Education

The Education Hub is a dynamic and creative space which aims to provide a vigorous inter- and multi-disciplinary set of forums for the examination and evaluation of education and the contexts where education is delivered. The projects within the Hub are committed to the tradition of liberal education, the inherent value of the pursuit of learning and the principle that knowledge must be an end in itself.

In particular, some projects examine the nature, purpose and changing landscapes of Higher Education, whilst also exploring the society, culture and places where higher education takes place. They seek to understand the aims of higher education, its guiding principles, its practical functions, and its role in a multicultural society. They also engage with the emerging technologies within education, the impact they have on educational practices and philosophies, and explore the future for education in a globalised world.

Other projects examine creative engagements with children, using inter-disciplinary perspectives to look at historical and contemporary representations of childhood. Projects examine the complex issues which surround the notion and practices of creative engagement in the context of pedagogy and the curriculum, and in the face of frequently instrumental institutional imperatives. Equally the work of the projects also address the role of creativity in social interaction, with particular reference to children’s development of life skills, autonomy and independence in an increasingly complex and demanding world. The nature and functions of visual literacy are a key element within these considerations.

Hub Leaders

Phil Fitzsimmons is Co Hub Leader for the Education Hub. Phil is Director of the Fiji Professional Experience and Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy within the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong in Australia. he is also involved in the steering groups for a number of Inter-Disciplinary.Net projects and is presently looking plans to develop a summer season school in Oxford.

Get Involved

The Hub is a centre of activity for all the various projects which presently take place within it. We welcome your involvement and interaction; you may choose to become involved as little or as much as you like.

The Hub Leaders run a blog which discusses issues and themes arising from all the projects within the Eduction Hub. The blog will be available from 1st March 2009. You will be able to access the blog by clicking here.

During the course of 2009 a number of email discussion groups will come in to existence, one for each of the projects we run. These will be listed here as soon as they ready along eith details on how to subscribe.

From April 2009 there will be a series of eForums where people can share resources, access information and get involved in on-line discussions.

And from July 2009 we will be launching a Repository Wicki which will aim to become a comprehensive collection of materials and resources relating to the themes and issues covered by the hub and its projects.