Schools are important in helping children to successfully engage with culture and cultural institutions, and the Henley Review of Cultural Education in English Primary Schools (DCMS, 2012) and the Cultural White Paper (DCMS, 2012) recognised this. However, research findings from around the world flag up challenges in building effective relationships between schools and cultural institutions (Mathewson-Mitchell, 2007).
The location: Liverpool City Region
The research team acknowledges that the Liverpool City Region holds a possibly unique position, which may impact upon how teachers, children, parents and schools perceive and interact with cultural institutions. The Liverpool City Region has the largest number of cultural institutions within the UK outside London. It is home to six national museums, Tate Liverpool and a range of smaller museums, galleries and arts organisations across the city, many offering extensive learning programmes for the local audience, including schools.
This project connects the elements of ‘place-based’ learning and pedagogy. Place-based learning recognises that an individual’s connection with the place, space or community within which learning takes place is vital in knowing, understanding and learning about the world. The research therefore explores the experiences of both teachers and pupils during their time in the gallery and how this impacts on teaching and learning in the school. It also addresses the experience of the ‘host’ organisation, reflecting on the expectations, experience and impact of the residency on gallery practice.
This two-stage action research project explores a new way for schools to enhance and enrich teaching and learning. It also outlines another way for children and their families to enjoy and develop a sense of ‘ownership’ of museum and gallery spaces.
The first aim of the research was to explore the views of schools, teachers and children in relation to the gallery. The second was to investigate the role of the gallery as a site for learning and teaching. It then considered the impact of this and the package of training, resources, spaces and facilities required to run a regular residency programme and develop a transferrable model of CPD.
Schools have been invited to base one class at the gallery for a week, delivering their usual curriculum and activities but in new spaces. The research seeks to explore what training, support and resources would be required for teachers to be able to do this on a more regular basis, without learning being led by a gallery educator. This could offer a more sustainable model for future school engagement with cultural venues. It is also hoped that it will celebrate the expertise of teachers and reposition them and gallery staff as learners alongside the children involved. This new way of working embeds practice that regards children and teachers as experts-in-residence, developing new knowledge and understanding of the gallery’s collection.
A participative action research methodology was chosen to ensure that the voices and experiences of participants were visible and to inform further stages of the research and the proposed model. Data includes observations from field notes, reflective journals, notes from interviews and focus groups, and photographs and films documenting the project. Throughout, the children were invited to see themselves as researchers, learning more about what research can mean and how it is relevant to their lived experience.
For example, the reflective journals allowed the teachers to look back on each day, noting what they were pleased with, what questions they had and what they might do differently the following day. All this reflection was based upon their developing understanding of the space, and these journals became creative working documents that they wanted to spend time on in their busy day. The photographs captured moments that were impossible to note in observations or reflections. They showed children’s responses, levels of engagement and their methods of building relationships with the gallery s