This paper scrutinizes the methodological and ethical implications of the research design of EXPECT_Art project. Taking decolonial theory (Mignolo, 2009) and community-based research (Boyd, 2020) as its starting point, the project explores existing measures and barriers for critical cultural literacy in arts education, education through arts, and uses of arts in education. The research design consists of 12 in-depth case studies of schools and local communities in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Spain. In the field research, participatory methodologies from the field of Art-based methods are employed and explored together with participating children, informed by a multimodal understanding of literacy (Lähdesmäki et al, 2022). The paper compares experiences and methodological reflections from the Danish, Polish, and Slovenian context. The paper focuses on children’s (non)participation in the project in the two contexts, how issues regarding power im-balances have been addressed, and how (meta)methodological reflectivity within and across the research groups of the project consortium have informed the community-based research.

Boyd, M. R. (2020). Community-based research: Understanding the principles, practices, challenges, and rationale. In P. Leavy (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of qualitative research (pp. 498–517). Oxford University Press. Lähdesmäki, T., Baranova, J., Ylönen, S. C. Koistinen, A-K, Mäkinen, K., Juškiene, V. & Zaleskiene, I. (2022). Learning Cultural Literacy through Creative Practices in Schools. Cultural and Multimodal Approaches to Meaning-Making. Springer Nature. Mignolo, W. D. (2009). Epistemic disobedience, independent thought and decolonial freedom. Theory, culture & society, 26(7-8), 159–181.