The transformative power ofinformal learning and aesthetics

A short story of modernity

The transformative power ofinformal learning and aesthetics

• A short story of modernity

“Discourse on the dignity of man”by Pico della Mirandola (1496)

Pico expresses the ideal of autonomy, authenticity and self-formation: be yourself

We have made you neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, so that you may, as the free and extraordinary shaper of yourself, fashion yourself in the form you will prefer.

Karl Marx: the critical voice: modernity as alienation

• Alienation = participating in cultural expressions you can´t identify with / identifying with cultural expressions that possess you

A counter movement: Reformpädagogik / progressive education

Reform pedagogy was a global movement. It was created between the response to the prevailing school practice, which during the late 19th century still bears many of the features and the needs of new industrial society. The new society, characterized by significant economic development, science and technology, started to need more active, more creative people.

The transformative power of creativity and aesthetics

• Be yourself – a particular person- and feel part of something universal and essential –get a say!

What is the relationship of learning to beauty, of truth to art?

• The paradox: the more we need it the less we value it! (as it is subversive, unforeseeable, stimulates independence), so despite our reform-pedagogical traditions in DK we tend to value learning more then beauty and truth more then art.

The formal educational system is ambivalent concerning art and

æstetics

• Then we combine the validation criteria from the formal system with the ”reform pedagogical potential” in real life practice –creative industries!

• Fitting with the ”yo-yo transitions” from youth to adulthood and the idea of lifelong learning.

• (the ultimate consequence might be the commodification and privatization of education - only the accreditation and validation is subject to public and democratic control…)

A major Irony in education(2 years ago)

There appears to be a major irony at the moment in education – while society and business increasingly values culture, arts and creativity, these areas are being reduced in the schools and in teacher training. Rather than as the core of innovative education for the future, the aesthetic and creative school subjects are increasingly marginalised.

Professor Anne BamfordUniversity of the Arts London

(2009 – at VIA / Performers House)

Netherlands (2 weeks ago)

The creative industry is forming an increasingly important part of the economy in the Netherlands as well as in Denmark. In the Netherlands the creative

industry is one of the six key-sectors that te government has identified as being of special importance for future development and growth.

Niek van ZuthenAmbassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Denmark

(2011 – Pretty Smart Textiles)

In 2005 the creative industry in the Netherlands was as large as the petrol and air transport industry.

Central Denmark Region

Employment in the creative industries (645 companies) in Central Denmark Region was increased by 20.7% during 2005-2007, while the average increase for all industries in the region represented only 8.7 %.

•Danmarks kreative potentiale, Kultur- og erhvervspolitisk strategi og redegørelse, Regeringen 2000.

•Danmark i Kultur- og oplevelsesøkonomien - 5 nye skridt på vejen, Regeringen 2003

•Danmark skal vinde på kreativitet: Perspektiver for dansk uddannelse og forskning i oplevelsesøkonomi (2005)

•Aftale mellem Regeringen samt S, DF og RV og SF om styrkelse af kultur- og oplevelsesøkonomien i Danmark 2007 (Center for Kultur- og Oplevelsesøkonomi samt oplevelseszoner mv.)

•Vækst via oplevelser - en analyse af Danmark i oplevelsesøkonomien (EBST 2008)

•2007 har mere end 60 % af alle danske kommuner og samtlige danske regioner kultur- og oplevelsesøkonomi som et højtprioriteret satsningsområde (kreative byers attraktivitet).

UK(the first country with a strategy for developing Creative

Industries)

”Creative employment provides around two million jobs in the sector itself and in creative roles in other sectors. Employment in the sector has grown at double tre rate of the economy as a whole.

UK Department for Culture, Medie and Sports 2010 “those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.”

Yesterdays news…(or the future is now)

Creative industries is considered to be the fourth / fifth fastest growing sector in developed economies worldwide.

Does this fact reflect the strategies and priorities of the (formal) educational system in Europe?

The economic perspective is an important agenda or argument, but it is not the only one...

• Community attraction - for businessesoutside labor, tourism and human settlement

• Creative man, dream societyIndividual - People's needs for self-actualization and creativity is also a major reason to engage in creative professions, see also the creative class (Florida 2005). Being able to foster curiosity and imagination as a creative person, a second level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs that are worth noting.

• Contribute to societySociety - more generally as of a carrier of culture, democracy, identity and creativity…

• Social pedagogical agenda Inclusion and a person mastering his own life. There is a difference between education in the arts and in different areas of the creative industry and education through the arts

• Learning strategies, knowledge conversation and validation

The Agendas

Thematic tables

• Manoj -The chocolate factory , home to over 220 artists and creative business -a model to follow?

• Denise – the paradoxical relation between the formal and the informal learning settings.

• Richard –organizing the creative industries in Europe in a powerful lobby

• International networking and exchange

Theme 1

If it is true that the creative industries have an educational potential, how do you then conceive the relationship between creative industries and the educational system?

Theme 2

• Why should people working and participating in the creative industries be concerned with validation of learning outcomes?

Discussion

• Why should people working in the formal educational system be concerned with learning outcomes obtained by people participating in creative indsutries?