2. HET102 Teaching and Learning in Creative and Academic PracticesAssignment 6 – Professional Practice Work required: This is an inquiry-based task with a number of components. 1 & 2 require you to work with a PGCHE colleague. 1. In pairs, explore the links between professional practice and how this influences your teaching. Interview each other and seek to identify the key aspects that construct a meaningful professionally-informed activity in your respective subject areas. You may wish to draw on particular policies or theories to inform your discussion. You may use library and on-line resources to guide and inform your discussion. 2. Together prepare a short visual presentation on your shared perspectives (comparing and contrasting the ways in which your professional perspectives inform your teaching). This presentation will be shared during the PGCHE summer school. 3. Individually write up/record your discussion and presentation notes from the practical exercise above (include bullet points and diagrams as appropriate). You may do this by using the ‘notes page’ view of your PowerPoint or annotating your visual presentation..
3. Conversation: Katie and Pip Pip: ‘I originally studied anthropology, and became very interested in shamanism, magic, rituals and rites of passage. My main subject is now movement and improvisation, although since having my own children I have become fascinated with childhood language and ideas, and consequently my main focus for the last 4 years has been children’s creativity. A friend introduced me to the Reggio Emilio Approach and I take a lot of inspiration from it. It rose to fame in the 1990’s. It is based on the premise that western education values the rational and logical over all the expressive languages, and they really believe that children should be free to express themselves in all the many languages of music, drama and storytelling. They have a resident visual artist in all of their pre-schools and they try to provide really professional working materials so that children have the best possible chance to participate in long-term projects.
4. They take the teacher and child as co-researching the world together - they go on a journey together. They work with the process of stimulation, which can come from an idea from the child or the teacher - because the teacher knows the children. Each session is documented with videos, recordings of what the children say and notes. The teachers spend long reflective sessions with the evidenced materials to perceive the children’s engagement, and the next session is then built on their analysis. I run a level 2 Theatre studies module ‘Theatre in Contemporary Contexts’ (but I call it‘Image, Mapping and Metaphor’ ) at UCF and I take key ideas, inspirations and working methodologies from the approach. I use children’s creativity as the context for the project and Fox Rose Hill gardens as the starting point. My students research the site and establish its history. This term, students worked with ideas around travelling, gathering and different species. Students worked with 4 and 5 year olds from Penryn Infant School around the theme of space. Fox Rosehill Gardens Photos Copyright 2003 George Pritchard
5. Katie Pamment, Children’s Book Author and Illustrator Interior illustration from ‘Soot-soot the Boatyard Cat’ inspired by a true story based in Falmouth Marina ‘Soot-soot the Boatyard Cat’Copyright 2011 Katie Pamment
6. Unlike Pip, I have not deviated from the one overriding ambition to be an artist. On graduating from Falmouth in 2002 I freelanced for an agent for a year, undertaking a number of small commissions and one book, not entirely constricted by commercial restraints but controlled by a domineering agent I ultimately discovered that this was not a viable way of making a living. This was followed by two years employed as an in-house illustrator for a large greetings card company, drawing teddy bears and cartoon animals. The conflict between personal artistic development and financial security was constant but without the monetary security I would not have been able to undertake the two children’s books offered by a new publisher. These were illustrated at night and weekends to the exclusion of all social life and I discovered that as an artist and without the stimuli of people and places, characters and events all creativity is stifled. The conflict would have been intolerable had I not been given the opportunity to study on an MA course at Anglia Ruskin University and to return to a more reasonable perspective. ‘Grandad’ Medowside books, Katie working on ‘The Prince and the Pauper’ Usborne books, ‘The Owl and the Grandfather Clock’
8. ‘Grandad’ We watch the waves splashing And feed the seagulls. I have two ice creams, Grandad has three. Life’s for living! saysGrandad. Interior illustration from ‘Grandad’, Medowside Books, 2005.
10. ‘The Owl and the Grandfather Clock’ Tom carried the owl back to Grandfather. Interior illustration from ‘The Owl and the Grandfather Clock’, Copyright 2011, Katie Pamment.
11. Whilst Pip has obviously been influenced by spiritual matters I was not alone in experiencing enormous artistic/commercial conflict that certainly influence my teaching to this day. I constantly seek new ways to reconcile the tensions between the requirements of a commercial brief and the ongoing development of the illustrator/artist, to help my students. My current role at UCF involves a combination of part-time teaching on the level 2 BA (Hons) Illustration course and practice-based PhD research and it was interesting to note that although Pip and I are teaching on Higher Education courses, we have both been very much influenced by children. In Pip’s case her own, and in mine by the children I taught at a Highland school as part of my research, and also by the very nature of my job. Children are after all my main audience. Cairngorm pilot study 2009 - Observational Drawing
13. Balancing my commercial illustration with a teaching career and my research; ‘Illustration, Young Audiences and the Environment’ has enabled me to regain a stimulation and passion for my work. I enjoy the process of learning and discovery and I try to convey these passions; making the learning environment as exciting and fun as possible, for the students and myself! Creating a lively, interactive environment through participatory learning, in which lecturers and students both share their work through discussion and debate is very important. It is easy for illustrators to feel pigeonholed when working commercially and I encourage my students to develop their own ‘voice’; making time to experiment and have fun, to be joyful and creative! Involving students in a research community where they are able to learn from researchers and practitioners in the field, promoting a spirit of ‘everyone learning together’ and learning by doing. This helps to foster an inclusive and non-hierarchical stimulating learning environment in which students feel more comfortable taking risks, experimenting, innovating and exploring new ideas and directions within their own practice.
14. Conclusion During our conversation we discovered a number of similarities and parallels. The first mutual point of reference was our love of the process of learning and discovery. Our passions inform our teaching, making it exciting and fun for our students as well as ourselves. We both believe in providing our students with an opportunity to develop understanding and discovery as well as to challenge ideas and push against boundaries. Pip’s professional practice in visual dance and circus theatre, coupled with the birth of her first daughter, lead to an interest and exploration in the imagination of young children and education through the Reggio Emilio Approach. This approach now informs and inspires both Pip’s teaching, and enriches further developments within her professional practice. PGCHE Summer School – an opportunity to develop understanding and discovery
15. Similarly, nearly 20 years ago I met a Baha'i art teacher who has influenced my learning, and now my approach to teaching. She once said “It’s not that you just bring people together to do art courses that makes it successful it is because there is a philosophy that comes out of a spiritual base. That makes it different.In a safe learning environment, where acceptance and respect are paramount, all students can uncover their own personal gems.” This assignment has been an opportunity to discover that we have experienced many similarities, and been influenced by fellow teachers and philosophies and has highlighted the benefits of dialogue and collaboration. ‘The Owl and the Grandfather Clock’ On location
16. ‘The Owl and the Grandfather Clock’, ongoing Katie Pamment, PGCHE, Professional Practise Presentation 2011
