Communicative mediation and experiential orientation in arts education: how teacher language shapes artistic enjoyment in lower secondary classrooms

Creativity and artistic enjoyment are frequently discussed as important aims within arts education, yet limited attention has been paid to how everyday classroom communication shapes students’ lived experience of artistic work. This study examines how contrasting communicative framings of the same artistic task influence pupils’ reported aesthetic and creative experience in lower secondary education. Using a small-scale exploratory quasi-experimental design, two intact lower secondary classes (students aged 12–13; N = 60) completed the same art activity under two different communicative framing conditions. Data were collected through a brief post-activity questionnaire combining Likert-type items and open-ended responses. While both conditions supported positive engagement, consistent differences emerged in experiential orientation. Under normative mediation, students more frequently described deliberation and task completion, whereas under open mediation they more often articulated freedom, inspiration and expressive identification. The findings suggest that teacher language does not determine enjoyment but modulates how artistic activity is inhabited. By foregrounding communicative mediation as a professional dimension of teaching practice, the study offers empirical support for integrating reflective attention to classroom discourse into teacher education.