Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.5
2.6
Journals
Education Sciences
Special Issues
Harmonizing Vocational Education and the Arts: Exploring the Role of...
share announcement

Harmonizing Vocational Education and the Arts: Exploring the Role of Aesthetic Experience in Conceptual Development

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (4 November 2025) | Viewed by 4831

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Maggie Gregson

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Education, Faculty of Education, Society and Creative Industries, University of Sunderland, Wearside View, Sir Thomas Cowie Campus, Charles Street, Sunderland SR6 OAN, UK
Interests: research and artistry in teaching and teacher education; experiential learning; forms of knowledge, pedagogy and assessment in vocational education; curriculum design and development; practitioner research; models of educational change and improvement
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Dewey (1934/2005), (Eisner 1993, 2002) and Greene (2005) remind us that meaning is not limited to what words can express, aesthetic qualities are not restricted to the arts, and not everything that matters in education can be measured and not everything that can be measured in education matters. Illuminating pedagogic devices capable of heightening human vitality, sparking imagination and contributing to the development of the mind and character of learners in vocational educational contexts is central to discussion. Building the capacity of vocational teachers and their learners to imagine and engage in new pedagogic practices is therefore central to the discussion. Harnessing the expressive powers of aesthetic experience, including many artistic forms such as literary, visual, performing, digital, musical and dramatic arts, frame the parameters of this Special Issue. A further intention is to identify aspects of aesthetic experience, pedagogic devices and “epistemic shortcuts” or heuristic devices which may be of interest and use to a wider audience of teacher-educators, teachers and others involved in supporting the improvement of educational practice in a wide range of educational settings. The principles of arts-based educational research (ABER) are employed to bring experiences of arts-mediated vocational education to life, including shared aspects of the relationship between aesthetic experience and what we really mean when we talk about “good education”.

(1) Aim: The aim of the of the Special Issue is to bring a broad range of international teacher-researchers together from a wide range of vocational subjects and disciplines to enable them to share practical examples and theoretical perspectives surrounding this field of study. This aim relates to the scope of the journal in its focus on education philosophy and theory of education, curriculum studies, pedagogy, sociology of education, vocational education and teacher education.

(2) Suggested themes for this Special Issue may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Arts-based educational research;
  2. Aesthetic experience and the arts in teacher education;
  3. Aesthetic experience and the arts in vocational education (for example, engineering, construction, metal crafts,);
  4. Aesthetic experience and the arts in adult literacy and language development;
  5. Games for learning;
  6. Learning through stories and narrative accounts of experience;
  7. Learning through popular culture, film, digital and creative media;
  8. Learning through roleplay table-top games and dramatic arts;
  9. Vocational pedagogy;
  10. Multi-modal assessment in vocational education;
  11. Integrated curriculum planning in vocational education;
  12. Models of educational change and improvement in vocational education. 

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Prof. Dr. Maggie Gregson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • aesthetic experience
  • vocational education
  • arts-based educational research
  • epistemic shortcuts
  • teacher education
  • vocational pedagogy
  • multimodal assessment

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (6 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

30 pages, 1107 KB  
Article
Aesthetic Mediation: The Formation of Practitioner–Researcher–Scholar Identity and Artistry in HE-Supported Vocational Research
by Daniel Gregson
Educ. Sci. 2026, 16(3), 438; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16030438 - 13 Mar 2026
Viewed by 278
Abstract
The failure of top-down approaches to education policy in England draws attention to the importance of context and foregrounds the need to help teachers to see themselves as practitioner–researchers, scholars and researchers capable of conducting systematic and trustworthy research into the improvement of [...] Read more.
The failure of top-down approaches to education policy in England draws attention to the importance of context and foregrounds the need to help teachers to see themselves as practitioner–researchers, scholars and researchers capable of conducting systematic and trustworthy research into the improvement of their educational practice from the ground up and on the inside. This empirical, small-scale, qualitative study presents accounts of the lived experiences of 12 practitioner–researchers as they engage in the national practitioner research programme (PRP). The PRP offers intensive MPhil/PhD research training in which the evocative powers of aesthetic experience, culture and the arts are purposefully introduced to support practitioner–researcher–scholar identity formation and to encourage teachers to heighten the vitality of pedagogy and curriculum content by putting the cultural resources of society to work to make key ideas and concepts in education and educational research more accessible to all learners. Methods include 12 semi-structured interviews of 45–60 min, observation, field notes, case studies and extracts from MPhil/PhD theses. An objective of PRP research is to contribute to understanding how educational change and improvement might be done differently, including how persistent divisions, and barriers to teachers’ successful engagement in educational research and improvement, might be dismantled and dissolved through the strategic development of system-wide, HE-supported practitioner research. This article examines and calls into question the commonly held view that the arts are basically only instrumentally useful for their impact upon something else, such as the development of critical thinking and creativity. Main findings suggest that the use of aesthetic experience and the arts create epistemic-shortcuts which can not only help practitioners to overcome “imposter syndrome” but also enable them to access key ideas theories and concepts, theories and ideas in education and educational research more easily from the ground up, in context-attuned ways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Harmonizing Vocational Education and the Arts: Exploring the Role of Aesthetic Experience in Conceptual Development)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 243 KB  
Article
Beyond “Technical Doing”: Reimagining Artistry in the English Curriculum
by Michael Daniel Smith
Educ. Sci. 2026, 16(3), 420; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16030420 - 10 Mar 2026
Viewed by 293
Abstract
This article reports findings from a series of learning episodes in the form of case studies from inside English teaching classrooms that use music and literary extracts to make English Language and its possible applications and interpretations alive to students. Central to this [...] Read more.
This article reports findings from a series of learning episodes in the form of case studies from inside English teaching classrooms that use music and literary extracts to make English Language and its possible applications and interpretations alive to students. Central to this exploration is the concept of artistry, characterised here as a nuanced practice involving four interrelated elements: the possession of an idea worth expressing, the imaginative ability to conceive its expression, the technical skill to work with materials, and the sensibilities required to make delicate, evocative adjustments. For the tens of thousands of young people in the Further Adult, Vocational and Education (FAVE) sector in England retaking GCSE English every year, artistry is an often neglected but vital concept that is routinely overshadowed by more pragmatic and reductive interpretations of the English Language curriculum. Low national achievement rates for re-sitting students do little to incentivize institutions and teachers in experimenting with their curriculum. Moreover, many re-sitting students become demotivated and disengaged due to numerous previously failed attempts to achieve a pass grade. This small-scale, qualitative research study explores and proposes new possibilities regarding how the FAVE GCSE English curriculum can be realised in engaging and meaningful ways. Concepts of artistry are put to work with students in the FAVE GCSE English classroom to bring to the fore how these ideas in the GCSE English Language curriculum might be brought to life in ways which develop understanding and foster interest in the study of English Language. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Harmonizing Vocational Education and the Arts: Exploring the Role of Aesthetic Experience in Conceptual Development)
20 pages, 2174 KB  
Article
Pretty Vacant or Pretty Smart? Overcoming Educational Disadvantage in Language Education Through the Arts
by Mark Hyde
Educ. Sci. 2026, 16(1), 135; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16010135 - 15 Jan 2026
Viewed by 317
Abstract
The phenomenon of underachievement of working-class young people in the English education system reveals long-standing prejudices surrounding English language development. This article reports the findings of a small-scale, qualitative study exploring the power of aesthetic experience in supporting the acquisition and development of [...] Read more.
The phenomenon of underachievement of working-class young people in the English education system reveals long-standing prejudices surrounding English language development. This article reports the findings of a small-scale, qualitative study exploring the power of aesthetic experience in supporting the acquisition and development of the English language in a Further Education (FE) college in England. Findings provide evidence of how engagement with aesthetic experiences enables learners to access new ways of thinking and relate to new and complex ideas and concepts that may once have seemed beyond their reach. Findings also suggest that experimentation with various forms of art, as sources of inspiration, impacts confidence, engagement, and the learners’ experience of education in profound ways. This study challenges hierarchical and class-based socio-political forces which elevate one form of language or expression above another on the grounds that this can cause serious damage to the confidence and self-esteem of learners from lower socio-economic groups. With reference to data from the study and the works of Gadamer, Bernstein, and Dewey, the article concludes that pedagogic engagement through aesthetic experiences in FE can help learners from lower socio-economic groups access their Pedagogic Rights, to which they have been previously denied. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Harmonizing Vocational Education and the Arts: Exploring the Role of Aesthetic Experience in Conceptual Development)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

22 pages, 306 KB  
Article
The Importance of the Teacher–Researcher–Artist in Curriculum Design, Development and Assessment in Vocational Education in England
by Margaret (Maggie) Gregson
Educ. Sci. 2026, 16(1), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16010024 - 24 Dec 2025
Viewed by 577
Abstract
Set in the vocational education and training sector in England, this article draws attention to how top-down, centre–periphery approaches to curriculum design and development in vocational education fail for at least three reasons. First, they misconstrue the nature of knowledge. Second, they lead [...] Read more.
Set in the vocational education and training sector in England, this article draws attention to how top-down, centre–periphery approaches to curriculum design and development in vocational education fail for at least three reasons. First, they misconstrue the nature of knowledge. Second, they lead to perfunctory and fragmented approaches to curriculum design, coupled with mechanistic measures of quality and achievement, which often require little more than “one-off” and superficially assessed demonstrations of performance. Finally, they underplay the role and importance of the teacher as researcher and artist in putting the cultural resources of society to work in creative curriculum design and pedagogy. Teacher artistry is pivotal in animating and heightening the vitality of vocational curricula. It is through this artistry that teachers make theories, ideas and concepts in vocational subjects and disciplines accessible and meaningful to all learners in coherent ways in the contexts of their learning and their lives. The consequences of the epistemic faux pas underpinning centre-to-periphery models of curriculum design and development are highlighted in this article in vocational tutors’ accounts of experiences of problems and issues in curriculum design, development and assessment encountered in their practice. Participants in the research teach in a variety of vocational education settings, including Apprenticeships and Higher-Level Technical Education; English Language at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level; Health and Social Care; Information and Communications Technology; Construction (Plumbing); Digital Production, Design and Development and High-Tech Precision Engineering. Data are analysed and reported through systematic, thematic analysis This article draws upon qualitative data derived from a study funded by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) in England over a two-year period from 2021 to 2023. The research population consists of a group of eight practitioner–researchers working in three colleges of Further Education (FE) and one Industry Training Centre (ITC) in England. All of the teachers of vocational education reported here volunteered to participate in the study. Research methods include semi-structured interviews, analysis of critical incidents and case studies produced by practitioner–researchers from across the FE and Skills sector in England. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Harmonizing Vocational Education and the Arts: Exploring the Role of Aesthetic Experience in Conceptual Development)
18 pages, 615 KB  
Article
Supporting Teacher Agency and Aesthetic Experience for Sustainable Professional Development
by Martin James Hoskin
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(9), 1130; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15091130 - 30 Aug 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1524
Abstract
Significant time, money, and energy are invested in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) across Further Education (FE) colleges in England, with the aim of enhancing teaching strategies, sharing “best” practices, and improving educational quality. Despite these intentions, practitioner perceptions of CPD’s value remain mixed, [...] Read more.
Significant time, money, and energy are invested in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) across Further Education (FE) colleges in England, with the aim of enhancing teaching strategies, sharing “best” practices, and improving educational quality. Despite these intentions, practitioner perceptions of CPD’s value remain mixed, highlighting concerns about the effectiveness of current approaches. CPD managers often face competing financial and operational demands, alongside pressure to comply with external requirements, resulting in CPD that is frequently instrumental, mandatory, and delivered through one-off events. These practices reflect a data-driven, prescriptive management culture that prioritizes measurable outcomes over meaningful educational experiences. Consequently, teachers are compelled to demonstrate compliance within a system where accountability is unevenly distributed. This medium-scale, multi-method practitioner research study investigates how such compliance-driven CPD practices divert attention and resources from genuine educational improvement. This study explores an alternative model of CPD rooted in teacher agency and enriched through engagement with the arts and aesthetic experiences. Drawing on surveys, semi-structured interviews, critical incidents, and narrative accounts, the findings suggest that this approach fosters more democratic, creative, and impactful professional development. In promoting teacher agency and challenging dominant power structures, this study offers a vision of CPD that supports meaningful educational transformation, with practical examples and recommendations for broader implementation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Harmonizing Vocational Education and the Arts: Exploring the Role of Aesthetic Experience in Conceptual Development)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 276 KB  
Article
Creating Cultural Conditions for Collaborative Professional Learning in FE and HE Communities of Practice: A Case Study
by Clare Power, Catriona Warren, Eleanor Neff, Tracey Anderson and Joan Slevin
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(7), 863; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15070863 - 4 Jul 2025
Viewed by 900
Abstract
This research is situated within the Irish tertiary educational space, between higher education (HE) and further education and training (FET). The higher education organisation in which this research is set is the Literacy Development Centre (LDC)—South-East Technological University (SETU), and the further education [...] Read more.
This research is situated within the Irish tertiary educational space, between higher education (HE) and further education and training (FET). The higher education organisation in which this research is set is the Literacy Development Centre (LDC)—South-East Technological University (SETU), and the further education organisation is the Longford Westmeath Education Training Board (LWETB). This study focuses on the provision of a 30 Credit NFQ Level 6 qualification entitled Certificate in Adult Literacy Studies. Methods include multiple focus groups to capture the differing accounts of experience. The findings of this research present a unique 360-degree view of experiences of the blended delivery of this curriculum programme. Voices reported here include all stakeholders, specifically the people who logistically manage the programme from both the HE and FE perspectives, the lecturers and their students. The research focuses specifically on the opportunities, the positives, the challenges and the lessons learned for all the research participants involved in delivering this programme within this tertiary space. This article concludes with a discussion of the impact of this type of academic delivery upon the students and other respective organisational stakeholders from both the HE and the FE perspectives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Harmonizing Vocational Education and the Arts: Exploring the Role of Aesthetic Experience in Conceptual Development)
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-6
Back to TopTop