29) that is inaccessible to more traditional forms of knowledge and methods of inquiry. This article presents the Arts-Based Research – Global Classroom, a training course for PhD students and early career researchers. The University of Milano Bicocca delivered the course in partnership with Florida State University and KU Leuven. The course was designed as a learning laboratory to exchange knowledge and competence in using ABR methods for educational research. This paper aims to explore the structure, the contents, and the opportunities offered by ABR Global Classroom.

Recent decades have seen growing recognition of the role of artistic languages in educational and research settings. What was once an exclusive focus on the expressive production of children has now expanded to include far greater use of artistic languages in the domain of education, including with younger and older adults. Artistic production itself has become a key tool for interpreting society, and has thus been accepted into mainstream research as a language that it is no longer possible to do without. Proponents of arts-based research (ABR) and art-informed research are currently calling for a focus on «systematic use of the artistic process [...] as a primary way of understanding and examining experience» (McNiff, 2008, 29). These methods are alternative means of exploring aspects of reality that are inaccessible to traditional forms of knowledge and more conventional methods of inquiry. In a contemporary era that is different to the past and characterized by greater uncertainty, ABR offers a strategy based on a form of observation that is complex and wide-ranging, and thus more appropriate than exclusively linear and causal approaches. This paper presents a post-graduate course in ABR that takes the form of a virtual international classroom entitled Global Classroom in Arts-Based Research. This programme involves – in addition to the Human Sciences and Education Department at Milano-Bicocca University – Florida State University, Drexel University, University of Leuven, FLAMES, and Northern Illinois University. It is offered to PhD students in education, with a view to familiarizing them with the potential of artistic languages, getting them to constantly compare notes concerning their practices and documentation, and helping them to design research actions that include the use of these languages.

This presentation describes the theoretical framework and research design of the study ''Documenting inside/outside children's perspective'', which explores the 'inside/outside' concepts of children (aged 3-6 years) and their teachers at ECECC, based on the comparison of three pilot case studies in Italy, Japan, and the UK. The main focus here is on the Italian case study and its preliminary outcomes. 'Inside' and 'outside' are key terms from multiple perspectives. They may refer to both real and embodied space (Delafield-Butt & Adie, 2006). The 'inside/outside' dichotomy also recalls the social dimension of groups and questions of identity and belonging. The conceptual underpinnings of the research include a focus on pedagogical documentation as a strategy of inquiry for both teachers and children (Rinaldi, 2012), and a view of children as capable of reflecting on highly complex ideas (Bateson, 1972). The study involved using art-based methods (Knowles, 2008) – specifically, collage and composition techniques – to explore the concepts of 'inside/outside’. An ad hoc protocol was drawn up for obtaining consent/assent and protecting children’s rights. The research is still ongoing at the time of this presentation, however, the Italian findings suggest that art may be viewed as both a strategy of inquiry and a method of documenting outcomes. The current findings shed light on how arts-based approaches may be combined with pedagogical documentation practices to stimulate active reflection on theoretical concepts among children.

How the educational documentation may use forms of artistic production? This study aims to analyse the documentation forms of the educational process using artistic practices. Often art is used in educational institutions, to promote the development of the expressive potential children. Many authors have expressed themselves in this area with different perspectives (Dewey, 1953, 1995, Dallari, 1998, 2005, Francucci, 2014, Francucci, Vassalli, 2005, Munari, 1981, 1984, Stern, 2012, Steiner, 1949). At the same time it increased the need to document these processes and to use the same documents as a form of artistic expression. For this research, we use theoretical multidisciplinary paradigms: art education (Dewey, 1951, Read, 1954), art based research (Sullivan, 2010), pedagogy of early childhood (Dewey, 1949, Edwards, Gandini, Formann, 1995). Referred to the method, the research was conducted with collective case studies (Yin, 1994). We use qualitative approaches with flexible tools to explore the reflective dimension that emerge. All the cases included in the study have been analysed with the consent agreement of services, professionals involved. The conduction of the investigation meets legal precepts with due authorisation of responsible of the children. The consent too was negotiated with the children, seeking respect the uniqueness of each individual involved. The results indicate the need to open a debate on the use of art in educational environments as a documentation tool. The research aim is to allow the recognition, recording a series of practices that choose to use art to make clear the paths of knowledge made by children.

Official records of children’s progress (summative assessment) are kept at three points in the EYFS: Progress check at the age 2, Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) from September 2021 and Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP). These records are legal requirements and guidance is provided on how they are to be completed. As discussed in Chapters 9 and 10, however, formative assessments are also central and ongoing and should be an integral part of the learning and teaching process (DfE, 2017a). In ECEC, however, the collection of information (either for the child or the pedagogical practices) that is not part of the legal requirements of the curriculum framework has a long tradition. This chapter discusses this documentation which differs in nature from the legal records and is characterised by a pedagogical style that allows the reader to authentically share the educational experience. In the contemporary debate, especially since the end of the last century and inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophical approach, all documentation concerning the education process is defined as pedagogical (Dahlberg et al., 1997). Pedagogical documentation is discussed as the recursive cycle of observation, design, action, assessment and of the documentation itself. In this sense, pedagogical documentation relies on specific competencies possessed by practitioners, whose role is to observe and identify the essence of educational experience and to select the aspects that are core to understanding this experience and why it may be considered educational.

The chapter offers practical examples of what pedagogical documentation could entail when used in a research project. In this chapter we show how pedagogical documentation can be used as a methodology with arts-informed methods as a play based approach for participatory research with children. Thus, this chapter aims to explore: - the nature of pedagogical documentation for capturing the educational experiences of children; - the nature of pedagogical documentation as a methodology for participatory research; - the use of arts in research as a method of involving children in their meaning-making that words sometimes cannot achieve.

This paper aims at highlighting the role of arts, referring specifically to graphics, in creating participatory learning experiences for young children and as a mean for professional development of teachers, focusing in particular on the use of arts in pedagogical documentation. Graphics are viewed as a reflective practice that can generate significant learning and development experiences for both children and teachers. These reflections are contextualized by presenting the first experiences and considerations from an ongoing cross-national research, that involves young children (3–6) and their teachers in their educational services called “Inside Outside Children’s perspective in ECECC”. To this end, the Italian pilot case study is particularly meaningful: children have been involved in a participatory learning experience, thanks to the use of drawing, aimed at exploring the meanings of the concept of ‘Inside/Outside’ in its various dimensions – spatial, social and referring to the self. Furthermore, teachers have also explored the theme thanks to the use of collage and started reflecting on the potentialities of this methodology as a professional development tool. The objective is to widen the reflection to the use of artistic languages in pedagogical documentation, to enhance learning in children and teachers.

The fact that art, images, drawing, and the use of expressive materials feature strongly in the lives of young children scarcely requires confirmation, yet it is borne out by numerous studies and the everyday observations of early childhood education practitioners. Nevertheless, realising the full potential of the artistic dimension - which is so specific to human development - is quite a different matter. In this chapter, we explore the value of the artistic and expressive medium for children and adults in research, first in general, then as a resource for enhancing communication and relationships, and finally as a domain of inquiry and discovery that can span a diverse range of disciplinary areas.

In recent decades, art-based methods of formulating research questions, collecting data, and documenting research processes and outcomes have played an increasingly important role in educational research. The current paper calls for a review of art-based research tools, with a particular focus on digital environments. Within this framework, we present the early stages of a joint training-research project - involving the Human Sciences Department of Milano-Bicocca University and the Department of Creative Arts Therapies, Drexel University, Philadelphia – which will present art-based, including digital, methods of inquiry in a global classroom environment.

Il presente contributo intende riflettere sull’utilizzo di una tecnica artistica, il collage, all’interno della formazione degli insegnanti e degli educatori. Si tratta di una differente modalità di azione da parte dei formatori che è inserita nell’ambito dell’art-based research (McNiff, 2008), e dell’arts-informed research (Cole & Knowles, 2008). Per comprendere in modo approfondito questa scelta è necessario conoscere la nascita di questa tecnica e l’utilizzo che di questa hanno fatto vari artisti. Questo consente di delineare alcuni processi cognitivi riflessivi connessi alla pratica del collage che lo rendono strumento efficace in contesti formativi, soprattutto quando rivolti a insegnanti ed educatori. In chiusura, pertanto, si andranno presentando alcuni esempi di esperienze formative che hanno visto il ricorso al collage come strategia riflessiva., Form@re - Open Journal per la formazione in rete, Vol. 15 No. 2 (2015): La comunicazione visiva nella didattica.

Il presente contributo, basato su di una ricerca empirica ancora in corso, è volto ad interrogare il collage come metodo di ricerca pedagogica. Nel contemporaneo dibattito pedagogico italiano, infatti, le tecniche artistiche in genere vedono ampi margini di utilizzo quali risorse per il lavoro educativo, mentre non del tutto consolidata è la possibilità di pensare alle arti come risorsa per la ricerca pedagogica, vale a dire individuando nel metodo artistico una via per esplorare l’esperienza educativa. All’interno di una prospettiva ermeneutica che riconosce il ricorso a metodologie artistiche per la ricerca nelle scienze umane (Van Manen, 1990), lo studio qui presentato si interroga sulle possibilità di pensare la ricerca pedagogica come artisticamente orientata (Cole & Knowles, 2008) attraverso il ricorso al collage (Butler-Kisber, 2010). Le finalità dello studio sono, pertanto, volte a comprendere il processo del ricercare l’educazione come processo artistico attraverso la tecnica del collage This paper, based on an on-going educational research project, explores the potential to use collage as a research method in the field of education. In contemporary Italian pedagogy, artistic techniques have been extensively deployed as educational practices, but their use as research methods through which to interrogate education has not yet been fully established. Adopting a hermeneutic perspective (Van Manen, 1990), that recognizes a role for the arts in human science research, the paper will examine draw on the practice of collage (Butler-Kisber, 2010) to explore how the process of exploration of the educational field may itself be considered an artistic process (Cole & Knowles, 2008)

Il saggio presenta una riflessione metodologica sul contributo di un approccio autobiografico alla realizzazione di una didattica inclusiva nella scuola primaria.

This paper is underpinned by the assumption – made explicit by Graeme Sullivan – that the contemporary world demands an alternative mode of research, one that conserves the complexity of reality, thereby following the logic of a transformative practice: “[I realize] that in an uncertain world there is a need to develop more widespread means of exploring human comprehension and that visual arts can play a key role” (Sullivan, 2010). At the same time, if we examine the specific practice of a range of artists from different historical eras we find that artistic action has always been research-driven, never remaining static but always striving towards new and different solutions, in terms of materials, styles and artists’ relationships with their audiences. Thus, in the current paper we emphasize the connection between research and artistic practice, not viewing the latter as an optional accessory but as a mode of research in its own right: one that advances our understanding of the object under enquiry by providing a novel and metaphoric language with which to give shape to thoughts and ideas. Therefore, within the context of a broader on-going research programme that combines art-based methods (Knowles & Cole, 2008; Butler-Kisber, 2010) with biographical methods (Demetrio, 1997; Linden & Merril, 2009) with the aim of studying the formative process of educational researchers as an artistic process, we here present the artistic process as a form of biographical research that uses an artistic technique – specifically collage – as a gateway to accessing and exploring the world both inside and outside of oneself. We develop our argument in two stages. First, we reflect on the biographical history of a selection of artists whom we view as particularly significant because of their writings and artistic training histories, paying particular attention to how they worked with materials in implementing the collage technique. Second, with a view to comparing artistic training with training in research, we present a training workshop on the use of collage in qualitative research (Joennsu, Finland, 2014 ) conducted with PhD students as part of a Summer School on research methodologies in the human sciences. Via these two steps we hope to show that collage is an artistic training technique with the potential to enhance the enquiry into educational and training experience in multiple ways.

Il contributo intende presentare la narrazione come dimensione chiave nella scuola, per coltivare il racconto, la testimonianza, per pensare e progettare l'insegnamento, per documentare. Ma anche come spazio relazionale fra insegnanti e alunni, di ogni ordine e grado