Art and craft research

Student’s pots from the kiln at Oruaiti School, 1952

Student’s pots from the kiln at Oruaiti School, 1952

In 2010 I completed a doctoral degree in education. My research tells the story of how the development of art and craft education in the primary school curriculum became a powerful catalyst for educational reform in Aotearoa.

The educational reforms in the 1930s–1960s broke down barriers between the school and the community and led to significant and enduring shifts in the way people in Aotearoa thought about the arbitrary distinctions that are so often made between art and craft, teaching and learning, and education and work.

Oruaiti School students with their pottery 1952.jpg

Some of Aotearoa’s best known artists, sculptors and potters had their beginnings as itinerant art teachers working in Art and Craft branch of the Department of Education between 1940 and 1970 including Doreen Blumhardt, Ralph Hotere, Marilyn Webb, Katerina Mataira, Sandy Adsett, John Bevan Ford, Cliff Whiting, Jim Allen, and Clive Aldridge.

During the course of my research I was fortunate to interview a number of New Zealand potters, artists and teachers (and their students) whose work transformed the way art was taught in schools and demonstrated the important role social and cultural activities play in bringing communities together. Their fresh vision, insight, and expertise continues to shape my sense of expression, identity, and place as an artist in Aotearoa today.

 
Oruaiti School students unloading the kiln 1952jpeg

My dissertation was awarded the New Zealand Association for Research in Education 2011 Sutton-Smith Doctoral Award for excellence in a doctoral thesis. In 2016, I adapted my dissertation for a book which was published by The New Zealand Council for Educational Research and was a finalist in the New Zealand  Education Book Awards ‘Best Resource in Higher Education’ category. You can find a review of my book here.

Publications, reviews and citations

 
‎⁨Paparoa National Park⁩, ⁨West Coast⁩, ⁨New Zealand⁩

Publications

Margaret MacDonald. 'Richardson, Elwyn Stuart - Biography', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2020. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand,

Margaret MacDonald. Elwyn Richardson and the early world of creative education in New Zealand, NZCER Press, 2016.

Margaret MacDonald. Discovering Art Through Science: Elwyn Richardson’s environmental curriculum, Educational Philosophy and Theory journal, 2016.

Margaret MacDonald,‎⁨ Kahurangi National Park⁩, ⁨West Coast⁩, ⁨New Zealand⁩

Reviews

Deborah Fraser. “Timely and urgent”: Review of Margaret MacDonald (2016), Elwyn Richardson and the Early World of Creative Education in New Zealand, NZCER Press. Journal issue: set 2016: no. 1, start page: 52.

“Elwyn Richardson.” Jayne Jackson. Kairaranga Journal, Resource Teacher: Learning and Behaviour, and the Massey University Institute of Education, Volume 17, Issue 1: 2016.

‎⁨Kahurangi National Park⁩, ⁨West Coast⁩, ⁨New Zealand⁩