Creative Teachers for Creative Learners - The Centre for Cross ...

Creative Teachers for Creative Learners:Implications for Teacher EducationSir Ken Robinson is an internationallyrenownedexpert in the field of creativityand innovation in business and education,and his visionary consultancy skillsare employed by governments, majorcorporations and cultural organizationsworldwide. Originally from Liverpool, hegained a PhD in 1981 from the Universityof London for research into drama and theatre in education.He was the principal author of The Arts in Schools: Principles,Practice and Provision, a standard text in the UK and aroundthe world. From 1985 to 1989 he was Director of The Artsin Schools Project, a major UK initiative to improve theteaching of the arts, and in 1998 was appointed by the BritishGovernment to chair the National Advisory Committee onCreative and Cultural Education, the largest ever inquiry intothe importance of creativity in education and the economy. Hisreport, All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education, hada huge impact on both government and corporate attitudestowards creativity. He was the central figure in a strategy forcreative and economic development in Northern Ireland,where his blueprint for change, Unlocking Creativity, wasadopted by the NI Executive. Until 2001 Sir Ken was Professorof Education at Warwick University. He has served as advisor toa succession of high-profile public and private organizations,including the governments of Hong Kong and Singapore,the European Commission and Paul McCartney’s LiverpoolInstitute for Performing Arts. An inspirational business speakerand workshop leader, he was named SfB European BusinessSpeaker of the Year in 2000. His latest book is Out of Our Minds:Learning to be Creative (Wiley-Capstone). In 2003 he wasknighted.Sacha Abercorn, the Duchess ofAbercorn founded the Pushkin Trust whichbegan as the Pushkin Prizes in Ireland in1987. She is the great great great granddaughterof the Russian poet, AlexanderPushkin. The Pushkin Prizes came into beingas a creative writing competition in primaryschools from both traditions in Ireland, northand south, to help children express their thoughts and feelingsby creative means - to find their voice. The Prizes evolved into aTrust which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year. Sachacame to live in Northern Ireland in County Tyrone in 1966 whenshe married James Hamilton, now the Duke of Abercorn. Theyhave 3 children and 3 grandchildren. She published a bookof prose-poems, Feather from the Firebird, in 2003. Shereceived an honorary degree from the University of Ulster in2003 and the OBE in 2008.Anne McErlane was a primary teacherfor 23 years. She has worked for CCEAdeveloping and writing materials forschools. She has also created onlineresources, teachers’ guides and ICLs whichare currently in use in primary schoolsthroughout Northern Ireland. Since 2004she has been involved with the PushkinTrust, as a teacher and then as Regional Leader. At present sheis responsible, along with Sacha Abercorn, for the design anddelivery of the Pushkin Inspire Programme. This aims to supportteachers by providing them with personal and professionaldevelopment centred on unlocking their creativity. Anne hasalso established her own training and consultancy business,andworks in primary schools throughout Northern Ireland.Siobhán Smith is principal ofAughnagarron National School, a fourclassroom school on the Longford/Cavanborder. She has been teaching in the schoolfor 14 years and this is her fourth year asprincipal. She has been involved with thePushkin Trust for the past 10 years andthis year accompanied a group of studentsto the ‘Summer Camp of the Imagination’ in Baronscourt, CoTyrone. She is married with four children, all of whom havetaken part in Pushkin and benefitted hugely fromtheir experience.Carmel McKeown has been a teachingprincipal for the past 9 years in St Anne’sCorkey, Co Antrim.During her time there theschool become a national winner of theRolls Royce Science Prize in 2008, achievedthe Eden Award for best environmentalproject in 2008 and the Pushkin CreativityAward in 2012. Before becoming a principalshe was a field officer for science and technology with theNorth East Education and Library Board. She believes that beingcreative and promoting the creativity of staff and pupils is animportant part of the principal’s role.Professor Lizbeth Goodman is Chairof Creative Technology Innovation andProfessor of Education at University CollegeDublin, where she leads the creative andsocial entrepreneurship modules for theall-Ireland Innovation Academy. Beforejoining UCD, she was Director of Researchfor Futurelab Education, working withDavid Puttnam’s team to establish innovative platforms forthe future of education in a context of global change. Shefounded SMARTlab in 1992 while at the Open University/BBC, developing new interactive teaching tools for interactivelearning in the areas of literature, gender and culture. That earlywork led to the ‘smart model’ of creative technology innovation(CTI), which has evolved over the years to include majorinternational collaborative projects on creative pedagogies andtechnologies to support ‘learning for all’. She is currently one ofthe principal investigators in the new UCD Centre for LearningInnovation, and also the chair of judges for the EC/ESF HERACultural Encounters call. in 2008 she was named Best Womanin the Academic and the Public Sphere and Best Womanin Technology by the Blackberry Rim international awardsteam. She was elected to Chair the Royal Irish Academy SocialSciences Committee in 2012.The Committee of SCoTENS extend their thanks to PeterSimpson and Shay Sweetnam from the North EasternEducation and Library Board ESAGS TV for assistance withproducing the Sir Ken Robinson video and for making a videoof the 2012 conference.