Arts Explorers Pathfinders Evaluation Report
Author: Susan Young
Institution: University of Exeter
Full reference: Young, S. (2010) Arts Explorers Pathfinders Evaluation Report. Leeds: CapeUK
Summary of key findings
The Arts Explorers Pathfinders programme was set up and funded by Creativity, Culture and Education and managed by CapeUK. The aim was to encourage families with children of primary school age in arts and cultural activity, based on a rationale that this could contribute to improved outcomes in cultural engagement, family social capital and attainment in arts and cultural activity among children. Four Pathfinders were commissioned to explore approaches to whole family engagement and contribute learning to possible future strategic directions.
This report presents background information about the families who participated and their pre-existing engagement in cultural activity. The Pathfinder activities and experiences are described and successes and challenges are identified. The report suggests that while the practical inhibitors of time, accessibility and cost influence family engagement in arts and cultural activity, family values, priorities and aspirations are primary determinants. The report concludes that provision for family activity needs to recognise and work within the diverse values and priorities of parents.
The researchers offer a number of recommendations for future work. They advocate greater integration of provision between arts and cultural providers, education professionals and other children’s services around a common notion of family participation. They suggest cultural organisations should consult families and involve them in the design of family orientated work and that local, small-scale and accessible provision, in a range of community venues, should be encouraged. They recommend work to raise knowledge and expertise of family orientated work among cultural and arts professionals and the conceptualisation of a pedagogy of family practice in arts and cultural activity that is attuned to diversity in terms of family type, class, ethnicity and religion.
Research Questions & Methodology
The evaluation set out to address the following questions:
- What approaches/strategies have proved successful in engaging those families of primary aged children that are not recent or frequent participants in arts and cultural activity?
- What barriers to participation have been revealed and how might these be addressed in a national scheme?
- How did the Pathfinders identify the people they sought to engage in planning? Were these methods effective and what could be learnt from them if the programme were rolled out nationally?
- What was the impact on engagement of encouraging families to record and reflect on their cultural experiences?
The evaluation took an action research approach, in which emerging ideas and issues were fed back to the team in a formative way. Qualitative Information was collected via observational notes at key events, interviews with parents and with artists and other key professionals. Two questionnaires were applied to over half the participating adult family members (57 respondents). The evaluation also included a brief review of literature related to ‘family’ and family functioning.
