DEVELOPING EDUCATORS’ ARTISTIC PRACTICE IN SCHOOLS Erasmus Project

Project Title

DEVELOPING EDUCATORS’ ARTISTIC PRACTICE IN SCHOOLS

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND
The DEAPS project will facilitate creative learning opportunities for children (5 to 16 years) in schools by transferring the knowledge of Artist Educators (writers, actors, dancers, musicians, visual artists) to a school context. Whilst the importance of young people’s creative thinking skills in Europe is recognised (OECD, 2018; PISA, 2020), it is also acknowledged that the creative arts have been marginalised within European school curricula (Wyse and Ferrari, 2015; Bamford, 2014). Young people from higher social economic groups mitigate against this through extra-curricular activities, but those from areas of disadvantage often miss out. Research also points to a rise in mental health issues experienced by young people across Europe, with 29% of 15-year-old girls and 13% of 15-year-old boys feeling low more than once a week (WHO Europe, 2018). Research in the partnership demonstrates a clear link between young people engaging in the creative arts and experiencing enhanced wellbeing through engaging authentically in learning (Stephenson and Dobson, 2019). Across Europe, there is a range of evidence to support the link between the creative engagement of young people of all ages in schooling and wellbeing. With younger children, the EU Early Childhood Education and Care Project (2016) demonstrates how increased creative engagement helps foster a sense of self; with older children, research (Federico, Bartolucci and De Carol, 2019; Downes, 2018; Chemi and Du, 2018) shows how increased creative engagement impacts on early school leaving (ESL). By facilitating the knowledge transfer of a range of Artist Educators to teachers working with 5-16 year olds, DEAPS will help teachers develop their skills as Teacher-Artist Educators and strengthen the profile of the teaching profession. In addition, DEAPS will also see Artist Educators collaborating with parents in order to help parents support the creative development of their children. These measures will improve young people’s wellbeing, engagement in schooling at all ages and positively affect ESL (European Commission, 2014) and the economic and social cohesion impacts caused by ESL (Honeyball, 2011; Balcescu and Zaharia, 2018).

OBJECTIVES
DEAPS aims to ensure the positive mental health of young people and reduce ESL by providing spaces for engagement with the creative arts in schools. This will be achieved by our diverse partnership working alongside Artist Educators with a range of artistic practices to transfer their knowledge to teachers and parents of children between 5 and 16 years of age. This will see teachers “crossing boundaries” (Dobson and Stephenson, 2020) to adopt a Teacher-Artist Educator identity.
The first two Intellectual Outputs (IOs) will be Toolkits for Teachers and School Leaders. To help parents and carers support the creative engagement of their children, the third IO will be an audio-visual guide. Finally, to develop preservice teachers’ ability to creatively engage young people, the fourth IO will be an immersive educational game for teacher trainers to use with pre-service teachers.
The four key objectives of DEAPS are:
1. To facilitate Artistic Educators to work productively in a range of school settings to provide creative learning opportunities for young people;
2. To disseminate the practice of Artist Educators to the full range of adults working with young people (teachers, leaders, teacher trainers, parents and carers);
3. To help schools and teacher trainers embed the practice of Artist Educators throughout their curriculum;
4. To make a contribution to wider policy and research discourses about creativity and education.

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODOLOGY
A participatory design methodology will be used for outputs, closely involving the target groups. During the planning phase, focus groups of 16 persons will be set up by each international partner involving key groups – Artist Educators, teachers, school leaders, preservice teacher trainers, parents, policy makers – in order to determine a Framework for how Artist Educators work in schools. The production phase will then take place in schools, with Artist Educators in each partnership working with a class of children, a teacher, a curriculum leader and a group of parents or a teacher trainer, to begin to develop the IOs through practice. In the evaluation phase, 50 representatives from target groups will help refine the outputs.

IMPACT
DEAPS will have impact across a number of institutions, developing the practices of the full range of adults involved in the education of young people. Partner institutions will strengthen their understanding of creative practice. In the long term, the dissemination of the outcomes will strengthen the profile of the teaching profession. Having more Teacher-Artist Educators in schools will impact positively upon young people’s mental health and engagement, reducing ESL.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 446057 Eur

Project Coordinator

LEEDS BECKETT UNIVERSITY & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Interplay Theatre Trust
• HASKOLI ISLANDS
• STIMMULI FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
• WORLD UNIVERSITY SERVICE-OSTERREICHISCHES KOMITEE VEREIN
• CESIE
• Young Arts Neukölln e.V.