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Starting In Place: a preliminary investigation of first year curriculum design in response to critical regionalism

conference contribution
posted on 2023-05-23, 18:02 authored by Karen HallKaren Hall
Negotiating between the demands of This Place, in the form of engaging and enriching learning experiences, and That Place, in the form of experiencing learning in a regional location, draws attention to issues of grounding and belonging in the transition to university. Situating students’ experience in place has been a key driver of the first year curriculum in the core theory units within the Bachelor of Contemporary Arts. This study takes a reflective and qualitative approach to curriculum design, by exploring the concept of critical regionality (Mules, 2005) as framework for evaluating the strategies that place regional location at the heart of the first year experience. Critical regionality asserts that regional location, rather than always being at the periphery of a centre elsewhere, forms a powerful grounding for making a future. This emphasis on making taps into increasing interest in the conjunction of regionality and the creative industries. In the first year theory units, learning activities and assessment tasks embed students in the local community through connections to sites, institutions, events and people, and require students to explicitly reflect on their negotiation of the flows between local and global in their developing creative practices. By reviewing the development of these units over the past three years, I will assess how use of the framework of critical regionalism enables students to effectively manage the transition into university study, to relate to challenging material and to identify pathways for career and professional development. I will also question the extent to which the centrality of place is necessarily regional by discussing possible improvements in the program, and its applicability outside this local context.

History

Publication title

Proceedings of the Teaching Matters 2014 Conference

Editors

J Osborne

Pagination

30-36

Department/School

School of Creative Arts and Media

Publisher

Tasmanian Institute of Learning and Teaching, University of Tasmania

Place of publication

Tasmania

Event title

Places & Spaces

Event Venue

Newnham Campus, University of Tasmania

Date of Event (Start Date)

2014-12-02

Date of Event (End Date)

2014-12-03

Rights statement

Copyright 2014 the Author

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Pedagogy

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