The concept of multiliteracies stems from a broad definition of text (in a general understanding) by emphasising multimodality in meaning-making and is therefore highly relevant to arts education (Lähdesmäki et al. 2022). This is because, as the founders of the concept, the New London Group, pointed out in 1996, the role of linguistic and cultural diversity as well as the impact of technology, media and multimodality are considered as part of what constitutes (cultural) literacy; e.g. language-based communication is seen as intertwined with visual, auditive, corporal, gestural, and spatial patterns of meaning. In particular, the notion of multiliteracies promotes a broader understanding of the arts as semiotic systems that are integral to meaning making, including for young children and early childhood education (Crafton et al. 2009) and for adult learners (Holloway 2014; 2021).

Based on this understanding of multiliteracies in arts education, this research workshop discusses the opportunities and potential shortcomings of the research design of a proposal for a project on cultural literacy and arts education for the EU Horizon Program. The proposed project builds on the assumption that formal and non-formal arts education can be a vehicle for social inclusion (Ferrer‐Fons et al. 2022). Thus, the project aims at underpinning social cohesion in European societies by furthering cultural literacy among children, youth and adults through arts education in formal and informal educational settings within schools and in the interplay between schools and local communities. 

The proposed project adopts a critical ethnographical (e.g. Palmer & Caldas 2015) and community-based approach to cultural literacy (e.g. Boyd 2014; Panos et al. 2022), which implies that the exploration and development of cultural literacy is perceived as a bottom-up process that acknowledges and values the cultural literacy of all children, youth and adults, regardless of ethnicity, gender, class or race. 

In the workshop, critical aspects of the research design and the challenges arising from the aforementioned approach to cultural literacy will be presented from three national perspectives of the international consortium (Denmark, Germany, and Spain). Furthermore, we welcome input and reflections on conducting community-based research within schools and in spaces intersections between schools and local communities. For the conclusion we are delighted to welcome the link convenor of network 20 "Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments", Carmen Carmona Rodriguez from Spain (Valencia), as a discussant.

To ensure that the research mirrors the aim of the project we adopt a research design informed by a Community-Based Research (CBR) approach, which aims “to connect academic researchers with individuals, groups, and community organizations to collaborate on a research project to solve community-identified and community-defined problems” (Boyd 2014: 501), which in return aids researchers in offering the best opportunities for research participants to be recognised and heard. Furthermore, to provide research participants with the chance to express themselves in their preferred form and media, we will integrate the CBR-informed research design with a range of participatory methodologies, such as multimodal arts-based approaches (Barker and Weller 2003; Cappello 2005; Carter and Ford 2013; Quiroz et al. 2014), and dialogic approaches rooted in Philosophy for Children (Murris and Thompson 2016; Ruggiery 2013). In addition, the choice to integrate a multitude of approaches is based on the recognition that “CBR is a multi-directional process that results in shared and collaborative teaching, learning, action, reflection, and transformation” (Boyd 2014: 502). CBR requires a high level of collaboration between participants and researchers, which in turn demands an extensive amount of methodological and ethical (meta)reflexivity. Our project therefore operates in two dimensions, which coexist and are dialectically linked in the implementation of the project. First, there is the Researcher Arts Exploratorium where researchers from across the consortium of diverse research and national traditions carry out and reflect upon formal and non-formal arts education activities. Secondly, there is the Community Arts Exploratorium where agents of schools and local communities, children, youth and adults alike, carry out and explore formal and non-formal arts education activities together with researchers. The Researcher Arts Exploratorium provides a space for the researchers to gain and reflect upon embodied and practical experience with activities carried out in Community Arts Exploratorium. In return, methodological and ethical issues occurring in Community Arts Exploratorium can made subject to (meta)reflexion and dialogue among researchers, in the Researcher Arts Exploratorium.

By discussing with all workshop participants the design of an international research project that adopts critical ethnography (Palmer & Caldas 2015) and a community-based approach to cultural literacy (e.g. Panos et al. 2022) as its research framework, we hope to deepen our understanding of co-construction processes and, in particular, to treat them as opportunities rather than just challenges in our research process. Furthermore, we would like to shed light on the research themes that are common to networks 7, 20 and 31, such as critical pedagogy, socially just innovation in education, redistribution of power, agency of multilingual learners, etc., not only in relation to cultural literacy in arts education, but also in relation to cooperation in the context of international research collaborations (see Sabzalieva, Martinez & Sá 2020).

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