PR3: Teacher Training Module
Teacher Training Module
This Project Result prepares teachers to teach an aesthetics of care framework to a heterogeneous group of participants within a technological education context. The primary function of the teacher programme was to bring the twin approaches of theoretical work in PR1 and the practice focus of PR2 into a programme that can be taught in a technological education context. This entails building transdisciplinary knowledge and capability through the development and testing of appropriate methods, and their integration into a programme that incorporates an aesthetics of care as key element in building sustainability into technological education.
The pedagogical approach privileged a student-centered approach, enabling the participants to bring their experience and disciplinary knowledge to the integration of ethical and ecological values into their practice and curriculum design. Informed by transdisciplinary methods developed by the Erasmus+ KA203 project RASL, in which TU Dublin is a partner, and the TU Dublin led EthiCo KA203, which is exploring questions of ethics and technology, the work package also drew on well-established methods in contemporary learning sciences and media art.
The tasks of the PR were:
Develop an Aesthetics of Care Transdisciplinary Teacher Programme.
Implementation of the Teacher Programme Intensive Study Programme for testing the Teacher Programme
Design and implement structured evaluation of the programme during the first intensive study event in Cartegena
Intensive Study Programme One: the teacher programme
The first Intensive Study Programme of the project was developed by PR3 with PR2 and input from all partners. Hosted by UPCT it took place May3-5 in Cartagena. The programme included:
- Repair Hackathon hosted by FaABLAB Sedicupct Cartegena
- Exhibition Aesthico-Estetica En Ecologia as part of Mejor Con Menos the artistic programme of Mucho Más Mayo Festival Cartagena
- Public panel discussion on Aesthetics of Care and the work of the Aesthico project as part of of the Mejor Con Menos artistic programme
- interactive game workshops including the games Atlas of Weak Signals, In the Loop, and Revolt
- Presentation from external stakeholders from University for Development Studies Navrongo Campus Ghana
- Feedback session, SWOT analysis and reflection
Repair Hackathon
A key PR3 task was the implementation of the repair hackathon, designed in collaboration with PR2, as part of the teacher Programme. The Hackathon was incorporated into the Teacher Programme intensive study programme, which took place in Cartegena in May 2023, and was hosted by FaABLAB Sedicupct Cartegena.
Introducing a wider approach to what we conceive as material. The workshop explored materials, taking the basic principles of material design into a new spectrum. Participants were introduced to a range of materials, investigating characteristics, combinations, limitations and applications whilst applying their findings into experimental outcomes through making. The objective was to investigate the role of aesthetics and care in the design of artefacts, through the process of repair through a practical ’hands-on’ methodology.
Participants brought items to repair which were repaired or transformed into new artefacts. Participants were students from Cartegena and CUT , Fab lab staff and staff from the partners. Yoana Pavlova (TUS) leader of PR2 observed the process speaking with participants during and after the event, with her report informing future work of PR2 and PR 3 & 4 and contribute to the development of the hackathon as a method in the final toolkit for teaching an aesthetics of care.
The Teacher Programme
The Teacher Training Module was developed by PR3 with early versions tested in the real-world scenarios of the Cartagena Intensive Study Programme. The structured feedback received from participants helped fine tune the programme’s development, and provided crucial input to the development of the Student Module in PR4.
The Aesthico Teacher Training Module aims to introduce teachers to current ideas of aesthetics, care, relationality and sustainability in the Anthropocene era, as coalescing in the notion of an aesthetics of care. The framework will provide teachers with a variety of theoretical and practical resources that will direct them to successfully embed the module within their curriculum.
The module is a dynamic document that provide a task-based hands on toolkit that can be adapted to any discipline, supporting teachers with integrating thinking and practices based on the principles of an aesthetics of care.
Click here to download the Aesthico Teacher Training Module