Alternative Curriculum saw artist collective They Are Here question the routines of the school environment. Working with St Paul’s Way Trust School, they explored what a curriculum is, how it operates and the agency of the student in the learning experience.
As these pupils make their GCSE subject selection, what case can be made for a less utilitarian education?
The format of the Alternative Curriculum was established through a voting process; pupils were presented with 10 possible lessons and asked to vote in a ballot system. The top 4 selected sessions then became the curriculum lessons.
In this first iteration of the project, the longlist of lesson options was drawn from current They Are Here research / autobiographical interests, personal alliances and activities that function as a counterpoint to current state education in urban environments.
The location of the sessions - primarily away from school grounds or outdoors was integral to Alternative Curriculum - recognising the impact of one’s immediate environment on how knowledge is shared and absorbed.
Central to the process was the cultivation amongst the pupils of a heightened self-reflexivity around schooling itself, the politics of documentation and arguments for the value of art in the education system. The ballot and representation of voting data was designed with Rose Nordin of OOMK. The photographs have been taken collectively by the students themselves.
Alternative Curriculum was commissioned and curated by UP Projects and is a conceptual artwork by They Are Here delivered in partnership with St Paul’s Way Trust School.
