News
Tuesday 26 August 2008
Art and design educators to debate key issues
Key issues at the forefront of art and design education will be debated as part of a major conference at Nottingham Trent University. Practitioners from across the country will attend the Group for Learning in Art and Design (GLAD) Conference – Student Experience in Art and Design Higher Education: Action for Change – on September 8 and 9.
Lecturers, department heads, course directors and leaders, policy formers and their advisors will attend the event, being hosted by the university’s School of Art and Design. Through a range of workshops and individual participation, it will build on and develop the themes and ideas published in the book which resulted from last year’s conference.
The Head of College of Art and Design and Built Environment at Nottingham Trent University, Professor Simon Lewis, said: “GLAD has led national debates concerning learning and teaching in art and design for the last 20 years. It is an organisation that includes membership from across the UK from all levels of the art and design teaching community in our universities and colleges. This biannual event is always popular with lecturers as the issues are always current and the debates always lively and engaging.”
The areas of focus for this year’s conference include:
The role fragmentation of academics: an examination of the need to re-establish similarities between institutional mission and individual identity through a reframing of the employment context; including management and staff development.
Leadership for art and design education: an investigation of the alignment of a discipline-oriented identity with leadership and management. The skills, experience and knowledge required and the mechanisms that can be put into place to strengthen leadership potential.
Creative practice, thinking, learning, research and innovation in the 21st century: an exploration of prevailing educational structures and their ability to deliver the unexpected in the creativity agenda.
The research: creativity nexus: a clarification of research and creativity in art and design by examining emerging models of creativity and how research into creativity can benefit the student experience.
Expectations, ambiguity and pedagogy within art and design: a discussion of expectations during the transition between compulsory and post-compulsory education and between education and employment, and what support students need to fulfil expectations.
Practice-based learning and teaching: an evaluation of the use of space in art and design schools and the future reallocation of space within institutions and its effect on learning and teaching.
Internationalisation: an assessment of the process of embedding international, intercultural and global perspectives within all aspects of an institution’s programmes, structures and environment, to provide a richer educational experience for all students.
ENDS
Notes for editors: The cost of the conference, which will take place in the School of Art and Design’s Bonington building, is £160 plus VAT, to include one night’s accommodation.
Press enquiries please contact: Dave Rogers, Senior Press Officer, on telephone: +44 (0)115 848 8782, or via email: dave.rogers@ntu.ac.uk
Or Therese Easom, Press and Media Relations Manager, on telephone: +44 (0)115 848 8774, or via email: therese.easom@ntu.ac.uk
