Makers in the Classroom: Knowledge exchange through practice

Abstract

The research on which this paper is based formed part of a funded practitioner exchange project called ReSide under Creative Scotland’s Creative Futures programme, Europe’s largest coordinated residency and exchange programme. The residency took place between Heriot Watt University in Scotland and the National Institute of Design in India during autumn 2012 and spring 2013. Four artisans, makers and designers from the two countries not only extended their own practice through living in their host country for two four-week periods but shared their knowledge and experiences of craft-making by collaborating with other craft interest groups and institutions of the respective communities. In Scotland, one Scottish and two Indian participants visited two secondary schools in Scotland where they collaborated with students and teachers to share their cultural experiences of making crafts.

Through close observation of these engagements from various research angles we were able to explore how students, teachers and external practitioners respond to the connotations of multiculturalism and diverse creative craft practices. Specific attention was paid to identifying how students respond to live cultural exposures, whether they are able to expand their awareness beyond the immediate classroom contexts, and more. The paper therefore explicates how external collaborations could be used more meaningfully in the context of learning wider social behaviour through creative craft practices.

In doing so we effectively communicate a case study example for delivering authentic learning through face to face knowledge exchange (Lombardi 2007). As part of this we examine ways of adopting varied strategies such as authentic learning, cultural knowledge exchange and practiced based, holistic craft-making as part of craft education. We pay specific attention to the understanding of students’ (re)interpretation and (re)production of creative work with respect to cultural influences in their broadest sense, thus providing an alternative perspective on how the above contextual issues are achievable in current educational practices.