Conference Agenda

Context: The context of the study is visual arts education in Compulsory School for Pupils with Intellectual Disabilities in Sweden. In the presentation the conditions offered for pupils with disabilities are discussed in relation to learning through visual arts education.

Aim and research question: The aim of the study is to investigate the conditions for creating agency for these pupils through work with different techniques, tools and materials related to knowledge goals in the syllabus for visual arts. The research question is: - What agency is created by making materials and tools available for pupils with disabilities?

Theory: In order for a school environment to be supportive and inclusive where the student can participate on their own terms (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006), the student's ability needs to be taken into account and the physical, social and educational environment needs to be adapted (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011). The classroom as a learning environment poses a challenge for many pupils, especially with multiple disabilities why teaching needs to be adapted through a broadening of methods and didactics (Florian & Linklater, 2010). Independence and autonomy are goals where strengthening intrinsic motivation is central (Bühler et al., 2018). Visual aids can be used to promote learning and development and to create opportunities for participation combining verbal and visual information. By working with two- and three-dimensionality through images and multimodal forms of expression (Sartori & Peralta, 2022) it is possbile to promote both information processing and language development (Caviglioli, 2021).

Across Europe, arts education is increasingly recognised as a vital site for inclusion, creativity, and as a space for enhanced wellbeing. Yet young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) remain systematically underrepresented within cultural and arts-based learning experiences beyond the classroom. This exclusion is particularly acute for students educated in specialist settings, whose access to museums, galleries, libraries, and cultural venues is often limited by structural, sensory, and pedagogical barriers.

This paper examines how long-term, co-constructed partnerships between specialist schools and cultural institutions can reconfigure arts education as a site of radical inclusion. Drawing on a sustained collaboration between a specialist secondary school and the Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM) of the University of Oxford, this study explores how arts-based learning can be designed with rather than for young people with SEND.

The central research question is:

How can long-term, relational partnerships in arts education enable meaningful creative participation and challenge exclusionary practices for young people with SEND?

The paper situates arts education not as a compensatory or therapeutic intervention, but as a rigorous pedagogical space where creativity, identity, and cultural participation intersect. It argues that exclusion in arts education is not primarily a consequence of individual impairment, but of institutional norms that privilege particular sensory, cognitive, and communicative modes of engagement.

The theoretical framework draws on Hilary Cottam’s Radical Help (2018), underpinned by the capabilities approach (Sen, 1999; Nussbaum, 2003). This framework foregrounds participation and purpose, borne out through the concept of flourishing. Within this perspective, arts-based partnerships are understood as infrastructures for capability-building, where creative practice becomes a means of developing agency, voice, and belonging.

Arts education is conceptualised here as a collaborative and relationally grounded practice, developed through shared creative processes rather than pre-determined instructional models. The practices within the data show co-construction between teachers, artists, museum educators, and young people. Through these dialogic and relational approaches, young people are repositioned as key stakeholders who enacted greater autonomy in regard to their own learning as opposed to the often deficit, passive framing of students with SEND.

Although grounded in a UK case study, the paper addresses shared European concerns relating to inclusive arts education, access to cultural venues, and the role of universities and cultural institutions in supporting educational equity.

This paper explores the use of photovoice (Wang & Burris, 1997) as a research–teaching approach in inclusive higher education. Photovoice has been widely used as a participatory research methodology (Brown, 2024), particularly in studies concerning marginalised groups and communities (Suprapto et al., 2020). Less attention has been paid, however, to its pedagogical potential when employed within higher education teaching contexts (Wass et al., 2019). Drawing on photovoice projects conducted in a university course for students with intellectual disabilities, this paper reframes photovoice not only as a method for generating research data, but as a pedagogical approach that can support inclusive teaching and learning in higher education (Camedda, forthcoming).

The paper will address the following question: In what ways can photovoice function as a research–teaching approach within inclusive higher education contexts? Building on empirical findings, the contribution offers a conceptual and reflective analysis of photovoice at the intersection of research and teaching, focusing on how it supports inclusivity in higher education settings. The emphasis is placed on the pedagogical processes activated through photovoice, including reflection, dialogue, and the co-construction of meaning, and on how these processes align with principles of inclusive education.

The theoretical framework underpinning the paper draws on inclusive education theories (Nilholm, 2021), participatory research approaches (Smith Hill et al., 2025), and literature on the research–teaching nexus in higher education (Gros et al., 2020). Within this framework, photovoice is conceptualised as a pedagogical practice that creates opportunities for students to draw on lived experience, engage critically with their learning environments, and participate actively in knowledge production. The paper also engages with scholarship that emphasises the integration of research and teaching (Brew, 2012), arguing that photovoice offers a concrete way of embedding research processes within teaching activities.

In this paper, these findings are not treated as only related to studies of intellectual disability per se, but rather as examples of how photovoice can be used within inclusive higher education to support participation and agentic learning (Smith & Meyers, 2025). The focus is therefore on the potential of photovoice as an inclusive pedagogical and research approach, moving beyond its use as a methodology toward a broader pedagogical framing (Schell et al., 2009).

The purpose of the paper is to contribute to ongoing discussions about inclusive pedagogy in higher education by offering a conceptual reframing of photovoice as a research–teaching approach. By foregrounding the pedagogical dimensions of photovoice, the paper aims to support educators and researchers interested in integrating creative and participatory methodologies into higher education teaching in ways that are inclusive, reflective, and ethically grounded.