Recent discourse in UK education has been shaped, in part, by the place of the arts in the curriculum. Should STEM become STEAM? Should the arts be relegated to extra-curricular, so that the 'core' or EBacc subjects can be given pride of place? These questions go right to the heart of what is valued in education. Phrases like 'mastery curriculum' and 'powerful knowledge' tend to emphasise cognitive ability and epistemic access over other forms of intelligence. 'Traditional' subjects and disciplinary knowledge are back in vogue, admired for their perceived rigour and foundations in the Enlightenment values of logic and rationality. 'Teaching' and 'research' also feature prominently in discussions about pedagogy. Alongside this is a new emphasis on character education, particularly notions of resilience and 'grit'. The world of education is often divided into the 'hard' and the 'soft' with no prizes for guessing which subjects are given time, resources and status.

Teachers of arts subjects, like photography, can consequently feel embattled, belittled and marginalised. What place does a subject like photography have in this brave new world of what works? What role does knowledge and cognitive ability have in photography? What are the particular affordances of photography? How might it develop a student's character? What do photography teachers teach? Is photography 'hard' or 'soft'? 

One of the ways we might want to theorise about teaching and learning in photography is by referring to various educational taxonomies. Our most recent addition to this website is a page devoted to Photo Literacy. It is a parallel development to our Threshold Concepts and related resources. Rather than viewing this as narrowly focused on language, we prefer to define Photo Literacy as follows:

It is precisely this combination of intelligences that makes photography such an important part of the curriculum. Photography students must find ways to combine their knowledge, technical understanding, imagination, physical and emotional control and personal values in order to succeed. In photography it is as important to feel empathy as it is to know about Depth of Field. Photographers need to develop a wide range of abilities from a variety of domains. They need to be good self-managers as well as collaborators. They need to understand the history of the medium as well as imagine their own contribution to its future. Teachers of photography are as interested in developing axiological (values) and ontological (orientation to the world) awareness as they in developing intellectual strength. This is real rigour.

By exploring the various taxonomies of learning we outline ways in which photography teachers can remind themselves (and others) of what and how students are being taught in their lessons. By deliberate questioning in lessons we can draw attention to this vast range of skills and abilities, making the implicit explicit.

There are certainly limitations to these taxonomies. They tend to suggest that learning is hierarchical - that students can't be creative, for example, until they have 'mastered' knowledge and understanding. It's important to be too literal in the interpretation of them. We are all aware that learning is complex, interwoven, iterative and cyclical in nature. We should not expect photography students to progress through the stages of Bloom's Cognitive Domain in any kind of logical sequence. We should not delay opportunities for students to be creative until we have instructed them in the whole history of photography. Likewise, an over-emphasis on writing or memorisation of facts, will not lead to greater Photo Literacy. We must resist attempts to limit photography. 

We must defend and celebrate the particular affordances of the visual, emphasise the importance of intuition, of feeling, of not knowing and unlearning. Students' breakthrough moments will be unpredictable. They may struggle with some aspects of the course (taking what seems like an inordinate amount of time to emerge from a particular threshold) but may take like ducks to water in other aspects of their programme of study. However, we hope that by outlining some of the ways in which educationalists have theorised about learning, by shining a light on taxonomies other than the cognitive, and by providing some ways in which teachers can use questioning and dialogue to draw out their students' learning, we can all better argue for our rightful place in the curriculum - right at the very heart!

​-- Jon Nicholls, Thomas Tallis School

Welcome to the new Photopedagogy website and blog. Over the last couple of years we have noticed the growth in the number of photography courses being established by colleagues across the UK. This is really encouraging, not only because we love photography and are excited by opportunities for students to study the subject, but also in the context of the effects of the EBacc and the overall squeeze on arts and creativity in schools. Whilst we don't have any accurate statistics about the increase in the number of photography courses specifically, our sense is that there is a growing need for colleagues to connect with each other, to share good practice, debate the nature of the subject and seek support for the development of exciting initiatives.

For example, the NSEAD's Facebook Group 'Through the Lens' provides a fantastic support network. We are very grateful for the support of the NSEAD and other leading organisations in developing this resource. Our aim in establishing this website is to enhance existing networks and develop the capacity of colleagues to refine and develop their practice through a deep engagement with photography pedagogy.

Our aim is to invite colleagues to write guest blog posts, contribute longer articles and share tried and tested lesson plans on the site. We are keen to showcase examples of good practice by students in our Gallery pages, both the process and the products of their creativity. We aim to harness the wealth of talent and expertise amongst existing photography teachers in order to support colleagues new to the discipline and extend the quality of debate about what it means to study photography at this point in the history of the medium.

The site is in its infancy and, so far, features resources that we have largely created ourselves. Our aim is to expand its range and quality considerably over the coming months. We hope you find the site useful and see its potential. If you'd like to get involved in creating content for the site, please get in touch. Thank you for your interest so far and we look forward to working with you in the near future.

Jon and Chris