Professional Master of Education

The Professional Master of Education (PME) is a two-year master’s programme which leads to a professional qualification to teach Art and Design at post-primary level. The conceptual framework that underpins the delivery of the PME programme operates on the principle that art teacher education is not centrally concerned with the teaching of art, or teaching about art, but rather is expressly committed to teaching through art.

The question, "What does it mean to teach and make art that is of and for our time?" anchored the PME cohorts’ experience of the programme. It was explored through many facets, including their design and delivery of the curriculum in post primary education; research inquiries and learning encounters that involved peer learning, inclusive education, and engaging with the gallery as a pedagogical site.

The programme is orientated around a sustained immersion in one’s practice as artists and designers. Essentially, how they think, contextualise, and make work as artists and designers informs their methodology as future teachers. The annual Change Lab experience and exhibition in the NCAD Gallery gives the student teachers the opportunity to do just that.

The Change Lab was designed as a model of practice to integrate Global Citizenship Education (GCE) into the heart of learning of the PME programme. The Change Lab has evolved as an innovative pedagogical, research, and exhibition event where contemporary social and political issues are considered and critically pursued through collaborative art-making, scholarly inquiry, and exhibition.

The Change Lab instils in our artist-teachers a strong commitment and motivation to teach for social justice and sustainability, through the lens of their practice as artist, researcher and teacher.

The Change Lab website  https://thechangelab.ie was created to showcase the artist teachers lab experience and the multiple layers that the project involves.The site also acts as a pedagogical repository and a digital archive for past iterations of the Change Lab experience. 

Noel Guilfoyle 
Interim Programme Leader of the Professional Master of Education (PME) Lecturer in Art & Design Education

1) Granville, G. (2012) Trajectory, Torque and Turn: Art and Design Education in Irish Post Primary Schools. In Gary Granville (Ed) Art Education and Contemporary Culture: Irish Experience, International Perspectives. Bristol: Intellect Books.