Dr Romain Chenet presents talk on "De-schooling uncreativity" in Higher Education
Our Associate Professor Dr Romain Chenet recently co-created creative approaches to teaching within Higher Education at 鈥楾he Tangled Roots of Creative Research and Social Justice鈥� conference in Bristol.
The conference earlier this year invited speakers to collectively examine the theme 鈥淓xploring the Social, Critical and Theoretical Roots of Creative Research, and Disjuncture within Everyday Practice鈥� and Romain鈥檚 talk on "De-schooling 鈥榰ncreativity鈥� in Higher Education鈥� explored what it meant to teach creatively inside academic systems that can often feel rigid, formal, and limiting of 鈥榗reative-academic鈥� capacities.
Drawing from experiences as an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) faculty lead and GSD鈥檚 transdisciplinary environment, Romain advocated for more student empowerment, agency, and expressive freedom, and why we should encourage learners to choose and shape their own creative research methods rather than defaulting to constraining traditional assessment routes.
Romain, now a veteran teaching colleague in GSD, continues to champion alternative, liberatory approaches to assessment to reconsider the ways Higher Education can unintentionally isolate or disempower agency. In outlining a pedagogic stance which explored Freirean pedagogy, Ivan Illich鈥檚 deschooling for 鈥榗onviviality鈥�, and feminist approaches to lived experience as situated intersectional knowledge opportunities, Romain was encouraged by these ideas鈥� warm reception in the conference鈥檚 鈥榓rtivist鈥� environment and remains committed to enabling spaces for more authentic, student鈥慸riven forms of learning and achievement.
Dr Chenet鈥檚 attendance at the conference was funded by the School鈥檚 Professional Development Fund, which is awarded to academics to support personal career development and foster excellence in research.