Dr Silke Lange

Biography

Silke Lange is Associate Dean of Learning, Teaching and Enhancement at Central Saint Martins. Prior to this she was the Director of Learning and Teaching in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Design at the University of Westminster. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK and has worked in creative arts education in a range of roles and organisations, across levels and subjects.

As practitioner, Silke’s focus shifted from producing photographic artworks to working with photography as a tool for engaging people in creative processes of self discovery and creative expression, and as a medium to develop new ways of seeing, thinking and collaborating. This practice developed into researching art and design pedagogy, resulting in her doctoral thesis Learning through Photography: Creativity as Concept and Process.

Silke’s educational research encompasses the creative process, collaborative learning, interdisciplinarity, learning environments and the student as co-creator. She has been involved as a researcher in projects such as the ‘Innovators Grant 2015’ at the Node Centre in Berlin and Broad Vision, an interdisciplinary art / science research and learning programme. She has presented at national and international events and published research in International Journals and Anthologies.

My doctoral research Learning through Photography: Creativity as Concept and Processexplored the concept of creativity within the context of photographic studies in higher education. Whilst the research was based in photographic studies, the areas I investigated reached across a number of fields: learners and learner experiences, the learning community, pedagogic innovation and curriculum development, and arts education. As a result of this research, I became interested in processes of learning, making and thinking in art and design education and how these processes might translate to disciplines outside of this field. I have been able to explore these areas further through my involvement as educational researcher in interdisciplinary projects and collaborations such as the Innovators Grant 2015 and Broad Vision, often working alongside artists and scientists.

During these projects, I focused on the learning and teaching at the intersections of disciplines, and the learning environments and structures that facilitate such practices. I am interested in the creative interventions and disruptions that promote innovative approaches to learning and teaching in educational settings. As part of this, I explored the notion of the student as co-creator, in particular the student as co-designer of course structures and curricula, content generator, co-researcher, and co-author.