Wednesday 25 March 2015
Professor Dennis Atkinson: Real Learning
A joint event with the Faculty of Education
4.30pm—6.30pm
In a time when the future of art education is under serious threat Professor Atkinson talks about the importance of art in education in terms of the force of art. It’s been overshadowed in recent years by the impact of the national curricular, schemes of work, advised methodologies, schemes of assessment coupled with inspection regimes, audit cultures and league tables. This has produced a tendency to dwell within traditions of practice that service the requirements of monitoring and assessment that are central to the economies of audit – and which have transformed educational institutions, practices and the professionalization of educators – leading to reduced access to art practice and its marginalization as a domain of study.
Atkinson argues for real learning and a contrasting approach to pedagogy...viewing it as an adventure...which is in stark contrast to current audit cultures and economic ambition. He introduces the event of art, or the force of art, in education and art’s potential for the production of a world and a people (learners/educators) yet to come.
Author: Art Equality & Learning: Pedagogies Against the State (2011)
Dr Dennis Atkinson is Professor Emeritus, Department of Educational Studies, Centre for the Arts and Learning, Goldsmiths University of London