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The potentiality of artmaking to counter-actualise current conditions in learning, teaching and research

Zettie Venter

International Office, Bloemfontein campus, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, Republic of South Africa

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2165-4698  

Abstract

A South African science educator becoming an arts-based researcher, I acknowledge the present suffering of all enduring extraordinary conditions. Here, I share my insights about engaging in arts-based work and what this made possible in my learning, teaching and research. Drawing on the concept of refrain (Deleuze & Guattari, 1988, p. 310) I tell the story of my transition from South African science educator to arts-based researcher, and how artmaking helped me to, in the context of educational opportunities and challenges, confront my own beliefs. Through creative engagement, I came to understand the refrain as an interaction between memory and imagination, enabling new understandings of my lived experiences about epistemological injustices embedded in the schooling system. Thinking with the refrain during artmaking conflates theory and practice for me and made it possible to transform my personal educational experiences of marginalisation to compassion and gratitude for insignificant, distressing and beautiful ordinary encounters. I believe that, in the aftermath of colonial violence and scholasticide, in South Africa and beyond, we all carry metaphorical educational wounds. To open meaningful conversations within curriculum and educational research, I consider artmaking and the tangible fostering generative possibilities. Inspired by Deleuze’s idea that wounds are never fully overcome but can inspire counter-actualisation, I am curious about artmaking as a generative possibility. I acknowledge present suffering in education as already happening, and I wonder: what might artmaking and deeper awareness of our pedagogical wounds make possible for teaching, learning, and research practice?

Keywords: Complexity; Deleuzian wound; epistemic injustice; memory and imagination; ordinary living; refrain

How to cite this article: Venter, Z. (2025). The potentiality of artmaking to counter-actualise current conditions in learning, teaching and research. African Perspectives of Research in Teaching and Learning, 9(5), 531-544.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.70875/v9i5article5