Role
Frances Howard is Course Leader for BA (hons) Youth Studies. She teaches the following modules, alongside dissertation supervision:
- Concepts of Youth (year 1)
- Youth Health & Wellbeing (year 2)
- Youth Cultures and Lifestyles (year 3)
She draws on creative approaches to teaching and learning and undertakes film making activities with students as a way to develop pedagogical resources. Frances is keen to support student-led research projects with Nottingham Youth Organisations.
She also undertakes evaluation and research for arts, youth and community projects and has recently supported ChalleNGe's Youth Cultural Partnership Board with their auto-ethnographic and co-produced research.
Career overview
Frances' first monograph is forthcoming with Policy Press: Global Perspectives on Youth Arts Programs - how and why the arts can make a difference (2022). She completed her PhD in the School of Education, University of Nottingham in 2018 and continues to conduct research on young people, youth work, the arts and popular culture. Frances has previously worked in local authorities, arts education and youth work. Alongside her role at NTU, she is an Advisory Board member for Nottingham's Community Artist Network, and a Moderator for the young people’s Arts Award.
Research areas
Frances’ research interests include youth arts programmes, music-making, health and well-being, youth work and informal education, community engagement / development, youth participation / voice and activism. She would welcome any opportunities that may arise to carry out postgraduate research towards an MPhil or PhD in these areas.
External activity
In addition to working with the above external partners – ChalleNGe, Captivate, NottinghamCAN, YMCA and Arts Award, Frances is currently co-convenor of the BERA Youth Studies and Informal Education special interest group and is part of the AHRC funded inter-university project Creative Margins which aims to share knowledge across the fields and disciplines of Art and youth/community work by opening spaces for discussion and critical debate. She is also an active Member of the Professional Association of Lecturers in Youth and Community Work.
Publications
- Howard, F. 2021. “It’s Like Being Back in GCSE Art”—Engaging with Music, Film-Making and Boardgames. Creative Pedagogies within Youth Work Education. Education Sciences, Educating Informal Educators special issue.
- Howard, F., Bennett, A., Green, B., Guerra, P., Sousa, S., & Sofija, E. (2021). ‘It’s Turned Me from a Professional to a “Bedroom DJ” Once Again’: COVID-19 and New Forms of Inequality for Young Music-Makers. YOUNG.
- Howard, F. 2021. Researching event-centred projects: Showcasing grounded aesthetics - Qualitative Research.
- Howard, F. 2020. Planning and running an arts project with young people. Trinity College London and Arts Council England.
- Parry, R., Howard, F., & Penfold, L., 2020. Negotiated, contested and political: the disruptive Third Spaces of youth media production. Learning, Media and Technology.
- Howard, F., 2020. Pedagogies for the ‘Dis‐engaged’: Diverse Experiences of the Young People’s Arts Award Programme. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 39(3), pp.672-685.
- Howard, F., Brocken, S., & Sim, N., 2018. Youth Work, Arts Practice and Transdisciplinary Space, Chapter in The SAGE Handbook of Youth Work Practice (eds) Alldred, P., Cullen, F., Edwards, K. and Fusco, D.
- Coles, R., & Howard, F., 2018. Filmmaking education and enterprise culture: an ethnographic exploration of two filmmaking education contexts and their relation to bedroom culture and the creative workplace. Ethnography and Education, 13:3, 273-285.
- Howard, F., 2017. The arts in youth work: A spectrum of instrumentality. Youth & Policy.
Press expertise
Frances was invited to contribute to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport's consultation on Youth Services in March 2021. She has also recently been interviewed by NottinghamshireLive on youth club closures.