Call for Practice: Practice Pedagogy Special Issue
Call for Practice – Joint Special issue: Practice Pedagogy
For joint publication in Screenworks Volume 9.2 and Journal of Media Practice and Education Volume 20: Issue 4, Dec 2019.
This special edition will be a collaboration across Screenworks and the Journal of Media Practice and Education, building on and extending our joint history of publishing practice research. Collaboration between Screenworks, the platform for peer-reviewed practice research in film and screen media, and The Journal of Media Practice and Education (JMPE) has been instrumental in forging new ways of publishing practice based forms of academic enquiry and research.
This edition invites submissions on the theme of practice pedagogy. The term ‘practice pedagogy’ relies on a definition of pedagogy which focuses on bringing learning to life. ‘Pedagogy’ has become synonymous with teaching methods, schemes of work and learning outcomes, but it is much more than this. Pedagogy is essentially about working alongside students and/or colleagues in a way that allows lived experience to be at the heart of learning.
“There is more to [education] than attaining prescribed learning outcomes; it is concerned with the whole person, with their physical, mental and psychological development. Learning is a matter of head, hand and heart.” (Smith 2012 infed.org).
Pedagogy then, becomes about living, not just about education. This can be achieved through offering new experiences to learners, and creating moments and spaces to explore lived experience.
Practice Pedagogy, or a pedagogy of practice, allows practice to become the focus of this transformational learning. The focus of practice pedagogy is on ‘animation’ (bringing ‘life’ into situations, ‘reflection’ (creating space to reflect) and ‘action’ (the practical application of learning which is as important as text based evidence). Teaching a subject specialism becomes just one aspect of pedagogy, and the practice of that specialism, the practical tests, experiments and action research, the ‘learning by doing’, become key.
Pringle (2009), for example, exploring the relationship between art practice and dialogic forms of gallery education at the Tate gallery, found that the artist educators interviewed believed that they were enabling learners to gain ‘tools for looking’ or, in one case, ‘strategies for interpretation’.
“I am teaching people how to slow down. Perhaps pushing them not just to consume and move on, but notice and reflect on what they see and feel and begin to process it”… “The term ‘teaching’ is employed here, but not in relation to transmitting knowledge. Instead, the artist educator is steering learners to adopt an approach to artworks, which allows them to move from recognition to analysis and encourages visual and intellectual interpretive processes to happen.”
For practice pedagogy to work in this way, there is a necessary breakdown of the hierarchy of traditional academia. The lecturer supports the student to learn through practice, and through their own lived experience, rather than through the ‘knowledge’ of the lecturer. The research project undertaken at Tate Modern “found that when describing their pedagogic practice, the [artist-educators] tended to define themselves in opposition to teachers. Although respecting the teaching profession, they resisted describing their practice as ‘teaching’, associating it exclusively with transmissive pedagogy. Instead, artists sought to engage participants primarily through discussion and exchanging ideas and experiences. There is evidence of ‘co-constructive’ learning taking place, whereby shared knowledge is generated between all participants including the teacher.”
Practice pedagogy is grounded in collaborative enquiry, confidence-building, risk-taking, experimentation and development of artists/makers/students/academics as individuals who can articulate ideas, and interpret those of others.
This special issue of Screenworks welcomes practice work which responds to key themes around the concept of practice pedagogy:
> How does a pedagogy of practice challenge contemporary academic methodologies?
> Pedagogy in practice – work inspired by or resulting from.
> Practice pedagogy as risk-taking and experimental practice – action research – learning with your learners
> New ways of knowing – Learning in the margins
> Learning through doing
> Practice-research led teaching, and pedagogy feeding into research
Additionally, we welcome practice work that informs the debate, that might educate us and shed light on this discourse, or that may challenge this thinking and bring new debates to the fore. This could include links to websites, student work with commentary, or other screen media forms.
There will be 3 ways to submit to this special edition:
1. Practice submissions: Research statement (up to 2,000 words) including a URL to the video on Vimeo, which will be published on Screenworks with anonymous peer reviews (Screenworks only) – please go to Screenworks Submissions Guidelines include “Practice Pedagogy” in title.
2. Written submissions: traditional journal article (up to 5,000 words) for publication on Journal of Media Practice and Education (JMPE only) – please go to JMPE Instructions for Authors include “Practice Pedagogy” in title
3. Dialogic practice/written submissions: we are very open to innovative ways of publishing across the two sites (Screenworks and JMPE).
Please contact the editors with suggestions and queries: Lucy Leake [email protected] (Screenworks) and Julian McDougall [email protected] (JMPE) including “Practice Pedagogy” in the subject.
Deadline for submissions: Friday 5 April
References
Hall, K (2008) Pedagogy and Practice: Culture and Identities London: Sage
Pringle, E (2009) The Artist as Educator: Examining Relationships between Art Practice and Pedagogy in the Gallery Context Tate Papers No 11. http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/11
Smith, M (2012) What is Pedagogy? www.infed.org
