Hidden agendas and utopian wanderings: Trying to be conscious of epistemological challenges and errors in doing research in art education

Through my doctoral research at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki I aim to get a better insight in the epistemological foundations of so-called arts-based environmental education, whereby I focus on practices with children. I have termed my research an “ethnographically informed inquiry,” as I want to both make use of my academic background as cultural anthropologist and to employ typical ethnographic methods such as action research and participant observation. In the context of this bundle – provocatively entitled “Let’s get confused” – authors discuss the prevailing paradigm (or lack of a paradigm) of research in art education at our university. In my contribution I want to analyze and discuss some features of my study which I view as being challenging and which may possibly point at paradigmatic tensions. Perhaps the issues raised in this paper, which pertain to my own particular research, have – mutatis mutandis – also something to say for the field as a whole. But before going into this, I will first briefly outline the focus of my research and the way in which I define some central concepts that I use.