Projects
TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM
The Teacher Training Program is a project in which artists and educators from Codarts Rotterdam, Willem de Kooning Academy, and Erasmus University Rotterdam come together to formulate an answer to the question What pedagogical skills and practices are required to effectively teach in a transdisciplinary educational context? Transdisciplinary education puts different demands on the teacher compared to disciplinary-based education. In the TTP, we identify these demands and define our best practices. The research findings add to the wider ambition to adequately prepare our teachers for the future of education.
REIMAGINING TOMORROW THROUGH ARTS & SCIENCES
Artists and educators from Codarts Rotterdam, Willem de Kooning Academy, and the Erasmus University Rotterdam have joined forces to develop a transdisciplinary minor (30EC). The minor is called Reimagining Tomorrow Through Arts & Sciences. The program is based on the notion that existing disciplinary frameworks fall short when used to define and solve the complex problems of the 21st century (e.g. the waste problem, climate change, increasing inequality). Alternative futures have to be imagined and visualized and only through the combination and validation of different knowledges (societal, artistic, academic) can this be achieved. In the minor, students – from a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds – collaborate in small teams with societal stakeholders in order to identify and investigate socially relevant issues.
SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION
Within the research line special attention is given to the role education can play in transforming societies to meet the challenges of the 21st century, particularly the sustainability crisis, inequality and political upheavals. This research line relates to critical pedagogies acknowledging the possibilities for education to contribute to the transformation of individuals and societies together. This part of the programme is set up with Dr. Ginie Servant-Miklos and Dr. Julien Kloeg (both affiliated to Erasmus University Rotterdam). Currently Kloeg and Noordegraaf-Eelens are conducting critical research and the (im)possibilities of critical pedagogies. Parallel to this research line an early education outreach programme will be developed together with EUR. In 2020-2021 Servant-Miklos and Noordegraaf-Eelens will contribute to and edit a book on Social Transformative Education, incorporating research that is conducted within this professorship.
HONOURS EDUCATION AT CODARTS
In addition to the regular curriculum it is important to design educational spaces in which inquisitive and pioneering students can collaborate and experiment beyond the borders of their own discipline. The Honours Program at Codarts Rotterdam will be such a space. It is a one-year extra-curricular program inviting students to engage with and experience different artistic disciplines and their values. The Honours Program entails lectures, workshops, guests, inter-active peer workshops, visiting performances and exhibitions, completing the program with a keystone project. The program is open to students of all disciplines, years and departments with a special interest in other artforms, inter-/ transdisciplinary work, crossing boundaries and reaching out to inform and enlarge their own artistic potenti