Design by: Lisa Zakharova
I’m excited about our upcoming Education Day on Wednesday the 9th of November 2022 at the Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA). An Education Day is an internal event for all(230-250)teachers during our development week in which students have no classes. Pervious years these events were limited to a morning-programme. This year my team and I have collaborated on a full day programme. We want tutors to reflect upon the question: What is needed for good education at WdKA? Our goal is to bring tutors from different major-, practice-, master- studies together. To take away the illusion of fragmentation. For one day, we hope there are no silos, no teams, just people, driven to come together by a shared sense of belonging.
We have invited alumni, students, tutors, professors, and external educators to contribute to the programme. We came up with 12 Educational Journeys for groups of 10 – 15 different tutors. The journey implies that the groups are invited to visit a guide at an external location outside WdKA in Rotterdam. At this location, (or within this area) guides facilitate the conversation about the central question. Each guide will bring in their own perspective which should result in a variety of different conversations. Examples of perspectives brought in by the guides: affective assessments, ecologies of learning, regenerating education, learning- analytics, and critical thinking.
In the afternoon the tutor groups return for a collective lunch back at WdKA. During the afternoon tutors continue their journey at WdKA by translating their ideas and insights into a zine. A Zine is a publication format that most art academy students are familiar with. It’s a self-published, non-commercial print-work that is typically produced in small, limited batches. A variety of materials will be provided for each tutor-group. It will be a collaborative assignment for the tutor group related to what we ask of our students.
The programme is concluded by a alumni performance by Amber Rahantoknam and drinks in our cafeteria ‘De Willem’. After the event we’ll digitalize the zines, and share the results online. We hope our day will contribute to reconnecting teachers and sharing ideas about what todays art & design education should look like.
Today we have 101 tutors who signed-in for participation. I look forward to share the results of this event.
Review
This week 150 art & design teachers from different disciplines sign-up to meet and talk about the question: “what is needed for good education at the Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA)”. Teachers were divided over 12 teams that started with a guide who facilitated the conversation at various locations in Rotterdam. Different topics that came up were affective domain, experiential learning, regenerative education, universal education, ecologies of learning, learning analytics and non-extractive art. After a shared-lunch at The Willem (WdKA) the programme continued with a collective Zine-fest. Artists and designers collectively crafted Zines that convey their thoughts and inspirations of the morning. We concluded with an alumni performance by Amberh Rahantoknam who shared 3 of her poems.
Many thanks to all students, external partners, colleagues, and my Education Station-team for making this possible. To name a few: Lisa Zakharova, Flora Lamy, Zoe Prasinou, Nelly Brito dos Prazeres Pires, Beam Waardenberg, Jelle Ris, Catherine Somze, Marlies van der Wee-Bedeker, Johannes Ziskoven, Dace Sietina, Michelle Teran, Florian Cramer, Paul Buchanan, Sauli Warmenhoven, Bang Phan.
We received lots of positive feedback and new ideas. Our intentions are to retain the momentum and the new connections that are made. We continue building on what have established while simultaneously offering opportunities for new connections and collaborations in the future. We maintain our online platform providing opportunity for all to stay engaged and contribute to the next education day on Wednesday the first of February 2022.
