Call for Papers – Creative Higher Education Curriculum and Pedagogy
The theme for this special issue of Makings is ‘Creative Higher Education: Curriculum and Pedagogy’. The aim is to bring together research which explores curricula and pedagogies for Art, Design and Media courses, with an emphasis on practical arts and media production courses. We welcome submissions from emerging researchers and educators with limited experience of academic research. We encourage a diverse range of submissions from conventional to practice-based contributions (visual, video, audio, etc.) for the Studio section of the journal.
Despite having an important role to play, the cultural and creative industries are among the most affected by the pandemic, resulting in a very challenging employment landscape for creative graduates. Over the last few years, we have witnessed significant changes in Creative Higher Education, specifically for practice-based subjects which have suffered from restricted access to resources and facilities. There is a highly diverse range of courses linked to the cultural and creative industries but there is relatively little knowledge about the pedagogy and curriculum offered through these courses (Cunningham and Flew, 2019). Inequalities of access to opportunities, digital poverty and ongoing insecurities across the cultural and creative industries workforce have heightened the need to tackle issues of social justice in the curriculum. Saha (2013) argues that a ‘critical multicultural pedagogy’ can only be developed through the students’ experience of making and engaging in creative processes to produce new narratives.
Art, Design and Media courses have tended to prepare students as ‘industry-ready’, nurturing enthusiasm for cultural and creative industries work, sometimes with less opportunities for critical, ethical and socially engaged debates. The current insecurities facing Creative Higher Education and the cultural and creative industries sector present an opportunity to interrogate current practices and encourage educators to engage critically with the future of learning and teaching in Art, Design and Media courses. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic has further problematised the sector, on the one hand demonstrating its vulnerability and underlying inequalities (Banks and O’Connor, 2021), whilst on the other hand demonstrating levels of agility and innovation in the face of lockdowns and economic crisis (Travkina and Sacco, 2020).
This special issue seeks to encourage research-informed teaching (curriculum and pedagogy), which explores contemporary debates for Art, Design and Media education. An exploration of Creative Higher Education Curriculum and Pedagogy could consider the following themes:
- Sustainability and Creative Higher Education Curriculum and Pedagogy
- Social justice and inequalities in Cultural and Creative Sectors
- Research-informed curriculum for practice-based arts and media courses
- Creative thinking as a pedagogy to address sustainability in the curriculum
- DIY approaches to explore ethical and social justice in the cultural and creative industries
- Creative methodologies for teaching and learning
- Rethinking pedagogic pathways to creative and cultural work
- Critical Praxis: pedagogies and curriculums for change
- Educating in a pandemic: challenges and opportunities
Please submit a 300-word abstract for the journal’s next issue, themed “Creative Higher Education: curriculum & pedagogy” for a guest-edited special issue of Makings – an open-access, peer-reviewed journal on the cultural and creative industries. Practice-based contributions (or contributions in the form of shorter think-pieces, essays, or in various multimedia formats) will be published in the Studio section of the journal. For more information please contact Annette Naudin at annette.naudin@bcu.ac.uk.
Timeline
Abstracts and acceptances:
- Submission deadline for abstracts by Monday 21st March 2022
- Acceptance by Friday 29th April 2022
Articles:
- Final articles/contributions by Monday 4th July 2022
- Revised articles/contributions by Monday 5th September 2022
- Publication October/November 2022
Writing retreat (online):
There will be an invitation for early-career or emerging researchers, whose abstracts have been accepted, to take part in an online half day writing retreat. This is an opportunity to develop your abstract into a full contribution in a supportive environment. The retreat will be facilitated by the special issue guest editors. This will take place in May 2022, exact date TBC.
Special issue guest co-editors
Dr Emma Agusita is a Senior Lecturer in Digital and Cultural Production and Media Communications at the University of the West of England. Emma has a background in creative production and a longstanding interest in the use of creative and media practices for social justice and civic participation. Her research interests include Creative and Participatory Pedagogies, Critical Visual Methodologies, Media Education and Creative Enterprise Education.
Dr Annette Naudin is Associate Professor with responsibility for Learning and Teaching at Birmingham Institute for Media and English. Annette is interested in the relationship between creative work and Higher Education curriculum and pedagogy. Annette has led a number of impactful research projects exploring cultural and creative industries work, cultural policy and inequality in the sector, working with organisations such as Arts Connect UK and Birmingham City Council. Annette is an Erasmus funded visiting Professor at the Latvian Cultural Academy.