Innovation

An editorial for the Education journal Cornucopia on the theme of Creativit

Creativity

An editorial for the Education journal Cornucopia on the theme of Creativit

Tradition

An editorial for the Education Journal Cornucopia on the theme of Traditio

Mini-museums as a nexus for storytelling and pedagogy

The Centre for Research into Education, Creativity and the Arts through Practice (RECAP) is a unique hub, specialising in practice-based research and focusing on creativity, learning and the arts in professional, educational contexts.This research project aimed to explore the potential of storytelling pedagogies in educational settings, and to assess the feasibility of creating mini-museums in schools. Through the involvement of two primary schools in the Northwest of England, the project was able to collect primary data and refine plans for the introduction of artefacts and storytelling methods in other schools. The research assistants conducted interviews and used the 'Crazy 8' sketching technique to collect information about typical users, preferred type of product, preferences regarding colour schemes and visual design, typical contents, accessibility aspects, access and security issues, and other requirements specific to the school

Kindly Apparitions: Reflections upon Reflections

Individuals Connecting to a Collective Spirit, illustrates individually focused writing practices to create new meanings, understandings, or relationships with something, including themselves

The Lore of the Landscape

‘Owd Ma, brought tha bowder down in ‘er pinny .’ In this article Simon Poole explores the complex relationship between people and landscape and provides food for thought as to the potential use of folk narratives about landscape as part of a creative geography curriculum I came across this remarkable piece of folklore recently from my home region of Cheshire, more specifically the region that is the magical sandstone ridge that divides the county in two like a sedimentary backbone. Folklore is one of those aspects of culture which is often forgotten, yet it permeates every individual and community: Like an accent or dialect, it is an impossibility not to have. And similarly to an accent or dialect it is always regionally located. Folklore lives organically within and as part of our cultures, changing and adapting as time passes, sometimes dying, sometimes being created or being reborn, nevertheless always carrying an individual or communities identity. It is a people’s cultural inheritance and as an oral tradition, folklore is passed on, and exists in many different forms, as: myths; legends; ballads; indeed as dialect; and as folktales. This is by no means an exhaustive list but it is the latter form which this article will be concerned with: The folktale

Folk Culture in the Digital Age: The Emergent Dynamics of Human Interaction

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Folklore on 13th January 2016, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.2015.1083707A review of Folk Culture in the Digital Age: The Emergent Dynamics of Human Interaction for the journal Folklore

Rancière and the demise of the book

This paper is concerned with the future of the physical book, and everything we know and perhaps hold dear about it as an object. As something treasured, stored, loved and remembered. It draws as inspiration and data upon a question posed by Preston (2014): ‘Is the demise of the book imminent?’, and the debate held by members of Mirandanet over a couple of days in response to the question. It is a paper that deals with the books hypothetically anachronistic existence within the digital world of technology. Through the identification and exploration of the benefits and drawbacks of Rancière’s theoretical approaches, their relevance to social issues will be highlighted through a folkloristic perspective. Given this relevance, Rancière’s ideas are applied to the field of educational theory and practice, and an interpretation of ‘the demise of the book’ is offered

Living and learning through song.

autoethnography is concerned with the tension between innovation and tradition in the craft of songwriting and the learning this allows for. It is formed by two parts; the following written thesis and a choral song entitled ‘The Walk to Kitty’s Stone’. The work draws upon my own experiences whilst writing this song and qualitative data obtained through recorded discussions with other songwriters, with whom I am part of a folk group called ‘the loose kites’. The thesis is structured and viewed through a folkloristic lens. Bausinger’s work and his concepts of the spatial, temporal and social horizons expanding provide this lens and offer a theoretical framework for folk culture in the digital world to be investigated. Two research methods of songwriting are used within this framework to consider the learning that occurs. The first method allows for an expression of a psychogeographical understanding using a machine called a ‘Perambulographer’ which enabled me to draw graphic scores for composition while walking. The second method was an exercise in ekphrastic lyric writing. Learning is considered in terms of informal education, and music pedagogy and as such builds upon Green’s research. The key interpretations from the research highlight notions of authenticity, respect, political awareness and democratic values as significant features of songwriting. This study does not offer any new pedagogy but instead highlights how songwriting as ‘craft-based practice as research’ might offer an opportunity for songwriters to appreciate the relationships and values that they embody in their practice, specifically with regards to their own identity, when teaching. The work proposes that a songwriter’s home and folk culture has a significant influence on their identity and how they write songs. The main advance in practice is the development of a theory of ‘be-longing’ underpinning the advocacy of a folkloristic disposition in the context of education

Re/searching for ‘Impact’

As an exploration of how ‘impact’ might be reconsidered, it is suggested that current contemporary understandings of 'impact' fail practice and research by obscuring the space for reflexive criticality that is crucial for an individual or organisation to flourish. That it thus leads to an already predefined enculturated understanding of ‘impact’. Offering some interrogation and folkloristic analogy of the meaning of ‘impact’, three brief expositions of differing arts-based práxes concerned mainly with reflection and connection, are then discussed through the lens of Ricœur’s (Ricœur, Reagan, & Stewart, 1978) conflation of the hermeneutical process with phenomenology. It is suggested that the implications of restoring, refreshing, or representing ‘impact’ give license to a personal/professional revitalisation, and that reformulating an understanding of ‘impact’ through re/search might offer a potential pedagogic tool, and alternative organising feature. Through the introduction of inter-disciplinary thinking and práxes, the article offers novel autoethnographic arts-based methods for personal, professional and organisational development and growth