Artist teachers

Another academic year has passed and forty PGCE artist teachers have successfully completed their final exhibition. I pleased and proud to tutor on this UCL IOE course as it is a challenging and forward looking. It is the largest course in the country for initial teacher education of specialists in art and design, and the only one that privileges exhibition as a assessed formate for the masters module.The graduates are recruited from a wide range of specialisms representing the continuum of art, craft, design and critical/historical studies.

Each student produces an exhibition or visual display which demonstrates how the artist teachers explore concerns central to learning and teaching in art and design at secondary level. There displays involve a rage of practices including this year, drawing, painting, installation, video and animation. Whilst these thought-provoking and sometimes humorous displays are firmly located in the context of secondary school teaching, it is evident that by re-engaging with their own art practice students challenge orthodoxies and question existing boundaries.

I wish you all good luck with your future careers and hope everything goes as well with the NQT year.