ProfessorMichael Anderson

Project Opportunities

Title: Arts and Creative Education Research Network

Summary of opportunity:

A rich research culture in arts education and creative learning

We support researchers to partner with schools, arts organisations and the community to deepen and extend the evidence base for understanding the arts and creativity in education.

We aim to develop partnerships with teachers, schools, artists and others to develop a rich research culture. Our objectives are to:

• increase collaborative research and scholarship opportunities
• provide focus and opportunities for early-career researchers to build and enhance their publication and grant-development skills through mentoring from experienced members of the network
• strengthening research partnerships and partnership activities with schools, professional arts organisations and community arts-based organisations
• organise events including symposiums, workshops and seminars that promote arts and creative learning research
• advocate with state and national governments, corporate and arts-based organisations to promote funding, work and activities in relation to education, creativity and the creative and performing arts.

Opportunity synopsis:

Our work investigates three main themes:

• creativity in education
• the arts in education, including drama, theatre and applied theatre, visual arts and literature
• arts-informed research approaches.

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Project Opportunities

Title: Creative Arts Education

Summary of opportunity:

Dr Michael Anderson is Professor of Creativity and Arts Education in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at The University of Sydney and Co-Director of the CREATE Centre. He is an internationally recognised educational leader in school transformation processes. He has taught, researched and published in education and transformation for over 20 years, including 17 books and 55 book chapters and journal articles. His international research and practice focuses on how the 4Cs can be integrated using coherent frameworks to support leaders as they work towards transformation in their contexts. Michael's most recent work emerging from his research and partnerships with schools include Transforming Education (with Miranda Jefferson, Bloomsbury, 2021) and Transforming Schools (2017)

Opportunity synopsis:

Research interests

Educational Transformation

• Re-imagining Curriculum
• Re-imagining Pedagogy
• Re-imagining Learning

Creative Arts Education

• Learning technologies and new media
• Teacher development and training
• Creativity education

Applied Theatre

• Methodological innovation
• Wellbeing
• Partnerships

Research on teaching and learning

• School transformation
• Methodological innovation

Keywords: drama, arts, teachers, technology, students film, youth culture

Supervision

• Creativity
• Research methods
• Educational leadership

----------Current Research Projects----------

• 2023-2026 123 Play: early childhood and arts based play for mental wellbeing research with The Matilda Centre
• 2023-2026 ASSITEJ Impact of Theatre For Young People
• 2021 Barking Gecko Audience Research
• 2017 Chartwell Trust: Creative Schools Initiative ($678,000) Joint research project with the University of Auckland and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne. Led by Professor Peter O'Connor, The University of Auckland
• 2015 UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) ; Playing Beowulf: Gaming the Library (AH/M010201/1, $192,000 AUD) Chief Investigator, Led by Professor Andrew Burn. Institute of Education, London
• The Role of Arts Education in Academic Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement. $344,000 from Australian Research Council (ARC Linkage Grant) and the Australia Council for the Arts with Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney. Colleagues A. Martin and R. Gibson investigated the role of arts education in school students' academic motivation, engagement, and achievement (LP0989687: The Role of Arts Education in Academic Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement)
• TheatreSpace is a four-year research project investigating the responses of young people (14-30 years of age) to professionally-funded theatre in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The research aims to discover what attracts, engages and sustains young people's current and future theatre attendance and what factors might exclude them. What factors promote, deter or exclude young people's engagement with theatre in Australia? ARC Linkage (LP0776532): Accessing the Cultural Conversation ($482,000, 2006-2011)
• Young Mob Program assessment: In partnership with the University of Auckland, applied theatre processes were used as the basis of a research report on the progress and future plans for Young Mob, a programme for Indigenous young leaders in Sydney, Australia
• Applied Theatre as Research Project. Developing an understanding of the applications of Applied Theatre as a research tool. With the University of Auckland and World Vision Australia ($220,000, 2011-2015).