Welcome to Spark, UAL’s new Creative Learning and Teaching Journal hosted by the Teaching and Learning Exchange. In UAL it has become a cliché to say that there are pockets of good practice in relation to creative learning and teaching. Sometimes these pockets stay closed because colleagues have not been offered the right spaces or fora to share their work. This journal directly addresses this problem. What you will read and view over the coming months and years as this journal develops are the contents from the pockets of a wide range of truly inspiring colleagues and students at UAL. Teaching and learning excellence and innovation can sometimes leave no trace of its existence − the ideas and passion can remain locked in minds, sketchbooks, notebooks and students’ memories. This journal offers us a creative space to share our passion for creative teaching and learning in the output forms we know best − in text, in image, in art, in design, in film, in sound and in mixed media.
This journal exemplifies the ways that the idea of exchange is central to the work of transformative education (Shreeve et al, 2010). It is by bringing together exemplary pedagogic scholarship from across the university that we can lay claim to offering our students an ‘education that is responsive, responsible, imaginative and inspirational’ (UAL Strategy 2015).
I want to thank the team that have brought this journal to you. This includes the editor Dr Saranne Weller, the associate editor Catherine Smith, the editorial assistant Vicky Haverson, the designer Paul Tabak, the editorial board and our anonymous peer reviewers.
I hope this first edition of Spark will inspire others to get in touch to submit for future editions. This journal is hosted by the Teaching and Learning Exchange but it belongs to all of us who work and study at UAL. It is our journal to shape.
Shreeve, A., Sims, E. and Trowler, P. (2010) ‘A kind of exchange': learning from art and design teaching. Higher Education Research & Development, 29(2), pp. 125−138.
UAL Strategy (2015). Transformative Education for a Creative World. Available at: http://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/strategy-governance/ual-strategy-2015-22/
(Accessed: 23 December 2015).