Co-designed Embroidery Student Projects in Art and Design Education

Abstract

This article studies three phases in a project with embroidery and pieces of textile involving students in a specialized teacher training programme in design, arts, and crafts at OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet). In an incremental research project spanning over a six-year period the project was developed and changed systematically in collaboration with the students. The embroidery project phases demonstrate how students are included in action research and how research-based teaching is completed in the first year of teacher education. The observed results from the projects all use photographs as documentation to analyse the organisation of the education and seeks to reveal differences between the methods of cooperation and collaboration. The research question concerns how these practice-based experiences in embroidery can become empirical data for research. The empirical data underline the role of the lecturer as both artist, researcher, and teacher in influencing the dynamics of the groups but also trying to nurture artistic outcomes. Furthermore, the experiences become part of critical reflections on the art teacher’s practice or perhaps in response to her professional development review.