This paper explores the implementation of and findings from Imagination Agents, a mixed-methods case-study, funded by a Royal Society of Arts Catalyst grant. This took place in an inner-city, Glasgow secondary school, with young people aged 12-13. The approach taken was intended to be ‘grassroots’ in addressing local, environmental degradation and issues relating to young people’s sense of agency. The project was co-created by researchers, parents, artists, artist-researchers, teachers and to a lesser extent, by the young people themselves. The conceptual foundation for the project was grounded in a flexible hypothesis that imagination enables the necessary originality for creativity, enabling learners to construct personal understandings of their own learning which equate to metacognition, with this enabling the self-awareness and confidence for personal and in turn, social/democratic agency. We propose that, life in a posthuman (Braidotti, 2013) world where we are living with a ‘convergent crisis’ of complex issues, necessitates the creation of new understandings, which can be produced through the application of imagination and agency, towards the conceptualisation and facilitation of positive change. Such change is more likely to be sustained if it emerges from and is meaningful within its relevant communities. Supporting learners to develop imagination and understand it metacognitively can result in personal agency which better-equips them as participants within and activators of healthy environments. 

While highly regarded in arts education contexts, imagination is often perceived to be some kind of magical force, implying that it is unlearnable and unteachable. Based on Burns’ (2022) models of cognitive/metacognitive imagination and on Atkinson’s (2017) notion of ‘the force of art’ as enabling possibilities for new worlds, we investigated how to support young people’s imagination and agency in relation to their local environment. Artists and researchers, some of whom were also parents of young people within the school, developed conceptual models of imagination (Burns 2022) and agency (Priestly et al. 2015) into highly visual, self-completion ‘handbooks’ which acted as ‘catalytic tools’ (Baumfield et. al., 2009) in simultaneously supporting pedagogy and data production. Pedagogically, they provided an artistic space which complemented artist-led activities to encourage metacognition of imagination and agency. In terms of research, the handbooks enabled the visualisation of participant’s often tacit, reflective understandings of imagination and agency in relation to artist-led activities, allowing researchers to gain process-insights into participant’s developing imaginative, cognitive and metacognitive capacities. The application of the models within axial, visual, evaluation tools, enabled a quantitative reporting of impact which is less-usual in art-based projects and could be considered as a means of measuring imagination. We discuss the potential relevance and ethical implications of this within neoliberal contexts for art education. By combining young people’s self-reports with teacher, artist and researcher journal entries, this paper also reflects on how and to what extent the project was successful in supporting imagination and agency. The authors conclude that there was a positive impact but that this was hindered by multiple challenges inherent within the school environment. We go on to ask whether this school and by extension, others, are currently equipped, philosophically and practically, to support imagination and agency, discussing the implications of this for positive, social and environmental transformation.  

Action Research resulted in the production of a mixed methods, case study. Findings emerging from the perspectives of ten young people, two teachers, two artists and four researchers, was triangulated and cohered through a thematic analysis. Teachers, artist educators and researchers produced reflective journals, shared by email as data. This was used to generate the pedagogic content of subsequent research cycles, along with young people’s responses captured within visual research tools. The research incorporated artist-produced research tools, constructed in collaboration with teachers, embedded within the pedagogy and aligned with the artistic focus of the project, along with the collective journal, practitioner diaries, researcher observation, photographic and video documentation of the action research cycles. Research tools were often ‘catalytic’ and pedagogical, engaging learners in self-reflective processes which helped them to develop their understanding of their own learning while simultaneously providing data. Research tools for capturing the development of imagination were based on cognitive and metacognitive, theoretical models of imagination, produced by Burns (2022). In part, the project aimed to develop and trial these tools, designed to provide insight, for researchers and participants, into young people’s metacognition, particularly in relation to their developing imagination and agency. We intended, by working in this way with these ‘catalytic tools’ (Baumfield et al. 2009) and using art-based pedagogies which are designed to nurture autonomy, to blur the edges of where the research begins and ends and the distinctions between researcher and the ‘researched’, in a pedagogic setting which attempted to remove the hierarchical role of adults as ‘experts’ and encouraged the democratic and collaborative pursuit of emergent learning.

Rather than seeing the art- based pedagogy as a ‘product’, ready for transfer to other schools and areas, we sought to understand what made the work successful and sustainable. We will attempt to identify factors which enable, or hinder, high quality, grass-roots development which has art and environmental regeneration as a subject focus but seeks to develop imagination, agency and democratic participation within a grand vision of sustainability and positive transformation. This learning should provide transferable knowledge which will enable us to develop relationships with further schools, in different areas, to undertake related projects which are relevant to their specific, self-identified needs. Ultimately, we aspire to enabling a network of schools, engaged in grass-roots activities which enable students to transform themselves and influence their local environments. Currently at the stage of data analysis, we are able to speculate that many/most of the young people developed imagination, agency, metacognitive understanding and metacognitive strategies for applying these, to some extent. We hope to be able to isolate aspects of the pedagogy which were effective in developing these cognitive and metacognitive capacities and to be able to grow our understanding of the relationships between the capacities, in relation to art experience. We seek to be able to elaborate on or question our hypothetical model that imagination enables creativity, which enables metacognition, which enables agency. We often presume that art experience is good for our imagination but with this research, we hope to deepen knowledge of exactly how it helps us to become more imaginative and in turn, more empowered. With this established, we can turn to comparing the value of art experience to other kinds of educational experience and develop understanding of best practice for supporting capacities which are vital for learners to thrive in a challenging world.

Atkinson, D. (2017) Without Criteria: Art and Learning and the Adventure of Pedagogy, International Journal of Art and Design Education, 36:2, p.141-152 Baumfield, V., Hall, E., Wall, K. (2013) Action Research in Education, Sage Biesta, G. and Burbules, N. (2003) Pragmatism and Educational Research, Rowman and Littlefield Braidotti, R. (2013) The Posthuman. Polity Burns, H. (2022) Imagining Imagination: Towards cognitive and metacognitive models. Pedagogy, Culture and Society. Priestly, M., Biesta, G., Robinson, S. (2015) Teacher Agency: an ecological approach. Bloomsbury