Log in
Irit Rogoff has shaped the emergence of an `educational turn' in the arts and humanities, arguing that contemporary artwork, together with its institutions and social platforms, transforms education practices in non-academic arenas such as museums, theatres, bookshops, art academies, and social and political occupations. This work started at the moment in which both the Bologna accord and neo-liberal impacts on education began pulling towards the professionalisation and homogenisation of Higher Education culture. All of the projects elaborated within this case study have aimed to expand the understanding of how cultural actors become educational stakeholders.
Rogoff's theoretical and curatorial research has taken diverse forms including scholarly publications, exhibitions and social forums, and she has brought these issues to audiences from the arts and public organisations beyond the university sector through advisory roles, public speaking, and social organising. Following numerous publications, exhibitions, and events, she founded freethought, an experimental platform for pedagogy, research and production. Launched in 2012 at the Austrian arts festival, Steirischer Herbst, freethought has subsequently developed a core project on `infrastructure' launched at Berlin's House of World Cultures in 2013. Her published research, exhibitions, and public forums have been widely influential in debates on education in the public sphere, as evidenced for example by her involvement as a funded partner in the establishment of a freethought laboratory in South Korea's new Asia Cultural Complex.
This impact relates to the development of Creative Writing within school and University curricula and has three elements. Firstly, this research has played a leading role in the development of new conceptual frameworks and innovative methodologies for the teaching of Creative Writing within English Literature University curricula within the UK and beyond. Secondly, this research has made a key contribution to the development and implementation of innovative models of professional development for teachers of English Literature and Creative Writing in Further and Higher Education. Finally, this research has changed the profile of Creative Writing as an academic discipline by informing the development of new national UK frameworks for the teaching of Creative Writing in schools and University, including the development of new A Level specifications.
Research into reflective practice, the process by which reflection on workplace actions generates new insights into practice and thus enables reshaping of that practice, has influenced both practice and policy in vocational education and training (VET). Through an innovative "fieldbook" it has enhanced the working practices of VET practitioners across Europe. In addition, this "fieldbook" has helped to shape recommendations for improving quality assurance in VET at European level — one of the European Commission's current policy priorities in education, training and lifelong learning — which will ultimately feed into policy and practice development.
Professor Julian Stern was one of the lead organisers of, and contributors to, a series of eleven research-oriented seminars (between 2004 and 2010), bringing together teachers, advisors, and higher education professionals working on, and interested in, religious education research in UK schools and internationally. This impact case study identifies the influence of those seminars on the 161 participating professionals, on pupils, and on schools. Evidence is provided of the widespread and long-term impact of the research, particularly on the participants and on pupils, both directly through the seminars and through the various seminar-related publications.
Allan Owens has worked worldwide to bring drama into the professions. He has developed an artistic form that has impacted in a wide range of contexts including the social sector, in education, health, and public service, and also in private business. The trajectory of his research and practice has been concerned with pioneering the use of pre-text based process drama as a form of artistic initiative beyond mainstream education. The underlying research consists of authored articles and pre-texts which were part of the 2008 RAE submission classed as `internationally recognised with world leading elements'.
`Opening up education' is a sustained theme of the Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology (CREET). Across more than 25 projects, active from 2008, our research has been instrumental in establishing and shaping the global agenda in open education, especially through open licensing of content and tools. Our evidence-driven and action research has two strands of impact:
Our innovative collaborations and community engagement are international with examples of practice in Brazil, Africa and Europe, and strategic influences in USA, UK and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Across the Higher Education sector, in the UK and in much of Europe, university lecturers in professional fields are usually appointed on the basis of their practitioner experience and expertise, and they may have little prior experience of teaching at Higher Education level or of research activity. The impact of the research in this case study has been on individuals, Heads of Department, academic developers and universities across the UK in influencing changes in academic induction practices leading to enhanced professional development of university lecturers in professional fields, especially in teacher education, nursing and the allied health professions. The dissemination of the research included the publication by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) of guidelines for academic induction of teacher educators.
The research in this impact case study has affected discourses concerning professional development and pedagogy from early years classrooms to higher education. By challenging orthodoxies, researchers have delivered new and generative understandings of teacher knowledge that have influenced debate in educators' communities and professional associations. Consequently, these bodies have used our research to guide their approach to the advancement of policy, practice and professional development in all education sectors. The impacts of our research have reached out to a range of national contexts including the UK, Australia, Cyprus, and South Africa.
Teaching and learning in Romanian schools is being transformed by the idea that the arts can have a cultural impact on learning and that drama can enhance everyday performativity. Thousands of students have been involved in this research, which has led to the foundation of the Educational Drama Association of Romania, an independent, sustainable and locally governed organisation whose aim is being achieved in schools across Romania. EDAR works to promote drama in education, both as an elective and extra-curricular activity, to develop critical thinking.
A unique insight in The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education (2008), and developed through an ESRC Seminar Series, is that a therapeutic ethos in education is creating a diminished human subject through a `dual attack' on the human subject as a knowing subject and the subject-based curriculum.
A conscious public defence of the subject-based curriculum was then undertaken through seminars, debates and conferences involving think tanks, charities and union organisations. The appointment of Professor Dennis Hayes to the London Mayoral Education Inquiry (2012) was one consequence. The Inquiry resulted in funding of £24.5 million for the London Schools Excellence Fund.