The A/R/T connection: linking art practice, research and teaching

The engagement of art educators with art practice, research and teaching is increasingly under debate. In New Zealand, as in many western countries, the emphasis has historically been upon teaching and learning. Perhaps influenced by Eisner's enlightened approaches (1979, 1991) to educational connoisseurship and criticism, art/s educators began, in the late 1970s, to explore theoretical concepts that lay behind practice. Since then, emerging visions have been identified that support the argument for broadening research practice. Examination of the arts-based and practitioner-based forms of inquiry being advocated now prompted me, within the context of art education in New Zealand, to engage in an approach to A/R/T in which art practice, research and teaching interconnect in an ever-continuing cycle.