Most writers on design education are (rightly) scornful of our highly standardised school curriculum. We see it as focused on past knowledge, emphasising the academic over the creative and practical. Though it claims to be trying to fit children for adult life, it is not itself orientated towards the future or the skills and understandings […]
Review by Ged Gast Past president, NSEAD The National Society for Education in Art and Design magazine, Spring 017, Issue 18, pp 32-33 Eileen Adams has worked at the leading edge of art, design and environmental education for the past 40 years, as a teacher, examiner, researcher, freelance consultant and project manager. This book marks […]
Change in education is notoriously difficult to achieve. The administrative structures, the numbers of teachers and managers, the range of agencies and political and economic pressures involved, not to mention the need to please Ofsted and achieve a high rank in different aspects of school league tables, means it’s usually easiest and wisest to leave […]
With this, her most recent publication, Eileen Adams has brought together a lifetime of experiences, experimentation, innovation and professional practice in the field of art, design and environmental education. The range of her work and depth of her commitment is clearly evident throughout, and as a statement of intention and aspiration this book is both […]
The opening of Eileen Adams book reminds us that art and design educationalists of the post-war, pre-digital age were grappling with how to adapt an academy based art education to incorporate twentieth century developments in art and design. Both Modernist and Contemporary art movements challenged the basis of traditional methods. Brave teachers, art educationalists and […]
Visual Literacy: prompting change in art, design and environmental education links theory and practice in a revealing analysis of Eileen’s work. Key themes include the value of inter-professional cooperation (for example, between teachers and architects) and the dynamic potential of action research.
Over the past few months we have been getting Eileen Adams’ new book ready for publication in June. Called Eileen Adams: Agent of Change it is a ‘critical autobiography’ covering her experiences as a classroom teacher, researcher and campaigner. A recurring theme in her career is the use of study methods deriving from art to […]
How do designers do what they do? How do architects,engineers, industrial, fashion and graphic designers think? What is it that goes on in their minds that enables them to shape the things that people buy, use and inhabit? And how far do they share their mental abilities with people at large? Is it true that everyone is a designer in their own way?
