Research that values and promotes aesthetic and multisensory dimensions and ways of knowing in education and research.
Art, wonder, and imagination support the expression of people’s lived, relational, and cultural characteristics of being, becoming, and knowing in/of the world and are central in our research processes and methodologies. Thinking creatively and exploring the inner resources that strengthen individuals and groups in dealing with the external world further support this interdisciplinary collaboration.
Nurturing creativity and connection
We recognise that the caring and the creative are critical to the wellbeing and flourishing of human and more-than-human worlds. Learning about ourselves, those around us, and our environments is at the crux of what it is to be human, and what it is to be in relation. It is this relationality (with the more-than-human too) that nurtures meaning and connection in life. Our generative approaches for cultivating flourishing through relationship and connection align with the overarching goal of transforming education.
Our work
A collective approach
We are a collective of academic women engaging in decolonial inquiry, futures thinking, and slow scholarship. Our research engages relational ethics, and we focus on functioning like an ecosystem rather than isolated silos of people and projects, in this way challenging accelerated and output-driven grind culture.
Our experiential and creative research approaches offer ways to inhabit workplaces, communities, identities, and bodies differently. We are engaged in research that privileges meaning-making, relationship, collaboration, emergence, wonder, creativity, and wellbeing.
Supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
SDG 4: Quality Education
Incorporating deep philosophical inquiry into education supports SDG 4 by ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education. Our theme fosters critical and creative thinking and broadens the scope of learning to include ethical and existential dimensions. Cultivating a sense of wonder and curiosity in education also supports lifelong learning and innovation, and fosters engaging and stimulating educational and research environments.
SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing
Encouraging individuals to explore their passions and ethical responsibilities can enhance mental health and well-being. Our research work and approaches promote holistic well-being through intentional co-creation, arts-based representation, and ethical behaviours.
SDG 5: Gender Equality
We write and research against a cultural backdrop where we have each experienced gender-based discrimination, inequality, sexism, and harassment. Collective attention to persistent gender inequality and the emotional and psychosocial experiences of masculinised and patriarchal cultures is necessary if we are to reimagine universities and worlds. Valuing philosophical and existential inquiry alongside ethical callings encourages an environment where gender equality is discussed and addressed, leading to greater awareness and action towards achieving gender parity.
SDG16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Establishing environments for deep reflection and dialogue can promote peace, justice, and strong institutions. By encouraging the exchange of diverse ideas, our research seeks to create more inclusive and responsive institutions. Through incorporating and honouring the arts (and alternative ways of knowing and communicating knowledge) we strengthen capacities for inclusion and understanding, moving forward towards peace and justice and away from managerialism’s neoliberal operations where push and shove, narrow counting, competition, and a focus on ‘winning’ reign.
Publications
Black, A.L., Elsom, S., Schriever, V., (2024). Messing with the metrics and setting our own standards: Academic women’s efforts to reframe success. In Lisa Ortiz-Vilarelle (Ed), In the Spaces Provided: Career Narratives and Academic Womanhood, 68-84. Routledge Auto/Biography Studies book series.
Call, K. (2024). Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers During the Early Stages of Implementation: A Case Study. Doctoral Dissertation, University of the Sunshine Coast.
Carey, M. & Haralambous, B. (20024). The study, work choices, and personal attributes of Steiner Waldorf alumni and graduates: An international comparison of Australia-New Zealand, Germany, and North America, Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 10, 1-11.
Elsom, S., Black, A.L., Schriever, V. (2024). Gaming the system: Choosing to play the infinite game in academia. In A. Walker, H. Grimmett, Black, A.L (Eds). Ludic inquiries into power and pedagogy in Higher Education: How games play us (1st ed.). Routledge
Robertson, A., Siostrom, E., Schriever, V., Elsom S., Black, A.L. (2024). Dwelling tenderly with our desires for research and the world: A collaborative and sensory methodology of hope. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1 – 15.
Thiele, C., Black, A.L., Munge, B., Manathunga, C., Heimans, S., Schriever, V., Dwyer, V., Davidow, S. (2024). Playing with power and being played: Collaborative gameplay as a site of connection and insight. In Walker, A., Grimmett, H., & and Black, A.L. How games play us: Ludic inquiries into power and pedagogy. Routledge.
Westacott, M. (2023). The iceberg in the room: a causal layered analysis of the futures sense of yearning, World Futures Review Special Issue.
Westacott, M & Flynn, T. (2023). The writing in the sand. Introducing sand tray work in futures research supervision. World Futures Review Special Issue.
Westacott, M., Robertson, A., Siostrom, E., Elsom, S., Schriever, V., & Black, A. L. (2024). Navigating contemporary academia: Way-finder perspectives about s/pace, charting course and creating legacy. Knowledge Cultures, 12(3), 150-184.