The proposed reflection draws on the work of a Research and Development Association, A3S, in the research, monitoring and evaluation of a set of arts education projects in Portugal over a period of ten years. We aim to share learning practices from this process, which, from one project to the other, has led us to rethink and reconfigure principles, methodologies and epistemics.  Specifically, we will focus on two performing arts projects developed in school context that more directly connect transdisciplinarity with diversity: “Seven Years, Seven Schools” developed by the Portuguese performing artist Cláudia Dias in a set of schools with economically deprivileged students in two distinct Portuguese cities; and “Mutantes” developed by the theatre company Comédias do Minho in ten schools of a more peripheric/ rural region of Portugal and having as a main goal valuing diversity. The students comprise a diversity of territorial, social and educational backgrounds (including vocational and alternative curricula) and the arts education projects have developed diversity-conscious approaches focusing on personal, educational, and artistic levels (Keuchel & Rousseau, 2019).

Within the monitoring and evaluation of both projects, an action research approach has been implemented, by adopting a transdisciplinary way, valuing the diversity of knowledge produced by different disciplines and social actors (from the arts, education, social sciences sectors) and the publics themselves.

The analysis looks at the difficulties, processes and approaches for collectively organizing and producing knowledge from this heterogeneous matrix of– collective and individual – social actors (artists, researchers, teachers, students, funders, public and private schools, municipalities, artistic institutions), allowing to expand the discussion on the ways in which transdisciplinarity in arts education projects is contributing to meet and foster diversity in education and research.

The research has been conducted by a team of sociologists, taking a participatory evaluation approach, a combination of methodological procedures derived from the work A3S has done over various years, which has enabled the teams to experiment and test a variety of paths. It takes an action-research approach that is, simultaneously, oriented towards capturing the meanings and significances constructed by the people who experience the project and integrating the moments of reflection and evaluation as significant learning moments, inspired by the methodology of systematisation of experiences (Jara, 2018) which values the role of participants in knowledge production and the reflection process as a transformative one. As such, the evaluation moments constitute an integral part of the project intervention, seeking to create spaces for joint reflection, increasing awareness, and consolidating the experience-based learning. The methods adopted in both projects include: i) Analysis of documents linked to the project (regarding the proposal, site, etc.); ii) Meetings with the production team; iii) Focus groups with the artists, teachers and producers; iv) Semi-directive interviews with relevant social actors (artists, teachers, local authorities, etc.); vi) Workshops with students; vii) Direct and participatory observation of relevant moments (such has the public presentation of the students´ work, meetings, workshops, etc.).

The research results show that the different social actors express different levels of collaboration and different views of arts, education, participation, social inclusion. It also shows that the role played by A3S, which, in addition to performing its assessment function, also promotes both methodological development and critical reflection and an awareness of the representations and practices of the different social actors, fostering transdisciplinarity and thereby contributing to an always unfinished process of co-construction and permanent improvement of the project, enhancing its transformative nature. This concept of collective and participatory construction of the project is still challenged by the habitus (Bourdieu, 1972) of the different social actors, as evidenced, for instance, by the more instrumental role played by teachers, providing space for enhancing the full potential of emancipatory social relations and institutions that are emancipatory for all – students, teachers, artists, promoters, researchers, and the wider community.

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