The Theory Platform is an academy-wide platform for educational innovation and reflection, founded in 2007 and linked to the Lectorate Art Theory and Practice. Members include theory teachers from across the KABK’s Bachelor and Master programmes, as well as representatives from the library and the research catalogue. We come together to find common ground, pool knowledge, and develop new tools for teaching, strategies and research. As a collective think tank and incubator, our activities reach across and beyond the academy’s departments and the school itself.
Through our bi-monthly meetings, an ongoing dialogue is facilitated about teaching methods, forms of collaboration between theory, practice and research, the use of digital tools, and models for the publication and dissemination of theory/research. Ethics and solidarity are also important topics, as the platform discusses the labour conditions for theory tutors and the integration of theory into the curriculum as well as academy life in general.
The Theory Platform forms an environment in where critical (self)reflection and experimentation can thrive, because different viewpoints and experiences are exchanged. This results in talks and workshops about the latest pedagogical innovations in theoretical education, policy advice on the role of theory and theory tutors across the academy, guidelines for examinations and theses, experimental projects that give visibility to student and staff writing and research, and new opportunities for research collaboration and funding. For example, the platform has engaged in publishing vision papers for development of theory education, organised seminars, as well as academy-wide courses and labs such as the Thesis Lab and the Exhibition Research Lab.
Through smaller working groups, members work outside the bi-monthly meetings to develop research and outputs on specific urgencies. Current and past working groups have focused on themes such as thesis and referencing, publishing and access, working conditions, bodies of knowledge, mapping research education, and online didactics. Outputs are shared across and beyond the academy, through events such as the Matter Does Matter thesis exhibition, and the Bridging the Thesis student and alumni exchange event.