The EPRG is a curiosity-driven and pan-disciplinary group of researchers, doctoral students and alumni who are interested in developing research into experimental and creative pedagogies and finding large scale funding for ‘high-risk’ research from a range of disciplinary perspectives.
During the past two years, the EPRG has actively created a range of experimental projects which have pedagogy at the heart. Through this work, the group has built a vibrant network and developed a place for global creative pedagogic practice and research to come together. In doing so we have filled a gap and identified the need for funded, ambitious and advanced investigation into pedagogical practice in art & design, to address and work towards solving the real problems we currently face concerning student engagement and experience.
As Tim Stephens argues in his working paper The Ethics of Staff Development (2021), ‘After rupture: forms of neo-disciplinarity in education after modernism … when the biosphere cannot sustain human development, we will need to re-wild pedagogy with a type of educational archaeology. Enacting the tension between a future-oriented and nostalgic world view, we engender immediate remedies of handing back, relinquishing our status to natural forces (Terra Carta), magnifying small acts of reparation to redeem utopia.’
(To bring a high-quality creative education to more students than ever before)
To bring a high-quality creative education to more students than ever before
Quality – crucially, the dialogical nature of the existing group means that no one feels obliged to agree. With a group so diverse in skills, interests, cultures, heritage, knowledge and experience, each idea put forward is promptly pondered, dissected and debated before it can be ‘road tested’. This sets up a built-in quality check for purpose and inclusion within the group. The CPRC will employ this working ethos, which positively promotes tolerance and collaboration.
The quality of our work has already been recognised by an invitation to write for the Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education (Journal) ADCHE. We have been invited to present at national and international pedagogical conferences and give keynotes. As the CPRC we expect our members to publish individually and collaboratively in world-leading journals and to present and organise symposia and conferences on the key debates in creative higher education.
Growth – as our membership are active researchers and practitioners, the scope of their knowledge and abilities expands constantly. In addition, several of our projects have been based on connecting and collaborating with external teaching and learning experts, since we recognise that despite our inherent diversity, our shared experience within UAL means that we have difficulty taking an ‘outsider view’ of our proposals. Acknowledging this limitation leads us to construct stronger experiments and opportunities for co-creation that have meaning for those inside and outside of this institution, making what we produce more relevant to many more people.
– crucially, the dialogical nature of the existing group means that no one feels obliged to agree. With a group so diverse in skills, interests, cultures, heritage, knowledge and experience, each idea put forward is promptly pondered, dissected and debated before it can be ‘road tested’. This sets up a built-in quality check for purpose and inclusion within the group. The CPRC will employ this working ethos, which positively promotes tolerance and collaboration.
The quality of our work has already been recognised by an invitation to write for the Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education (Journal) ADCHE. We have been invited to present at national and international pedagogical conferences and give keynotes. As the CPRC we expect our members to publish individually and collaboratively in world-leading journals and to present and organise symposia and conferences on the key debates in creative higher education.
Growth – as our membership are active researchers and practitioners, the scope of their knowledge and abilities expands constantly. In addition, several of our projects have been based on connecting and collaborating with external teaching and learning experts, since we recognise that despite our inherent diversity, our shared experience within UAL means that we have difficulty taking an ‘outsider view’ of our proposals. Acknowledging this limitation leads us to construct stronger experiments and opportunities for co-creation that have meaning for those inside and outside of this institution, making what we produce more relevant to many more people.