Principles

The Artistic and Creative Education program is a new, unique and forward- looking initiative of the Graduate School of Education, based on seven philosophical principles of teaching and learning that will be essential and increasingly important in creating educational change appropriate for the 21st century:

• creative and innovative pedagogies and curriculum
• the artistry and aesthetics of teaching
• motivation and engagement in learning
• embodied, experiential and metaphorical elements of learning and curriculum
• the social and therapeutic application of these pedagogies with community interest and special needs groups, through all stages of systemic education and lifelong learning
• collaborative and multi-disciplinary approaches to research and teaching
• student-centred reflective learning and curriculum

In addition, the staff who comprise ACE subscribe to two organisational principles:

• democratic organisation and management
• inclusivity for all members, together with recognition that sub-groups with particular foci of interest may be sustained or created.

The Artistic and Creative Education program is designed to encourage pro-active and collaborative approaches to educational research and research-led teaching. The members believe in the inextricable nexus between practice and research. The members also believe in the power of artistic and arts-rich pedagogy and curriculum, in schools and in all contexts of lifelong learning. We believe that creativity is already becoming recognized as an essential capability for personal, social, community and working life in the 21st Century, and we pursue ways of developing and fostering creativity in our own students and in all educational systems, formal and informal. We envisage that our artistic and creative forms of teaching and research will inform each other in such a way that new teaching courses and subjects driven by the academic principles, and a new major research theme for the Graduate School, will all be realised.