This master essay starts with the author having an encounter with two 14-years old boys who claim that they are Nazis. In a school project where the pupils made films about norms in the society they made a film with a clearly racist and homophobic message. As a freelance artist the author was a part of a school development program in aesthetic learning, and the assignment in the actual school was supposed to teach the pupils about norms and how they effect people on an everyday basis. All the films fulfilled this purpose, but the actual film did something more: it revealed the zerotolerance rule in this particular school as a norm that silenced not only these boys, but also any pupil having a different opinion than the teachers.

The situation described took place in a classroom in primary school in the area of Stockholm some years ago and even though the film was never shown to anybody that could be offended except the author herself, the author left the school with a feeling of total failure, and two questions craving for answers: Why couldn’t she, nor the teachers, find the time and space to meet the boys, taking their invitation to discuss the zere-tolerance-norm seriously? And what role did the fact that the school had a “zero-tolerance-for-racism rule” play in the cultivation of the boy’s feelings of exclusion and in the way the teachers treated their obvious need for recognition as sane and (soon-to-be) grown up men?

Using Hannah Arendt’s ideas of action as the fundament of the investigation, the author poses questions about what space for action there is in the daily work of a teacher today, but also what happens when there is no room for action, when we become the blind administrators of homo faber. The method of the study includes 1) a dialogue seminar with teachers from elementary school, 2) examples and reflections from the author’s own teaching practice at the teacher education and 3) a philosophical investigation focusing on the concepts of aesthetic experience, aesthetic learning, not-knowing and unlearning. In dialogue with Sarah Ahmed, John Dewey, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jacques Rancière, Cusanus and Jonna Bornemark, she further tries to understand what role the film, as an aesthetic experience, played in the example with the Nazi boys. Is there a radical possibility in art that can create space for action in Arendt’s sense? Further, in dialogue with the poet Wiszlava Szymborska, the clown Nalla Laanela, and two novelists; Rachel Cusk and Albert Camus, she tries to understand the possibilities that lie within aesthetic learning when it comes to re-thinking the role of the teacher aiming for a sustainable approach to teaching and learning in a society where teachers work themselves sick.

Dancing in an educational setting is a joyful and powerful means for growth and multimodal learning. Dancing Through the Alphabet, Dancing Math, Dancing Science, Dancing is Being, are four teaching and learning programs, drawing on dance as creative expression and on the reciprocal stimulation of dance, spoken and written language. By stimulating the envy and capability to express oneself and one's knowledge through dance, language learning, mathematics, science, philosophy or other subject learning is enhanced. The core idea is the expression of the self and the perception of previous subject comprehension and further development of skills. Dancing contributes essentially to establishing a fruitful space of learning with immediate and perceptible interaction between teacher, peer learners and the subject learned. Creativity and play, tactile perception and motoric activity are involved in the learning process. Thresholds are lowered and learners eagerly explore fields of knowledge previously experienced as difficult to access. Effective acquisition and sustainable storage of knowledge is enhanced. A continuous development in literacy takes place. Critical reflection is encouraged in a broader view on knowing and being. Concentration and cooperation skills improve. Multiple intelligences are used and cognitive capacities are developed. Participants with varying cultural and language backgrounds, exchanging experiences and references, embark at equal terms on joyful journeys through fields of knowledge. © Common Ground, Paul Moerman, All Rights Reserved.

This article presents a teaching and learning program in natural sciences starting from the aesthetic expression of dance as the agent in seeking knowledge and meaning. The program was originally conceived as a joyful, effective and threshold lowering activity for learners apprehensive about the science curriculum subject, including students in teacher training. It has been further developed as a mode to visualize learners’ amassed previous science subject knowledge while dancing together. Pre-knowledge is seen as the base for further investigation of the field of knowledge and its adherent concepts and axioms. The program’s overall object is to establish a fruitful interactive space of learning where aesthetic literacy and scientific literacy are enhanced and interplay gainfully. Lesson observation data are presented, indicating intensive classroom interaction on a range of levels crucial to learning, as well as increased learning goals achievement. Suggestions are made for further investigation of teaching and learning modalities in the intersection of aesthetic and science literacies.

This paper presents a teaching and learning program in mathematics drawing on the aesthetic expression of dance as the medium of seeking knowledge and meaning. The program was developed to visualizing, in dancing, the learners’ previous subject knowledge as a base for further acquisition of proficiencies in the discipline. The overall object is to create an effectual interactive space of learning with immediate interaction between teacher, peer learners and the math subject. Aesthetic literacy through dance and math numeracy are enhanced and interplay gainfully. Data gathered from observations of lessons designed according to the program and dealing with a number of math curriculum items are presented and analysed. Conclusions are drawn for further investigation of the intersection of the proficiencies and literacies of aesthetics and mathematics.

At Södertörn University a purposeful decade long work has been done to integrate the arts in teaching education, following a range of strategic phases and quality criterion. Pre-service teachers meet dance, music, visual art, film, theatre and creative writing, preparing for their mission in a school for the future. Professional dancers, actors, musicians and artists teach aesthetic skills and understanding in curriculum subjects as well as artistic expression in its own right, adding to Södertörn University's interdisciplinary, intercultural and liberal arts ethos, dealing with relational, aesthetic and ethical issues and challenges in eduction, society and the world at large.