The conference is the first of two planned conferences arranged by EXPECT_Art to disseminate the results of the project and to establish a dialogue between our findings and the results of other researchers working in the same areas.

The theme of the conference highlights the central methodological and theoretical underpinnings of the project: Decolonial theory and community-based research. Both perspectives are employed, in EXPECT_Art, in empirical research on cultural literacy and arts education, which also involves uses of arts-based and other participatory methods.

In decolonial theory, coloniality is considered a historical process that continuously (re)appears in mentalities, institutions and practices, while community-based research aims to solve community-defined problems through collaborations between researchers and communities or groups.

Both decolonial and community-based research are attentive to questions related to positionality and power, and they call for a high degree of (meta)reflexivity that can accommodate for the complex theoretical, methodological and ethical implications of participatory research.

The conference invites papers on methodological and/or theoretical perspectives within the fields of decoloniality and community-based research, related to education. In particular, contributions are welcomed that scrutinise potentials as well as challenges of the perspectives in relation to research projects that are either currently carried out or which has been completed.