This blog has kindly been provided by Louise O’Boyle, CHEAD Expert Trustee and Associate Dean (Academic Quality & Student Experience), Ulster University
Boundaries are blurring and silos are dissolving. Across creative education and professional sectors, we are seeing increasingly innovative approaches to the use of materials and processes[1]. Seemingly diverse disciplines are collaborating to co-create solutions[2] to societal challenges. Contributions from public, private, and third-sector organisations to higher education curricula content and delivery continue to evolve. All of these, and more, represent a growing reflection of transdisciplinarity.
This shift goes beyond technological advancements, but reflects, possibly, a deeper evolution in how we think, create and collaborate. A boarder movement in learning, in how we act as global citizens and connect across borders must acknowledge the urgent need to decentre[3] our curricula and practices.
To adopt a truly global perspective, we must move beyond the WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic) lens as presented by Henrich[4]. Recognising in our transit, that the WEIRD theory of social change – astoundingly – sidesteps European nations’ histories of ‘slavery, racism, plunder, and genocide’[5] [6].
To learn about and from knowledge systems across the globe, including Indigenous and First Nations peoples is to expand our lens to reflect the diversity of human experience and thought.
Flowing between and among this swell of activities is awareness that we are in a climate crisis. As creatives and educators, we carry a responsibility to adopt regenerative practices particularly in relation to rethinking our use of materials, circular economies and embodying UN SDGs.
In tandem, the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and tools to “dramatically empower individual users while also functioning on very board societal levels” Hoffman and Beatty liken to as fundamental to human societies as the internet, roads, the electrical grid or water system[7]. AI is the catalyst we didn’t know we needed (apparently). Its potential to transform global economies, politics and societies is evident. But so too are its “many failure modes that are unpredictable, not widely appreciated, not easily fixed, not explainable and capable of leading to unintended consequences”[8].
If that all wasn’t enough, the financial outlook and reality across the UK HE sector is grim. Doing the same/more with the same or less resources is an increasingly common mantra. Coupled with the perennial threat to creative education as the ‘nice to have’ within the education ecosystem. Despite that same creative education stream being the foundation from which the UK creative industries bloom and contribute so much to our economy, society, and peoples.[9]
CHEAD continues key advocacy in this space as a founding member of the Creative Education Coalition[10] and the Creative Education Manifesto[11]
Pedagogies that build momentum
To navigate this evolving landscape, we need approaches and pedagogies that equip learners to acquire the competencies they need to survive and thrive in their communities, be they local, regional, global. Those approaches and pedagogies must be inclusive and participatory. They should create environments for authentic engagement, ‘slow’ and considered practices.
There are many exemplars of the same already happening across our CHEAD member institutions and sector globally. Colleagues showcase and share their practices and research at specialist network, subject association and institution-based events. In August 2025, a special edition journal featuring several articles from presenters at the GLAD 2024 Conference[12] (Belfast) will be released[13].
We present six interconnected pedagogical stems which scaffold this year’s creative sector growth. These are… playful learning, inclusive learning, connected learning, relational learning, digital learning and studio-based learning.” (Gathering Pace Editorial, GLAD-HE 2024 Post-Conference Publication, August 2025)
Over 100 colleagues (academic, technical, professional services) from UK, Ireland, Italian and Canadian HEIs attended the event in Belfast. and the upcoming GLAD 2025 Symposium on Friday 5th September at Nottingham Trent University looks set to attract even more numbers. However, despite all these activities, the momentum is neither consistent nor widespread. By working and sharing together, we can amplify our impact and shift worrying trajectories. All activity must be underpinned by a strong social justice lens – one that is active not passive.
CHEAD’s vision and strategy looks to navigate and lead the creative higher education sector, preparing us all for what is fast approaching – known and unknown.
[1] Across our CHEAD HEI members’, we observe numerous examples of innovative use and thoughtful engagements with materials and processes: fine art students using coding and digital tools to create artworks; ceramicists using 3D printers; 3D printers making hand tools for jewellers; consumption of resources in making artworks considered.
[2] Designers working alongside healthcare professionals and providers to co-create solutions in the treatment and care of peoples; emergence of biodesign, https://www.biodesignchallenge.org/ ; fine artists partnering with social scientists (Bloomer & Campbell, 2022)
[3] Access the FACE Race Handbook and other resources for educators and learners at https://www.weareface.uk/face-race-handbook
[4] Henrich, J. (2020) The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
[5] Johnson, G. D. (2021) ‘Joseph Henrich, The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous’, International Sociology, 36(5), pp.780-782. doi: 10.1177/02685809211057670
[6] Guyatt, N. (2020) ‘The Weirdest People in the World review – a theory-of-everything study’, The Guardian, 20th November. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/20/the-weirdest-people-in-the-world-review-a-theory-of-everything-study (Accessed: 28 January 2021).
[7] Hoffman, R. & Beato, G. (2025) Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future. New York: Currency.
[8] Lin, H.S. (ed.) (2025) Stanford Emerging Technology Review 2025: A Report on Ten Key Technologies and Their Policy Implications. Stanford, CA: Stanford University and Hoover Institution. Available at: https://setr.stanford.edu (Accessed 21st June 2025).
[9] The UK Creative Industries the UK Government estimate generate gross value added of +£126billion to the economy. See https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/contribution-of-the-arts-to-society-and-the-economy/ (Accessed 29th January 2024)
[10] For further information see https://www.chead.ac.uk/chead-are-a-founding-member-of-the-creative-education-coalition/
[11] For further information see https://www.chead.ac.uk/chead-are-a-founding-member-of-the-creative-education-coalition/ and https://cvan.art/artisessential-campaign-coalition-launch-creative-education-manifesto-calling-on-all-political-parties-to-protect-the-creative-arts-talent-pipeline/
[12] See https://www.gladhe.com/home/2024conference to view a copy of the 2024 conference programme.
[13] Sign up to GLAD mailing list to receive notification of the journal release, or check https://www.gladhe.com/home/2024conference where a link to the special edition will be posted in August 2025.