The pandemic disrupted schooling worldwide – but it also sparked a deeper debate about the purpose of education. Alex Soulsby FRSA explores the international network putting imagination at the heart of learning.
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When school transformed into a laptop at the breakfast table, many of us began asking what education could – and should – be about. The Covid-19 pandemic did more than disrupt schooling; it prompted a deeper reflection on how education might better enable young people to flourish, especially during uncertain times.
Some of these conversations took on a structure of their own. They grew into an international creative education network, convened by Jane Bryant FRSA and me, alongside Rick Hall FRSA and colleagues across the international arts and cultural sector. As the pandemic subsided and education systems raced back to ‘normal’, the network’s conversations on the purpose of schooling ground to a halt, but the questions did not.
Building on ideas from that initial dialogue, the International Arts and Imagination Network (IAIN) has emerged. Its central call is for greater space for imagination and creative thinking in our education systems and beyond.
The International Arts and Imagination Network champions the idea that imagination is our superpower and that the arts are transformational in our lives.
With the involvement of Penny Hay FRSA, Nia Richards FRSA and others, the network is becoming a gathering space for people working across education, culture and community practice. IAIN’s purpose is simple but ambitious: to nurture dialogue about imagination in learning, society and culture, especially at a time when education systems remain tightly measured, pressured and outcome-driven.
Since the initial launch a year ago, IAIN’s sessions have included contributions and input from Harvard Graduate School of Education, the University of Sydney, initiatives and organisations that have included Curious Minds and the Cultural Learning Alliance, as well as educational institutions in Thailand and Australia. Fellows including Dr Mike Bindon FRSA, Keisha Thompson FRSA and Carolyn Mason Parker FRSA have offered perspectives and insights spanning policy, leadership and classroom practice.
Participants and audiences join from across time zones, sometimes early morning, sometimes late evening. Contributing voices and online attendees are all united in the conviction that imagination deserves far greater attention in how schools and societies think about both learning and flourishing. Provocations, reflections and shared resources are regularly distributed between sessions, so that later discussions can build on earlier ones and so that conversations can evolve with purpose, rigour and curiosity.
These conversations have ranged from wider reform thinking, including the ongoing work of the Cultural Learning Alliance, to provocations around ‘Every Day Creative Activism’ and reflections on impact and outcome in schools. They help voices across education, the arts and cultural practice to deepen discussion, shape shared understanding, and strengthen and sustain advocacy. The network functions less like a conference and more like an ongoing conversation.
As Penny Hay explains: “The International Arts and Imagination Network champions the idea that imagination is our superpower and that the arts are transformational in our lives. In a world facing complex challenges, the network highlights the arts as essential to cultivating creativity and the life skills needed for inclusive, connected and more hopeful futures.”
The urgency of these discussions is clear. Around the world, schools remain heavily focused on what can be measured, even as the challenges facing young people grow ever more complex.
IAIN exists to promote learning that cultivates curiosity, creativity, human understanding – and the human capacities, from collaboration, empathy and compassion to critical thinking, imagination and inquiry. All of these resist easy measurement, but are essential to navigating an unpredictable world.
This ambition aligns closely with the mission and vision of the RSA, in that progress depends on bringing curiosity, creativity and civic responsibility into the same room. As our world continues to be framed by geopolitical tensions, hardening borders and a tendency for human discourse to be fueled by binaries and echo chambers, the case for championing imagination and creative thinking has rarely felt stronger.
As Sir Ken Robinson wrote: “Imagination is what separates us from the rest of life on Earth. It is through imagination that we can create the worlds in which we live. We can also re-create them.”
The roots of IAIN began in a moment of global disruption. It has since become something more deliberate: an international dialogue about the what and how of equipping young people, not merely to succeed, but to understand and help shape an increasingly complex, contested world.
If we are to get our next chapter right, these conversations cannot be local, occasional or optional. They must be international, sustained and brave.
Alex Soulsby FRSA is a creative education specialist with a focus on creating arts and cultural programmes in educational settings. He is an advocate for the transformative role of the arts in education and has led projects and initiatives in this area both in the UK and internationally.
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