The Professional Master of Education (PME) is a two-year master’s programme which leads to a professional qualification to teach Art and Design at second level. The conceptual framework that underpins the delivery of the PME programme operates on the principle that “art teacher education is not centrally concerned with the teaching of art, or teaching about art, but rather is expressly committed to teaching through art” (Granville, 2013).
The question, “what does it mean to teach and make art that is of and for our time?” anchored the PME cohorts’ experience of the programme. It was explored through many facets including their design and delivery of the curriculum in post primary education; research inquiries and learning encounters that involved peer tutoring; Inclusive Education and engaging with the gallery as a pedagogical site.
The programme is orientated around a sustained immersion in one’s practice as artists and designers. Essentially how the student teachers think, contextualise and make work as artists and designers informs their methodology as future teachers. The annual Change Lab experience and exhibition in the NCAD Gallery gives the student teachers the opportunity to do just that.
The 2021 Change Lab experience was informed by two key ideas, “place” and “space”. Place and space have taken on a particular resonance with the looming uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, focusing us to re-think how we inhabit and interact in spaces. Working in the NCAD Gallery this year was particularly poignant. It gave us an opportunity to navigate and orientate ourselves within a physical space, to connect again, to value the importance of human touch and the significance of engaging in the material matter of creating art work that has a social, cultural and ethical dimension. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the Change Lab was not open to a public audience this year.
The Change Lab website showcases the graduating student’s lab experience and the multiple layers that the project involves. Please view our work @ https://thechangelab.ie/
