Ecologies in Practice: Participatory arts methods for engaging young people in climate research
Lead Research Organisation:
Goldsmiths, University of London
Department Name: Educational Studies
Abstract
The project will develop the CAL/CMUK Ecologies in Practice collaboration initiated in 2021-22, to become a research partnership. We will network firstly among local schools and community groups, and will initiate three arts-based methods for young people to interact with, each involving a collaboration with two practitioners. Each method is designed to engage young people with climate research through creative and reflective practice.
Method 1 will involve a collaboration between Kimberley Foster of CAL and Bridget McKenzie of CMUK. This practice research method will work with objects, bringing together Kimberley's practice of stimulating dialogue from pedagogical art objects with Bridget's object-based practice, that places 'an eco lens on things'. Objects will ideally be viewed in-person, with an option for socially-distanced viewing if necessary.
Method 2 will involve a collaboration between Kevin Davidson of CAL/CMUK and Michael Kirkpatrick of CAL/Alchemy Music. These practitioners will work with sound and photography, bringing together Michael's practice of socially-engaged music-making with Kevin's practice of arts-based community exchange. This collaboration will draw upon the arts-based method of 'photovoice' (Wang & Burris 1997, Sutton-Brown 2015) in which participants are invited to take photographs in their everyday lives on relevant themes. Following this, participants uncover the meaning which may be ascribed to their photographs through creative practice with the support and guidance of researchers.
Method 3 will invite participants to express affect and ideas through free writing and drawing practice research led by Dr. Miranda Matthews Head of CAL. Young people will be invited to visualise and verbalise climate change interventions. This method will extend the free writing and drawing practice developed by Miranda and Francis Gilbert, for groups of young people aged 14-18, and for undergraduates (Gilbert and Matthews 2021, Matthews 2021).
We intend that participants will be groups of young Londoners from a number of different communities, with whom the practitioners will extend working relationships. We aim to develop cultural ecologies through participatory research into the Earth crisis, by bringing together young people from communities in schools, and including Goldsmiths undergraduates. The research will make networking connections with Climate Museum UK and with other associated significant initiatives, that will distribute the resources created through the project. Our networking activity will include connection with:-
The Alchemy project: a professional creative music lab and mentoring programme for 14-18 year olds who may be at risk from exclusion at school in the London borough of Lewisham and based at Goldsmiths University. (https://linktr.ee/goldsmithsalchemy).
London Schools Eco-Network: A student-led initiative to raise awareness on environmental issues in and beyond school communities. This is linked to the 'Transform Our World' online, centralised, quality-rated resource hub and the Youth Climate Summit 2020 (https://twitter.com/ldnschoolseco, https://www.lsen.co.uk, https://www.transform-our-world.org/home).
Tower Hamlets Artist Teacher Network: A forum for artist-teachers in the borough of Tower Hamlets, and arts organisations across London, ' to connect; collaborate; create; share good practice; promote arts education and actively empower art teachers to revisit their art practice'. (https://thatnetworklondon.wordpress.com)
The CAL/CMUK Ecologies in Practice project aims to create forms of public engagement that are led by young people, expressing their views on climate research in ways that feel relevant and meaningful to them. We intend to generate new cultural spaces and potential networks, in which young people may take ownership over narratives around the climate crisis, and where sustainable behaviours and creative ideas are integrated and extended.
Method 1 will involve a collaboration between Kimberley Foster of CAL and Bridget McKenzie of CMUK. This practice research method will work with objects, bringing together Kimberley's practice of stimulating dialogue from pedagogical art objects with Bridget's object-based practice, that places 'an eco lens on things'. Objects will ideally be viewed in-person, with an option for socially-distanced viewing if necessary.
Method 2 will involve a collaboration between Kevin Davidson of CAL/CMUK and Michael Kirkpatrick of CAL/Alchemy Music. These practitioners will work with sound and photography, bringing together Michael's practice of socially-engaged music-making with Kevin's practice of arts-based community exchange. This collaboration will draw upon the arts-based method of 'photovoice' (Wang & Burris 1997, Sutton-Brown 2015) in which participants are invited to take photographs in their everyday lives on relevant themes. Following this, participants uncover the meaning which may be ascribed to their photographs through creative practice with the support and guidance of researchers.
Method 3 will invite participants to express affect and ideas through free writing and drawing practice research led by Dr. Miranda Matthews Head of CAL. Young people will be invited to visualise and verbalise climate change interventions. This method will extend the free writing and drawing practice developed by Miranda and Francis Gilbert, for groups of young people aged 14-18, and for undergraduates (Gilbert and Matthews 2021, Matthews 2021).
We intend that participants will be groups of young Londoners from a number of different communities, with whom the practitioners will extend working relationships. We aim to develop cultural ecologies through participatory research into the Earth crisis, by bringing together young people from communities in schools, and including Goldsmiths undergraduates. The research will make networking connections with Climate Museum UK and with other associated significant initiatives, that will distribute the resources created through the project. Our networking activity will include connection with:-
The Alchemy project: a professional creative music lab and mentoring programme for 14-18 year olds who may be at risk from exclusion at school in the London borough of Lewisham and based at Goldsmiths University. (https://linktr.ee/goldsmithsalchemy).
London Schools Eco-Network: A student-led initiative to raise awareness on environmental issues in and beyond school communities. This is linked to the 'Transform Our World' online, centralised, quality-rated resource hub and the Youth Climate Summit 2020 (https://twitter.com/ldnschoolseco, https://www.lsen.co.uk, https://www.transform-our-world.org/home).
Tower Hamlets Artist Teacher Network: A forum for artist-teachers in the borough of Tower Hamlets, and arts organisations across London, ' to connect; collaborate; create; share good practice; promote arts education and actively empower art teachers to revisit their art practice'. (https://thatnetworklondon.wordpress.com)
The CAL/CMUK Ecologies in Practice project aims to create forms of public engagement that are led by young people, expressing their views on climate research in ways that feel relevant and meaningful to them. We intend to generate new cultural spaces and potential networks, in which young people may take ownership over narratives around the climate crisis, and where sustainable behaviours and creative ideas are integrated and extended.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Miranda Matthews (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
| Title | Artefacts collected by Climate Museum UK |
| Description | Objects relating to the Earth Crisis were collected by CMUK to relate with young participants in the CAL and CMUK Ecologies in Practice project. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | Impacts of specific additions to the CMUK collection were experienced by participants in the three workshops for the CAL and CMUK Ecologies in Practice project in 2022-2023. CMUK is a distributed museum, so interested public from around the UK can also experience the objects collected. |
| URL | https://www.ecoartslearning.net/dialogic-objects |
| Title | Cards for Life - Tom Mansfield (part of Sound and Movement) |
| Description | In the Sound and Movement part of the workshops, Tom Mansfield introduced his developing interactive Cards for Life. The cards have visual and verbal stimuli that assist in encouraging dialogue among young people, and with listening exercises. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | The Cards for Life offered dialogical and material experiences for young people in the Ecologies in Practice workshop. Their responses to these cards have helped to develop further interations and improvements in the cards as communicating artefacts for ecological and creative wellbeing. These cards were developed by Tom Mansfield during his Bio-Leadership Fellowship in 2022-23. |
| URL | https://www.ecoartslearning.net/sound-movement |
| Title | Dialogic Objects created by Kimberley Foster |
| Description | Kimberley Foster created three commissioned artworks for CAL and CMUK Ecologies in Practice: Participatory Arts Methods for Engaging Young People in Climate Research. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | These art objects were experienced by participants in the 3 schools and undergraduate workshops. Digital images of the artworks were also central to publicity for the project website and for the Ecologies in Practice conference in 2023. Schools can loan the objects to explore issues of climate change and the Earth Crisis. |
| URL | https://www.ecoartslearning.net/dialogic-objects |
| Title | Expressive Focused Drawing - Miranda Matthews |
| Description | Free and expressive focused drawing was created by Miranda Matthews and by participants in the three Ecologies in Practice workshops in 2022-23 |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | Drawings created, and drawing processes, impacted the creative experiences of young participants in the project and affected their relation to self-expression in creative outputs. Participants said they were able to take away this method, for use in their school and university creative projects, and in their independent projects. Drawings are shown on the Ecologies in Practice project website. |
| URL | https://www.ecoartslearning.net/drawing-writing |
| Title | Expressive focused writing - Francis Gilbert |
| Description | Participants in the three Ecologies in Practice workshops created expressive focused writing with Francis Gilbert. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | Free and expressive focused writing had impact for the research participants who, as with the drawing, have been able to take these practices away with them to use in school and at university, and in their independent creative projects. |
| URL | https://www.ecoartslearning.net/drawing-writing |
| Title | Sound and movement - created by Kevin Davidson |
| Description | Practice in sound and movement was developed by Kevin Davidson. Participants explored a sound archive of other-than-human and human sounds to consider interdependency. They then experienced a choreographed set of movement practices that are transferable to other groups and settings. Video recordings are shown on the Ecologies in Practice website for public viewing. |
| Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | Impacts of Sound and Movement have been experienced by participants in the three Ecologies in Practice workshops in 2022-23, and in subsequent workshops with different groups, in which Kevin has explored sound and movement methods. |
| URL | https://www.ecoartslearning.net/sound-movement |
| Description | What were the most significant achievements from the award? The AHRC Networking Scheme funding for Ecologies in Practice: Participatory Arts Methods for Engaging Young People in Climate Research achieved all of the proposed intentions, and more that were discovered while enacting the proposed intentions. The project engaged with 87 participants aged 14-18 in 5 London schools, enabling young people to voice their experiences of climate change and Earth Crisis through creative methods. Teachers have since used the resources that we created to input to climate related projects with students. The practice researchers from Centre for Arts and Learning and Climate Museum UK achieved a carousel of three arts methods for groups of up to sixty students to partipate in at the same time. Training in this model of delivery is now being offered to teachers on the Artsmark programme (delivered by Goldsmiths in partnership with ACE). Data collection and team focused evaluation enabled progression of the methodologies among the three workshops for schools and undergraduate participants, enabling methodological innovation that includes practice research, qualitative methods, critical and indirect pedagogies. Networking for the research, methods and emerging practice was further enhanced via the Ecologies in Practice website that was funded by the grant, and by the International Ecologies in Practice Conference that was mostly funded by the grant - with some participant contribution for catering. Miranda Matthews secured a publishing deal for an Ecologies in Practice and Learning edited book with Palgrave Macmillan. This book will be published in 2025 and will include one or two chapters directly relating to the funded research, depending on how open access agreements are reached. Chapters by Miranda Matthews and Bridget McKenzie are both eligible for UKRI open access funding, but as the publisher's quote per chapter is over £2000, this is currently in discussion. Goldsmiths would like the publishers to take up the option of Accepted Authors' Manuscripts being made publicly available on Goldsmiths Research Online, after the embargo period. The award has benefited the careers of practice researchers involved. Kimberley Foster mentioned it in her successful application to be a Cambridge Visual Cultures Fellow (2023-24). Kevin Davidson was invited to teach on the Goldsmiths Connected Curriculum, relating to this funded research, and it has boosted confidence for further successful funding applications with CMUK. To what extent were the award objectives met? If you can, briefly explain why any key objectives were not met. All key objectives were met. We could potentially have had more school participants in the workshops. School strikes at the time of the workshops affected the participation of some schools, therefore 5 schools and not the intended 6 schools, participated in the project. In addition it is difficult to track how the young people have been able to take their new information and arts methods forward in their own initiatives. The PI Miranda Matthews is in continued reviewed contact with the teachers, to hear about the students' ongoing arts methods and climate research initiatives. |
| Exploitation Route | CAL and CMUK would like to take this research forward by combining in an international partnership with Flow India, and associated practice researchers, also including exhibitions at Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore/ Bengaluru, and Young V&A. We submitted a follow-on funding application in September 2023, and unfortunately this was unsuccessful. CAL and CMUK are reviewing options for taking this research forward. We are connecting with Flow India in Bangalore in 2024, and exploring how to expand our arts methods research portfolio with the same and different groups of young people, potentially with additional UK and international partners. In relation to how the outcomes can be taken forward by others, schools can download the resources that were created for the three arts methods of: 1) dialogical objects, 2) drawing and writing, 3) sound and listening. They can also download the school group leaders guide to the workshops from the project website, that encourages young people to take up their own practice research and climate related initiatives. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Creative Economy Education Energy Environment Healthcare Government Democracy and Justice Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| Description | In this year for reporting, non-academic impacts have been generated via continued connections with schools and teachers who took part in the CAL-CMUK Ecologies in Practice project in 2022-23, including connection with a school developing climate related curriculum in the UK. Additionally 50 primary and secondary teachers attended my Artsmark talk in 2024. Further to this, with my supporting reference my colleague Kevin Davidson was successful in applying for a Churchill Fellowship in 2024-25, and refers to our findings when visiting countries that have an extensive interest in integral climate related curricula, such as Finland and Argentina. Kevin also visited Flow India in July 2024, an organisation we had applied for follow-on funding with in 2023-24, and we continue to develop the international impact of the project through these collegiate connections. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Education,Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
| Description | Ecologies in Practice: Postgraduate Research Influence |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The changes resulting from this influence on policy, practice and the public are located in dialogical connections made among international organisations, researchers and postgraduate students. Evidence of this may be viewed by the public, in recordings of the International Ecologies in Practice Conference in July 2023. |
| URL | https://www.gold.ac.uk/cal/events/ |
| Title | Practice research guide and schools resources for practising arts methods |
| Description | During the development of the AHRC funded Ecologies in Practice: Participatory Arts Methods for Engaging Young People in Climate Research project the research team developed a practice research guide and resources for each of the three arts methods. Schools and students can download these publicly available resources, and use them in developing their own practice research. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | School teachers who took part in the project have downloaded the resources. They have commented on the clarity of communication and relevance of content. |
| URL | https://www.ecoartslearning.net/resources |
| Title | Ecologies in Practice website - a practice research output and database |
| Description | This model for a practice research database offers publicly available data and findings from the Ecologies in Practice project. It does not offer the raw data. Identities of the schools participating have not been revealed. All participants in photographs and films have parental informed consent to appear on this website. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | We intend to share good practice and enable others to develop practice research in sharing our data and findings on this website. |
| URL | https://www.ecoartslearning.net/ |
| Description | Theatre for Climate Justice Education in Bangladesh |
| Organisation | University of Dhaka |
| Country | Bangladesh |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I am PI for this ODAF grant project, internally funded by Goldsmiths University of London, from UKRI ODAF grant funding. This project is a practice research partnership with TheatrEX Bangladesh, and is generating research data on how drama can assist ecological awareness and agency for three different groups of participants in three locations in Bangladesh, including students, theatre practitioners and community members. I am contributing practice research and research methodology expertise. I have generated funded practice research for drama practitioners and participants in Bangladesh. Since the 2022-23 UKRI funded Ecologies in Practice project partnered with Climate Museum UK, I have really found it urgent to develop cultural partnerships with practice researchers in the Global South to further impactful research into how arts methods and practices can assist ecological and climate educational interventions. Dr Aminul Hoque, my Research Assistant from Goldsmiths, visited Bangladesh in January 2025 to observe a workshop being performed. He also gathered field notes on the how climate changes is affecting ways of life, including for the fisherpeople in the Sundarbans area of Bangladesh. The first research output will be films of the performances created by TheatrEX, and I am sourcing an event at Goldsmiths and an external venue where the film can be shown. I am also arranging for a Centre for Arts and Learning presentation of TheatrEX's projects when the Director of the partnership organisation visits the UK in March 2025. |
| Collaborator Contribution | TheatrEX Bangladesh have co-planned three workshops to explore issues of climate justice through drama. This organisation is based at Dhaka University, but they have an independent office. The workshops happened in January and February 2025, in Dhaka, Sylhet and Nabiganj. Each workshop had 25 participants from low economic quartiles. TheatrEX created costumes, props and artwork, and chose significant geographic locations. We co-developed a series of questions to ask participants, to find out about their prior awareness of causal factors of climate change in their locality and globally, and to explore ways of developing voice, confidence and agency. We have also co-developed this pilot project to find out how drama and the performing arts can assist inclusive educational opportunities, in areas where the majority are not able to attend university or have access to collaborative cultural productions and experiences. |
| Impact | Outputs are in the process of development. |
| Start Year | 2025 |
| Description | Climate and Earth Crisis Curriculum Development Group - Goldsmiths |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Miranda Matthews took part in the Goldsmiths Climate and Earth Crisis Curriculum Development working group in 2023. From this an elective module for Level 5 students was developed that will include teaching from members of the research team. This module will be offered to Level 5 students in 2024-25. In February 2024, Miranda Matthews (PI) and Kevin Davidson (CAL-CMUK) delivered a lecture on the Arts Methods, linking to UKRI funded research: Ecologies in Practice: Participatory Arts Methods for Engaging Young People in Climate Research.This reached 600 students on the Connected Curriculum module Agency, Identity and Environment. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| Description | Delivery of an online workshop for the Artsmark community 19 March 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | How can we empower youth voice through learning in art and design? I gave a session to explore this important question in relation to the CAL-CMUK Ecologies in Practice research project (2022-23) and introduced the three arts methods we developed in the project as ways of enabling young people to creatively express eco-anxieties, and make vocal interventions via collaborative, interdisciplinary arts practice. I discussed arts pedagogies that the research team found to work well in supporting the expression of youth voice. This event with Artsmark members who are primary and secondary school teachers also opened discussion of the challenges for schools and teachers in making space for students to communicate their views on ecological issues, while demonstrating their purposeful learning development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.artsmark.org.uk |
| Description | Ecologies in Practice Website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | The Ecologies in Practice website is an open access practice research output that connects audiences and stakeholders with CAL-CMUK UKRI funded research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| URL | https://www.ecoartslearning.net/ |
| Description | Research presentation at the University of Luxembourg 17 May 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A presentation on the CAL-CMUK Ecologies in Practice project (2022-23) was delivered to 27 postgraduate students and three academics in-person at the University of Luxembourg. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Three Ecologies in Practice Workshops: Participatory Arts Methods for Engaging Young People in Climate Research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | School students aged from 5 schools and their teachers attended the first and third workshops on 15 November 2022 and 3 March 2023. 76 Students participated in these two workshops, with 11 teachers. All participants experienced the three practice research methods of dialogic objects, writing and drawing, sound and movement. All participants were then invited to take part in focus groups immediately after the workshops, which helped the research team to further develop practice research methodologies, resources and workshop content. The resources created for schools for this project, and the students' artworks were then shown to their wider schools, hence the wider engagement in addition to those who experienced the workshops. School students have also since created climate and Earth Crisis related artworks back at school, particularly at one school where there was a focus project for the whole year on climate change and arts practice. Undergraduate students from Goldsmiths University of London attended the second workshop on 7 December 2023. Although this was a small group of 7 students, their discursive, freely spoken, input was very significant for developing practice research methods and the approach for the third workshop in March 2023. In total there were 94 directly engaged participants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://www.ecoartslearning.net/ |