Open School as embodied learning

Abstract

Open School is a collaboration between community schools and organizations introduced in Denmark as part of the school reforms of 2014. Through a qualitative research project contemplating Open School as a pedagogical phenomenon, we discovered that practitioners in and around schools perceived this programme very differently. The authors engaged in this study from an aesthetical perspective through mobilizing arts-based research modes. Across the different interpretations of Open School, students’ embodied learning was a common feature as they actively used their bodies while visiting a beach, bunker, theatre, museum and gallery. In this visual article, we present the artwork generated during an investigation of embodied learning in the Open School programme. It consists of drawings, photos and collages gathered in six separate frames, each accompanied with a short lyrical text to provoke readers’ perceptions.