A speculative, shifting inquiry: responding to pedagogies of matter to implement critical and creative curriculums.

This video was presented at part of The University of Melbourne's Faculty of Education 2024 Research Conference. This year the theme was 'What makes research remarkable? Who and what matters?'

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a doctoral creative thesis that draws upon theoretical scholarship that positions trans-, multi- and interdisciplinary sites to implement contemporary critical and creative thinking curriculums and skills (Harris, 2016; de Bruin & Harris, 2017; Gardiner, 2020). Designed as a speculative (Mazzei, 2020) and relational, a/r/tographic (MacDonald et al, 2022) research problem I will explore how I collaborated in a studio site with visual art and design teachers, thinking with the tangible 'what' of doing critical and creative thinking and not the subjective 'who' that enables it.

The research turned toward matter, matterings and new materialisms that recognise pedagogy as an entanglement (Hickey-Moody & Page, 2015; Coleman, 2021), reflecting the complex social, relational and affective encounters that invite teachers and students to participate in embodied art-led practices. If research is to matter, it needs to reflect the pedagogies of matter in the entangled ecosystems of secondary schools. In this case, it must reflect the burnt out and exhausted teachers who matter for art education to do what it does best: create relational possible and creative encounters for young people to engage with the world.

In this paper I ask: how might we enable a curriculum where young people become-with critical, creative and agile thinking skills to shift the lens to those who matter (and make matter)?