Seen and heard: Creative voices in Education
In 2024, learners from across Scotland worked with Creative Catalysts to explore their experiences of learning. The learners represented groups who sometimes find that education doesn't meet their needs. They used arts and creativity to share their stories, ideas and experiences in the hope of creating change in education systems so that everyone is supported to realise their potential.
The Creative Catalysts were asked to consider rights-based and creative approaches to explore the experiences of diverse groups of learners and to use this time to understand what tools and resources are needed to create a fairer and more inclusive education system for all children and young people in Scotland.
The young people chose which of the Creative Catalysts they would like to welcome into their homes, communities and schools and gave their time generously to the project. Articulate worked with children living in Kinship Care from Ayrshire, Fèisean nan Gàidheal worked with Gaelic speaking learners in the Western Isles, while Astar Media explored the experiences of those who learn online through I-Sgoil - a virtual school based in the Western Isles. In Aberdeen, animator Jim Stirk and psychologist Sarah Philp worked with young people who had not been born in Scotland but travelled here seeking safety from their home countries. Lastly, cartoonist Malcy Duff worked with young people living at Rossie School, which provides a place of safety and security for vulnerable young people.
A lot of the participants had experienced difficult things in their lives which made it harder for them to take part in the project - we often had to change our plans to reflect what the learners needed and create more time to build trust and understand how they would like to take part - making sure that they felt seen, and heard.
This issue consists of the outcomes from the project, some authored by the young people and some by the artists who spent time listening and understanding their needs and carried their voices through into their images, comics, animations and reflections.
Malcy Duff, Comic representation of interaction with a pupil from Rossie School