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The University of Southampton
Southampton Education School

Spaces of refuge in education: using an aesthetic practice to access alternative forms of cognition, sensory well-being and connection. Seminar

Time:
12:00 - 13:00
Date:
2 March 2021
Venue:
University of Southampton

Event details

What is your talk about? I reflect upon the power of aesthetic spaces to facilitate a shift in mindset or emotional state. I illustrate these reflections with three different areas of practice – my installation art work, my doctoral research in a special school, and my role as researcher-in-residence with 'Oily Cart' theatre company (world leaders in sensory theatre).

I explain how and why the themes of refuge and connection are present in each of these practices and I explore the implications- in terms of benefits to sensory well-being, the nurturing of creativity and access to non-linguistic ways of being and knowing.

What are the key messages of your talk? There is a need for spaces within education that are free from the imposition of achievement-oriented goals. Stillness, contemplation, and simply 'being' (rather than doing) can enable us to access different ways of knowing and the arts can support this shift.

What are the implications for practice or research from your talk? Researchers and practitioners can consider the idea of spaces of refuge in terms of their own well-being and that of their students. Where is there a need for escape? How might we provide the conditions needed for refuge, such as stillness, sensorial fascination, a human scale, and time for 'being'?

Presenter: Dr Jill Goodwin, Visiting Fellow, Centre for Research in Inclusion, Southampton Education School, University of Southampton.

You can download the powerpoint slides to this presentation here. Please note that this is a large file so may take some time to download.

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