Dr Kathryn Grushka

Biography

Dr Kathryn Grushka has over 25 years experience in various forms of education, from visual art secondary teaching, community arts projects to tertiary teaching in Fine Art and Teacher Education. She currently works in pre-service teacher education where she has had experience in managing sponsored programs to the designing of new programs and courses, program convening and teaching.

During this time she has continued to practice as an artist with her work represented in the National Tamworth Fibre Collection, Newcastle Regional Museum, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, private and public collections in local and international collections. Most recently her art works have been informed strongly by her research work in the areas of identity, time, memory and performative knowing.

Dr Grushka’s research and teaching interests extend across a number of areas including visual art education, design education, digital and visual literacies and their performative potential as they inform interdisciplinary knowledge construction. She has received the Beth Southwell Research Award from the NSW Institute for Educational research for an outstanding thesis, 2009.

Research interests lie in the contribution of visual art education to the intuitive, critical and creative aspects of how individuals construct meaning for themselves and the agency of visual representational spaces. Arts inquiry methods and iconography for learning underpin her work in the area of the doctoral study and the liminal spaces of pre-service teacher identities.

Most recently Dr Grushka has been researching the connections between health and well being in the research project titled: “Artmaking, Visual Narrative and Well-being”. The project employs artful methods and their adaptive capacities, within the embodied act of artmaking. Using narratives her project explores the links between the unique epistemology of the visual as a philosophy of action or agency and knowledge by analysing how the self image, representations and narratives influence the construction of the contemporary subject.

Qualifications

• PhD (Education), University of Newcastle, 2008
• Master of Educational Studies, University of Newcastle, 1997
• Bachelor of Education (Art), University of Newcastle, 1994
• Diploma of Art, University of Newcastle, 1981

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Research

Research keywords

• artmaking & wellbeing
• design education
• digital literacies
• iconography of learning
• learning & identity
• visual art education
• visual literacies
• visual narrative learning
• visual pedagogies

Research expertise

National research perspective in the areas of visual art education, design education , digital literacies & education. and teacher education in art and design and new media.

International publications in the areas of artist as critical reflective practitioner; arts learning, creative arts learning & teaching; visual education; visual culture and visual education; identity , visual education and citizenship, iconography in learning in school & pre-service teacher education

Current research areas include: visual education, subjectivity and visual education, visual performative pedagogy, reflective practice in visual education and visual education, socio-cultural ethical practice.

Collaboration

Research Interests intersect between artist, visual narratives, digital and visual learning and there associated pedagogies, ethic-aesthetci learning, learning futures; iconography of learning, identities and well-being

Within Education the research fields include the areas of :

Visual Education

Digital Narratives and Transformational Learning for pre-service teachers

Artistic reflective practice,

Subjectivity theory, artmaking and visual narrative

Visual Narrative, Identities and Well-being

Artful methods and the doctorate

Visual performative pedagogy and teacher education

Visual performative pedagogy and the studio classroom

Socio-cultural learning and artmaking

Visual art and values education, the ethico-aesthetic paradigm, artmaking, identity and cultural production.

Iconography of Learning in indigenous contexts

Iconography in futures learning

Enquiry based learning, personalisation and the arts

In pre-service teacher education the current research is looking the repositioning of an iconography of learning as it is informed liminal pre-service teacher identities, critical digital knowing and visual media for engaged learning in the classroom

In the Arts, Health and Well-being area the early career focus is on the role of the visual arts in supporting well-being. This project links research between science, medical science, neuroscience, philosophy, culture and arts learning for well-being.

Languages

• English

Fields of Research

Code	Description	Percentage
130300	Specialist Studies In Education	50
130200	Curriculum And Pedagogy	30
130399	Specialist Studies In Education Not Elsewhere Classified	20

Centres and Groups

Centre

• Centre for the Study of Research Training and Impact (SORTI)

Memberships

Australian Council Grant

• Recipient - Review of Education in Visual Arts, Craft, Design, and Visual Communication in Australia

Editorial Board.

• Member - Journal of Art Education Australia
• Member - International Journal for Education through Art

Appointments

Australian Quality Teaching Academic Research Advisor NSW Department of Education (Australia)

01/01/2005

Awards

Research Award.

2009	Phd NSW INSTITUTE of EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH (Australia) best thesis on educational research in New Sotuh Wales, 2009

Invitations

UNESCO World Conference, Seoul UNESCO , Korea, Republic of (Invited Presenter)	2010
National Review of Visual Education DEST and Australia Council, Australia (External Reviewer - Programs.)	2006
Backing our Creativity: research - policy - practice National Education and the Arts Symposium, Australia (Invited presentation)	2005
UNESCO World Congress, Lisbon UNESCO, Portugal (Panel session member and presenter in Visual Art Education)	2006

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Administrative

Administrative expertise

Curriculum Designer and Program Administration with expertise and expereince across the full range of pre-service secondary teaching areas, specifically expertise in Visual Art and Design Education

Experitise in Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) entry alternate entry pathways into teacher education.

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Teaching

Teaching keywords

• creative arts education
• design education
• digital learning & teaching
• visual art
• visual art education

Teaching expertise

Secondary Teacher Education in Visual education, Visual Art, Design and Technology.

Post graduate and undergraduate pre-service teacher education in Visual Art and Design Education

NSW Quality Teaching Award for Tertiary Teaching in 2005.

Courses taught include: Teaching and Learning in Visual Art, Design and Technology, in the areas of teaching strategies, assessment, classroom practices and curriculum design Expertise in national and international curriculum issues in both Visual Art and Design Education, Technology Education.

Visual Education/visual literacy/multi-literacies pedagogy in the secondary classroom