CASE STUDY
How Art and Design is Shaping Socially Conscious Teachers at NCAD
(2017 – 2024)
Who We Are
Institution: National College of Art and Design (NCAD), a leading art and design university dedicated to fostering creative excellence and social engagement through art education.
Project Leader: Fiona King and Tony Murphy lead the initiative, leveraging their extensive experience in art education to integrate global citizenship principles into the Professional Master of Education (PME) program.
Project Members: Each year, the project team consists of around 20-25 Professional Master of Education (PME) student teachers engaged in some 100 hours of GCE, supported by a cross-disciplinary team of faculty members and external experts from various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and educational sectors (including Mark O’ Kelly, Head of Fine Art Painting, NCAD; Dr Helen Mc Allister, Head of Textile Art and Artifacts, NCAD; Dr Audrey Bryan, Associate Professor of Sociology in the School of Human Development, DCU and Tony Daly, 80/20).
What We Did
Our primary goal was to seamlessly integrate Global Citizenship Education (GCE) into the PME curriculum to empower future educators to address global inequalities and advocate for environmental sustainability through art and design.
Project Objectives:
- To embed Global Citizenship Education (GCE) within the PME curriculum.
- Equip student teachers with the skills and knowledge to address global inequalities and environmental issues through art and design.
- Foster a deeper understanding and commitment among student teachers to utilize art as a tool for social justice and advocacy.
- Develop and implement innovative teaching strategies that integrate GCE principles, focusing on sustainability, human rights, and ethical consumption.
Curricular Approach:
- Pedagogical Development: Workshops and seminars support the art projects, where educators and experts from various fields introduce the student teachers to complex themes and teaching methodologies.
- Curriculum Design: The Change Lab serves as the core component of the program, where GCE is embedded into the curriculum through practical, immersive experiences in a gallery setting converted into a dynamic learning environment.
- Module Development: We introduced specific modules focusing on GCE, such as ‘Art as Social Practice,’ which encourages students to use art as a tool for social change.
- Collaborative Art Projects: Student teachers collaborate on multi-week projects, creating artworks that reflect critical global issues, such as climate change, inequality, and human rights.
Professional Learning Initiatives:
- Workshops and Seminars: Complementing the practical projects are a series of workshops and seminars led by experts in GCE, art, and pedagogy, enhancing the theoretical understanding and teaching skills of faculty and students.
Monitoring and Evaluation:
- Student Feedback: Regular surveys and feedback mechanisms to gauge student engagement and satisfaction.
- Performance Reviews: Analysis of academic reviews and project evaluations help assess the impact of GCE integration on student learning outcomes.
Outreach/Advocacy:
- Public Events: Annual public exhibitions of student work to raise awareness about global issues.
- Community Engagement: Partnerships with local schools and communities to extend the impact of our GCE initiatives beyond the university.
- Academic Events: Presentations at conferences highlight the project’s innovations and outcomes.
‘Respond Research Create’ Creative notebook from student teachers
‘Respond Research Create’ Creative notebook from student teachers
‘Respond Research Create’ Creative notebook from student teachers
Impact Achieved
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Student Engagement/Educational Impact: Over 180 PME students have actively participated in the Change Lab, reporting enhanced understanding of global issues and their role as educators in advocating for change.
Example: In AY2023/24 GCE was integrated across the following modules: Global Citizenship Education Module: Change Lab and the Digital Media Module.
Example: The introduction of the “Change Lab” project facilitated PME students to develop and exhibit artworks that address global issues such as sustainability and social justice, culminating in an annual exhibition attended by over 300 educators, students, and community members annually.
We feel really lucky to have had this learning experience. The Change Lab experience has truly been transformative; the consideration of global inequalities has challenged our beliefs and our values both as teachers and as artists.
The Change Lab experience was very transformational for me; firstly on a personal level I learned a huge deal about these contentious issues. Also, it showed me how I can respond to these issues through the art making process – so it was empowering. Lastly, I think as an educator, this program has really encouraged me and empowered me to look at these issues and to bring them into the classroom. It has also shown me how I can encourage student voice in the classroom around these issues – it’s not about teaching more – it’s about teaching differently.
The Change Lab becomes a place making event whereby the student teacher explores how their practice as artists and as designers has a social, ethical and cultural dimension. The Lab becomes an immersive collaborative teaching and learning space, a thinking space to conceptualise and experience global citizenship education as an educational process.
Example: In collaboration with the project leaders, Fiona King and Tony Murphy artist teachers work collaboratively to compile research relating to their selected issue.
Curricular Innovations: The Change Lab has become a model for integrating GCE into art education, demonstrating how creative disciplines can effectively contribute to educational discourses on global issues. The introduction of GCE-focused modules has been highly successful, with student feedback highlighting the relevance and impact of these courses on their professional and personal development.
Example: In AY2022/23 and AY2023/24 PME students engaged in conceptualising GCE through active learning methodologies including unpacking the Change Lab Brief; discussion of role of reflective practice – Pause… for thought notebook brief; Introducing Global Citizenship Education – Rise, Shine and Connect mind-map; Newtown exercise (with Dr Gerry Jeffers) – building a community/reflecting on group dynamics; Critical visual Literacy workshop – working with imagery in response to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
Example: Student teachers develop comprehensive portfolios that not only display their artistic skills but also their ability to engage with complex global themes. These portfolios often include digital media presentations, art installations, and detailed research projects.
The Change Lab was also a reminder of the range of cross-curricular links that art and design education has and also of our potential as teachers to educate young global citizens.
An external review from an educational accreditation body highlighted the effectiveness of the curricular innovations at NCAD, noting, “In particular, the panel were impressed by the innovative approach to teaching and learning, especially in the area of sustainable development and global citizenship in the change laboratory on the PME”
Community Outreach: Our exhibitions and community projects have reached over 5,000 participants, fostering a broader understanding and engagement with global citizenship themes. The annual exhibitions of student work have successfully engaged a wide audience, including educators, policy makers, and the general public, thus raising awareness and stimulating dialogue on the role of art in social change.
Example: In AY2023/24 NCAD collaborated with colleagues from Dublin City University (DCU) – InterChange: Exploring Climate Justice and the Arts Symposium (May, 2024). As part of this symposium, a workshop titled “The Change Lab at NCAD” was facilitated by Fiona King and Tony Murphy. This workshop, led by four NCAD PME student teachers, Maia, Eduard, Lucy and Anishta, facilitated students to present and discuss examples of their work, including their reflective pause… for thought and research respond create notebooks – to demonstrate the process they engaged in over the duration of the Change Lab and how they map their pedagogical approach onto to the art and design curriculum in secondary school.
Example: Collaborative projects with local schools engaged over 500 schoolchildren in workshops led by PME students, focusing on creating art that reflects social issues. In AY2023/24 Kriti, Jades and James work engaged with the children in Dublin 8, Fatima homework club, and their leader Sue, whose voices and insights about the lack of green spaces to play and grow within their communities are weaved into their mapping of Dublin 8 and the surrounding area (SDG: 3 Good Health and Wellbeing/Sustainable Cities).
We decided we wanted to make activist work which would call on members of the public to make small changes in their lives which would add up to make a big contribution to biodiversity in our city.
It was like we were put in a pressure cooker with creativity… It’s creating these bridges of communication between yourself and your colleagues, then creating other bridges with your tutors, creating bridges with the whole community. I think this was the first experience that we interacted with the whole community throughout the college
Recognition: The program has garnered significant recognition, receiving funding and accolades from educational bodies and NGOs (Irish Aid and the National Forum for Teaching and Learning), validating the effectiveness an necessity of our work.
Example: The project received the ‘Innovative Teaching Award’ from an international educational organization in 2021, recognising its effective integration of GCE into art education.
Statistical Outcome: The number of external partnerships with NGOs and educational institutions has doubled since the project’s inception, enhancing the project’s scope and impact.
Since 2008, the Ubuntu Network has supported the National College of Art and Design to integrate their global education program. Students’ engagement with social justice and global education issues through the exhibition shows how transformative this process has been. Students are more socially aware, they are more environmentally conscious, and most importantly as teachers, they show a real passion to bringing this into their teaching.
What We Learned
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Comprehensive Integration: Successful integration of GCE requires careful planning and alignment with existing curricular structures to enhance relevance and applicability.
So working in the Change Lab has definitely given me an opportunity to take this new teacher identity and this artist identity and look at them as more of a partnership instead of separate.
The Change Lab instils in our student teacher a strong commitment and motivation to teacher for social justice and sustainability through the lens of their practice as artists, researchers and teachers.
The work in the National College of Art and Design is a particularly good example of how to embed this perspective. I think that happens because – there is great staff buy-in to the idea that this is not some peripheral activity, not some tick-box exercise – this is a really central part of becoming a teacher in the 21st century – having a perspective of global justice, being very familiar with the sustainable development goals.
I think the NCAD project has been really successful in meeting with these students, in helping them to see the importance of these issues. As a funder of the project, and as someone involved within the Ubuntu Network, we see the NCAD project as being really successful, as being really impactful.
Community and Collaboration: Building a community of practice among student teachers and faculty enhances learning outcomes. Working with a diverse range of partners has enriched our program, bringing multiple perspectives and expertise that enhance the learning experience. Collaboration encourages sharing of diverse perspectives, which is vital in addressing global issues.
Example: The collaboration between NCAD and local schools through the “Change Lab” project allowed PME students to bring their artwork and GCE-focused lessons into classroom settings, providing real-world teaching experiences. These partnerships not only benefited the student teachers but also enriched the learning environment of the schoolchildren who participated.
The collaborative element of this project challenged our listening skills but I also feel it has bolstered our connection to one another.
The Importance of Contextual Learning: Integrating GCE within the context of art and design has proven highly effective in engaging students. Art provides a unique medium through which complex global issues can be explored and understood.
Example: The Change Lab projects have been instrumental in demonstrating how art can be used to explore and communicate complex global issues effectively.
It is through their practice as artists and designers that they make sense of and can conceptualise what global citizenship education means to them and this in turn shapes their identity as educators.
Flexibility and Adaptation: Adapting our approaches to meet the changing educational
landscape, especially in response to challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic,
has been crucial. Moving some exhibitions online allowed us to reach a wider
audience and maintain engagement during difficult times.
Example: Feedback from annual student and faculty surveys led to significant adjustments in the project’s approach, particularly in enhancing collaborative opportunities and refining project evaluation metrics.
What we have seen in the NCAD is, overtime it has become more and more integrated, so now we have a situation where you can say this is sustainable because everyone on the staff has bought into the idea that this is an essential part of initial teacher education.
In Ireland, curriculum is changing at an expansive rate, the art and design curriculum in particular has changed at Junior Cycle level, the NCAD project, the pedagogical process that the project refers to is really dovetailing with this new curriculum. The learning from the project can inform curriculum development, the teacher educators involved within the project are informing curriculum development, also being involved with consultation groups – the long term impact of this project is immense.
This case study serves as a testament to NCAD’s commitment to transforming art education by integrating a global citizenship perspective, preparing a new generation of educators who are equipped to use their creative skills to advocate for a just and sustainable world.