School of Education Celebrates Learning for Life @ ARCadia
The University of Glasgow’s ARCadia Festival of Ideas which runs from 16 – 30 September is the first open public invitation to help bring the £116M flagship venue to life; what better way to do that than throw open their doors to children and young people from the local community to fill it with their ideas, imaginations and opinions?
The University of Glasgow’s School of Education is delighted to be presenting Learning for Life, a showcase of events developed by leading academics, designed to enable collaboration with schools and local communities around two key pillars: Sustainability and Peace & Advocacy.
The School of Education team’s anchor point was to stimulate pupils through excellent, engaging events with young people at their heart and ones which they could relate to whilst offering collaborative, dynamic perspectives focussed on what matters to this generation. With an understanding that learning can happen in a huge range of contexts, this programme will inspire and stimulate young people’s personal and social development including improved peer relationships, better problem-solving skills, and new career aspirations.
Workshops range from a Virtual Reality based exploration of nature to express emotions and creativity with Nature +, to Waste Stories that will encourage participants to use stimulus materials to make up stories about waste, in the belief that telling stories about things changes their relationships with them. The Instruments of Peace workshops and living installation will feature four elements of engagement and creativity centred around transformative exploration of the head, heart, and hands and invite young people to express what peace looks like to them.
The Scottish Network for Able Pupils (SNAP) works with teaching staff to support highly able young people and a cohort from Lanarkshire will present Persuade Me, a lively event designed to give them the opportunity to discuss leadership in contemporary society. I See You is a unique collaboration The LUNA Project, an inspiring and dynamic charity that seeks to support and raise awareness of young people with chronic illnesses, disabilities, and long-term health conditions. Through advocacy and friendship, they seek to stimulate empathy and conversations around what every day living can look like for them.
The Glasgow Zine Library, a self-publishing library, archive and community space located in Govanhill, will take up residence in the ARC for ZineARC and invite young people to create their own zine.
Page Journeys will be a living library, storytelling and reading space featuring a range of books to engage and inspire children from culturally diverse backgrounds, aimed encouraging them to reflect on experiences of migration, journeys and foreign worlds through words and pictures.
Research suggests that belief in conspiracies peaks in adolescence and that believing in conspiracies is associated with a wealth of negative outcomes. By engaging in Conspiracy Kitchen, young people will learn about conspiracies and 'cook up' their own to help them recognise and challenge them in future.
Everyday Clean Stories is designed to encourage young people to think about the different times they need to wash their hands and to better understand why hand hygiene, whilst White Water Writers invites young people to write and design their own book over several days where each stage of the process is based on theory and research from psychology and education.
Professor Margaret Sutherland of the School of Education, said: “Opening up our university through the ARCadia Festival of Ideas allows young people to meet with and engage in the wealth of research that is taking place in their city.
“We want young people to come and be inspired and return to school ready to make a difference. Young people are well aware of the challenges faced across the world today. We need to do all we can to support them in the development of solutions.”
The Advanced Research Centre (ARC) has been specifically designed to illuminate the power of research and be a catalyst for deep collaboration. It is a gathering point for the local community which will shape how research is done, make sure the right questions are being asked to make a transformative difference in the education sector and society. Welcoming these local communities to be amongst the first guests to breathe life into it and give it a beating heart will help to break down barriers and offer limitless possibilities in a dynamic and culturally diverse city like Glasgow.
Pupils from Hillhead and St Patrick's Primary joining us for NATURE+: theory-based exploration of nature through VR to express emotion.
First published: 16 September 2022
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