!!!! Creative Clusters: A Collaborative approach to Cultivating Creativity in Schools

Creative Clusters is a pilot initiative of the Government of Ireland’s Department of Education (DoE). The initiative provides opportunities for clusters of schools to come together to experiment, innovate and collaborate on the design, implementation and evaluation of bespoke arts and creative learning projects. In this way, Creative Clusters seeks to promote new ways of collaboration between schools, and between schools and the arts and cultural sectors. These collaborations are designed to improve teaching and learning, and to enable learners and teachers to develop their creativity.

This research and evaluation report focuses on the development of Creative Clusters over the pilot phase of the initiative in the academic years 2018/19 and 2019/20. (The pilot was extended into the first term of the 2020/21 academic year due to the school closures resulting from COVID-19.) In the academic year 2018/19, 23 clusters, comprising 71 schools, participated in Creative Clusters, with 68 of these schools continuing into the 2019/20 academic year. In 2019/20, a further 21 clusters, comprising 76 schools, were added. The clusters contained between two and five schools, and were comprised of primary schools only, post-primary schools only, and a combination of both primary and post-primary schools.

Report by:

Dr. Dorothy Morrissey (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick)

!!!! I Am Creative – A Research Report

‘I am Creative’ is a pilot initiative of the Government of Ireland’s Department of Education (DE). The initiative is managed by the National Arts in Education Administrative Office at the Tralee Education Support Centre, under the direction of the National Director and National Advisor for the Integration of the Arts in Education (DE, Curriculum and Assessment Policy [CAP] Unit). This pilot initiative was designed to explore ways in which artists, members of the school leadership team, teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) could work together to enhance the provision for arts education in Special Education (SE) settings.

The ‘I am Creative’ pilot initiative comprised three residential training weekends (Friday evenings and Saturdays) for six participating artists and four staff members from each of the six participating schools. One artist was assigned to each school for a residency period of 20 hours. (The only available TAP trained artists within the Kildare and Laois ESC catchment area for the duration of the initiative were visual artists.) Each training weekend was followed by at least one school-artist engagement. This enabled the generation of a shared, iterative learning loop throughout. Outside of this, the timeline and structure of the residencies were decided at local level, and determined by the needs of participating children and young people.

The aims of the research study were to:

• Evaluate the effectiveness of ‘I am Creative’ as a model for improving arts education in SE settings

• Uncover enablers and barriers to collaborations with artists in SE settings

• Provide illustrative exemplars of collaborations with artists in SE settings

• Contribute evidence-based recommendations for the national scaling up of ‘I am Creative’ across Ireland’s special schools and post-primary SE settings.

!!!! NCCA Consultation report on updating Aistear – Phase 1

NCCA is in the process of updating Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework and have recently published the findings from Phase 1 of the consultation. Phase 1 invited stakeholders to share their views on what is working well with Aistear and should be retained and what suggestions they had as to how it might be enhanced and updated.

The work undertaken in Phase 1 included a consultation with babies, toddlers and young children. This consultation was both innovative and ground-breaking in its design and in terms of respecting the rights of all children to have their voices heard and responded to in matters affecting them. Time spent with children in their early years settings enabled the researchers to observe and notice their reactions and responses to elements of the curriculum in action. In this way, the consultation focused on determining what was working well with Aistear and what might need to be changed or updated.

!!!! Embracing Cultural Diversity in the Classroom – Chester Beatty Library

This Research and Development report from the Chester Beatty’s Learning and Education Department examines intercultural education in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

!!!! Survey of teachers on museum engagement during and post Covid 19 – Irish Museums Association

The Irish Museums Association (IMA) conducted a survey of teachers across Ireland to consider how museums can best work with schools to continue to support children’s cultural and arts education

!!!! Exploring Teacher-Artist Partnership as a Model of Continuing Professional Development for Supporting & Enhancing Arts Education in Ireland – Dr. Ailbhe Kenny & Dr. Dorothy Morrissey

This report aims to provide evidence-based recommendations to foster and develop teacher-artist partnerships in innovative ways.

Exploring Teacher-Artist Partnership as a Model of CPD for Supporting & Enhancing Arts Education is a Department of Education and Skills led (via ATECI) teacher-artist partnership initiative in primary schools delivered in partnership with the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (DAHRRG). This project began in September 2013 and presents the findings of the research undertaken during the first three phases of the initiative from August 2014 to June 2016.

Written by Dr Ailbhe Kenny and Dr Dorothy Morrissey, who themselves took took on participatory roles throughout the project. Commissioned by the Association of Teachers’/Education Centres in Ireland (ATECI) under the auspices of, and funded by, the Department of Education and Skills (DES) and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DAHG)/Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (DAHRRGA).

!!!! Arts and Cultural Participation among Children and Young People – Dr. Emer Smyth

This report collates insights from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) survey to look at arts and cultural participation among three, five, nine and 13 year olds, addressing the following research questions:
1. What groups of children are more likely to engage in (different forms of) cultural activities?
2. What schools and classrooms place greater emphasis on cultural activities, and how does this potentially influence children’s engagement outside school?
3. How is participation in cultural activities related to other child outcomes, including academic skills and socio-emotional wellbeing? .

The Arts Council commissioned this research to improve our knowledge and understanding of children’s participation in cultural life and the arts in Ireland, the report is written by Emer Smyth, Research Professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Adjunct Professor at Trinity College Dublin.

!!!! 6th Report on the Implementation of the Arts in Education Charter June 2016 – Implementation Group for the Arts in Education Charter