Our Research & Projects
Take a look at some of the latest research projects within the Centre.
The centre has a portfolio of research across the disciplines of the arts in education, performance arts, applied drama and theatre.
It also includes popular cultural forms such as comics and street theatre, and in professions such as health, justice, heritage, social work, arts-based organisations and businesses.
Publications and Associated Journals
Creativity and Democracy in Education: Practices and politics of learning through the arts
By Jeff Adams and Allan Owens
The struggle to establish more democratic education pedagogies has a long history in the politics of mainstream education. This book argues for the significance of the creative arts in the establishment of social justice in education, using examples drawn from a selection of contemporary case studies including Japanese applied drama, Palestinian teacher education and Room 13 children’s contemporary art.
chesterrep.openrepository.com/handle/10034/604726
Provoking the Field
Provoking the Field: International Perspectives on Visual Arts PhDs in Education
Edited by Anita Sinner, Rita L. Irwin and Jeff Adams Series edited by Anita Sinner and Rita L. Irwin
Provoking the Field invites debate on, and provides an essential resource for, transnational arts-based scholars engaged in critical analyses of international visual arts education and its enquiry in doctoral research. The book encompasses creative research practices in the visual arts, and advances pedagogical and experimental perspectives, assessments, methodological deliberations and ethical issues and concerns in relation to a host of topic areas in visual arts education.
“This book will be important to those doctorate students who intend using visual arts methods to explore educational research questions. […] New Ph.D. supervisors would also find Provoking the Field: International Perspectives on Visual Arts PhDs in Education a valuable asset when developing their own supervisory practice.” - Samantha Broadhead, Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education
www.intellectbooks.com/provoking-the-field
chesterrep.openrepository.com/handle/10034/622475
Beyond Text
Beyond Text: Learning through Arts-Based Research
Edited by Jeff Adams and Allan Owens
This book focuses on learning through arts-based research as a practice of social justice through which we can reimagine, interrupt, insist and resist as we engage collectively to better understand and rethink social, organisational and societal issues. The result of a multi-year and international research project, Beyond Text (beyondtext.weebly.com/).
“While I know of other arts-based research books, this one is unique. It is built upon a multi-year research study across several countries as those involved used the arts to study topics of mutual interest. I am struck by that which connects everyone but also by the differences that are discussed in each chapter. Reading this book made me think we don’t often get a chance to experience such a vibrant project unified in such a strong book.”
Rita Irwin, Professor of Art Education at the University of British Columbia, and co-editor of Provoking the Field
www.intellectbooks.com/beyond-text
All information available at:
beyondtext.weebly.com
Journals
iJADE
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14768070
Overview
The International Journal of Art & Design Education (iJADE) provides an international forum for research in the field of the art and creative education. It is the primary source for the dissemination of independently refereed articles about the visual arts, creativity, crafts, design, and art history, in all aspects, phases and types of education contexts and learning situations.
Published in association with NSEAD (www.nsead.org)
Keywords
Art, education, design, journal, international, society, national, social, cultural, craft, curriculum, national, extracurricular, GCSE, A-level, university, degree, resources, review, book, periodical, analysis, research, article, theory
Principal Editor
- Dr Deborah Riding, Tate Liverpool and RECAP, University of Chester
Editors
- Dr Peter Gregory, Canterbury Christ Church University
- Dr Madeleine Sclater, Deputy Principal Editor, Glasgow School of Art
- Dr Miranda Matthews, Goldsmiths, University of London
- Mr Neil Walton, Goldsmiths, University of London
Administrator
- Emma Arya-Manesh, RECAP, University of Chester
Impact factor: 0.475
2019 Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics): 244/263 (Education & Educational Research)
Online ISSN:1476-8070
© NSEAD/John Wiley & Sons Ltd
COMPARE: A Journal of Comparative and International Education
www.tandfonline.com/toc/ccom20/current
Overview
Comparative and international studies in education address themes of major interest to policy makers and academics. They illuminate the role of education in development, in maintaining or challenging the existing social order, and the interaction of the local, the national and the global in education systems, institutions and practices. Compare publishes such research as it relates to educational development and change in different parts of the world. It seeks analyses of educational discourse, policy and practice across disciplines, and their implications for teaching, learning and governance.
Published in association with BAICE (baice.ac.uk)
Impact factor: 1.765
2019 Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics): 93/263 (Education & Educational Research)
Editors
- Germ Janmaat - UCL Institute of Education, UK
- Tristan McCowan - UCL Institute of Education, UK
- Sheila Trahar - University of Bristol, UK
Founding Editor:
- Leon Boucher - formerly Dean of Education, Chester College, UK
Review Editor:
- Amy North - UCL Institute of Education, UK
Editorial Assistant
-
Emma Arya-Manesh, RECAP, University of Chester
CORNUCOPIA
Overview
A Journal that Celebrates Excellence in the Scholarly Activity of Education Students
CORNUCOPIA as a journal, takes a cross-section of academic submissions from the Faculty of Education and Children’s Services at the University of Chester. With the aim of celebrating excellence in scholarly activity it takes examples from level 4, the first year of an undergraduate degree, through to Level 8 and post-graduate work: all within the field of education. It also includes an honorary submission from another institution. Each issue is monothematic, focusing each time upon a different aspect, but one deemed crucial to pedagogical thought. The editors of the journal see their part, more as facilitators than exhibitors.
Published by University of Chester
Keywords
Education, learning, pedagogy, cultural education, student scholars
Principal Editors
- Dr Simon E Poole, RECAP, University of Chester
- Wendy P Garner, University of Chester
Editors
- Dr Rob Davis, Federation University
- Prof Hala Al-Yamani, Bethlehem University
- Prof Beth Powers, Millersville University
- Dr Lluís Solé i Salas, Universitat de Vic, Universitat Central de Catalunya
Who We Are
Emeritus Professor Jeff Adams (Co-Director)
Professor of Education at the University of Chester, and former Principal Editor of the International Journal of Art & Design Education. At Chester he founded the Doctorate in Education (EdD) programme and is currently researching into arts education and creative pedagogies, with grants from Esmée Fairbairn and the British Academy. He previously worked as leader of the MA Artist Teachers programme at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Jeff has also lectured in education and art history at Edge Hill University, Liverpool John Moores University and the Open University, as well as in teaching art in state comprehensive schools in Yorkshire and Cumbria. His books include Documentary Graphic Novels and Social Realism (Peter Lang, 2008); Teaching Through Contemporary Art (with Worwood, Atkinson, Dash, Herne & Page; Tate, 2008), and Applying Theory to Educational Research (with Cochrane & Dunne (Eds), Wiley-Blackwell, 2012).
Emeritus Professor Allan Owens (Co-Director)
Emeritus Professor of Drama Education in the Faculty of Education and & Faculty of Arts & Media-Department of Performing Arts, a Distinguished Teaching Fellow of the University of Chester and a National Teaching Fellow. He has responsibilities for knowledge exchange, research, teaching and international project development. Current work focuses on creative pedagogy, the intercultural dimension of drama and in particular the use of drama in the professions- including arts based initiatives in development processes.
In the past decade he has worked in 16 countries with on-going long-term projects in Palestine, Finland, Japan, Spain, Sweden and Estonia. He has strong links with Palestine having first worked in Gaza and the West Bank in 1995 with the Ministry of Education and latterly in the University sector. He has led long-term capacity building projects, run intensive short programmes, developed research initiatives and staged pre-text based interactive performances across cultural borders in collaboration with colleagues locally, nationally and internationally.
Dr Emma Arya-Manesh (Centre Manager & Researcher)
Dr Emma Arya-Manesh is a mixed-methods researcher with over 10-years of experience conducting evaluations and undertaking research across a diverse range of settings including art galleries, cultural and arts-based organisations, children’s centres, youth groups, universities, and schools. Emma is also the Editorial Assistant for two journals, COMPARE: A Journal of Comparative and International Education and the International Journal of Art & Design Education (iJADE).
Emma’s PhD thesis explores the perceptions and values of teacher educators in relation to critical peacebuilding in the West Bank. Separately, she is also working on a project to explore the lived experiences of Palestinian women in the West Bank. She has published on creative arts practices in teaching, pedagogy and learning. Her most recent research has focused on doctoral students encounters with creative practices in education.
Dr Anne Pässilä PhD (Visiting Senior Research Fellow)
She is Senior Researcher at Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lahti School of Innovation, Finland and Partner in the consulting company Susinno Ltd. She has an international profile in applying arts-based initiatives to support innovation and development processes and has extensive experience of front-line workplace engagement in research-based theatre as a support in developing shared understanding in a context of practice-based innovation management. Her interests are in investigating a methodological approach in which narrative methods are utilized to involve employees of organizations and networks in development work.
She continues to publish widely on the interpretative and intuitive approach to the innovation process. Pässilä, A. (2012), Pässilä, A. And Vince, R. (2012).Pässilä, A., Oikarinen, T and Vince, R. (2012) in: H. Melkas and V. Harmaakorpi (eds.)., Pässilä, A., Oikarinen, T. & Kallio, A. (2013). Pässilä, Tuija Oikarinen, Satu Parjanen, Vesa Harmaakorpi, (2013). Her paper “Creating dialogue by storytelling” was selected by the Journal of Workplace Learning Editorial Team for the prestigious award of Outstanding Paper of 2013.
Professor Eva Österlind (Visiting Professor)
She is an Associate Professor of Drama Education at Stockholm University, and former Director of Studies in Aesthetics and Learning, with special responsibility for development and strategic planning. She designed the first drama courses at advanced level in Sweden, allowing Masters students to specialise in Drama. Her main field of teaching is CPD courses for teachers, leadership development (in the private sector) and tutorial of doctoral students.
Her research concerns Instructional Design – especially form as content – and the potential of Educational Drama, Forum Theatre as a tool for active citizenship, and Process Drama in Education for Sustainable Development. She is a member of the Editorial Board/Advisory Board of two of the leading research journals in the field of Arts and Drama Education. A group of Swedish doctoral students in Drama Education are now enrolled in Chester, where Österlind is a Research Fellow. In 2014 she is visiting Professor at Faculty of Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, AU.
Dr Si Poole (Researcher)
MA, PGCSiC, PGCE, BA(Hons), SFHEA, FCollT, FRSA, MISM, is the Programme Leader for the Masters in Creative Practice in Education and Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Children's Services at the University of Chester. He also works at Storyhouse (www.storyhouse.com), as the Senior Lead in Cultural Education and Research. Storyhouse is Chester's award-winning, innovative combined arts producer and storytelling organization, that brings together live performance, music, film, digital art and literature to provide new opportunities for audiences to connect with stories and ideas, with each other and with their communities.
Continuing to work internationally, his main areas of research are music, culture, folklore and creativity and how these aspects of our lives can enhance people's learning as a transformative experience. He also runs a grass roots record label called ‘Soil Records’ and is the singer and songwriter of the band ‘the loose kites’ (www.theloosekites.com).
View Si's Profile
Dr Deborah Riding (Visiting Research Fellow)
Dr Deborah Riding has worked in gallery education for over twenty years, managing and delivering programmes for a range of audiences. Deborah’s research interests are around collaborative practices in galleries and her doctoral thesis, Challenging the Rules of Engagement, focused specifically on the co-creation of knowledge in the public art museum. Deborah leads the team for children and young people at Tate Liverpool, working collaboratively with audiences to support deep engagement with the arts and the gallery and its collection.
Deborah is committed to making children and young people’s learning and voices visible in the gallery and has recently co- curated a new Collection display, Ideas Depot, with curator Darren Pih and local teachers and children. She works with colleagues at a partner university on the Schools in Residence and Tackling the Blues mental health research programmes. Deborah is Principal Editor of the International Journal of Art and Design Education.
View Deborah's Profile
Dr Lluis Solé (Visiting Research Fellow)
Lluís Solé, PhD is a musician, researcher and a senior lecturer of Music Pedagogy at Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya in Spain. He was formally educated as a Biologist and an instrumentist of piano, recorder, harpsichord, cornet and bansuri. He has also worked as a music soloist and as a teacher in secondary education.
Lluís is the founder and conductor of the UVic’s Inclusive Orchestra, an access and equity project regarding music practice; it is a project based on the application of Universal Design Principles to orchestras. His interests are focused on accessibility in instrumental music-making, and participation in music regardless of individual musical abilities. He is interested also in Arts-Based processes (Inquiry, Evaluation, Assessment or dissemination) through music.