Emeritus professors

In this section

Richard Kimbell

Emeritus Professor in Design

Richard specialises in areas of design concerned with curriculum and assessments in schools.

Teaching

BAEd, PGCE, MA and PhD supervision concerning teaching learning and assessment

Areas of supervision

I have successfully completed supervisons with 12 PhD students since 1994, with two currently underway. My research student supervision is located in the following broadly defined areas:

design teaching and learning
performance assessment
national policy in curriculum and assessment)
creativity, imagination and design
learning spaces and resources
design practice notation and analysis
research methods in practice domains

Research interests

In 1990 I founded the Technology Education Research Unit (TERU) and have since directed research projects for Research Councils (eg ESRC), government departments (eg DfID, DfES, DCSF), industry (eg LEGO), charitable bodies (eg NESTA), Design and Science museums in London and professional organisations (eg Engineering Council). Projects have also been run with overseas agencies including the National Science Foundation in the USA, the National Academies in Washington, the North West Province Curriculum Council in South Africa, and the West Australia Curriculum Council.

The projects I have directed in the last RAE round (2001-2007) are listed below (see Grants and Awards) and are typically centred on aspects of curriculum and assessment in schools. The most recent focus of our work (project e-scape) is based on the dynamic creation of e-portfolios - using hand-held digital devices – and in several subjects (science and geography as well as design & technology). The web-based nature of the portfolios has subsequently enabled us to develop a radical new assessment methodology based on Thurstone pairs-wise comparisons. The methodology enables far higher reliability than is possible with conventional assessment approaches for portfolios. We are negotiating the replication of this work in parallel projects elsewhere – including West Australia.

See Richard's research outputs on Goldsmiths Research Online.

Professor Kay Stables

Emeritus Professor in Design

A founder member of the Technology Education Research Unit, she has directed and contributed to research projects in primary and secondary education in the UK and overseas.

Recent research has focused on design, creativity and sustainable development, designerly well-being and digital tools in assessment including creating dialogic frameworks for supporting the development of design capability in digital environments through the use of on-screen avatars. Her current research is focusing on alternative approaches to design and technology education in schools that go beyond mainstream, Eurocentric models.

Recent publications include Stables & Keirl, 2015, Environment, Ethics and Cultures: Design and Technology Education’s contribution to sustainable global futures (Sense) and Williams and Stables, 2017, Critique in Design and Technology Education (Springer).

She is a Trustee of the Design and Technology Association and Editor of Design and Technology Education: An International Journal an open source research journal that provides a broad and inclusive platform for research into design education and technology education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

Research interests

Kay Stables’ research interests stem from her belief that a defining characteristic of being human is design capability. Her teaching and research has at its core the development of this capability from the very youngest learners upwards, acknowledging Sen’s definition of capability as what a person can be (their beliefs) and what a person can do (their agency). This stance drives her interest in the wellbeing of the designer in everyone and how this can be developed through education. A major focus in her work has been how we understand this capability and its development, which has centred much of her research on authentic, performance based assessment of capability. A belief in the importance of social and cultural relevance is fuelling her current interest in alternative perspectives, beyond mainstream Eurocentric ideas of knowledge, knowing and doing, that can bring more pluralistic contributions to mainstream education.

See Professor Stable's research output on Goldsmiths Research Centre

Professor John Wood

Emeritus Professor in Design

Professor Wood developed the Goldsmiths BA(Hons) Design (1989) and, subsequently, our first MA programme (Design Futures, 1995).

Originally trained as a fine artist, John devised electronic toys and interactive installations, before adapting his approach to inventing, writing and performing. He still plays and records with the 1970s cult band Deaf School. He was Deputy Head of the Fine Art Department for ten years before writing what is now the BA(Hons) Design (1989) and, subsequently, our first MA programme (Design Futures, 1995). At the time, their breadth, and their focus on ecological and ethical issues, was rare. Arguably, their radicalism helped to inspire the way the current Design Department has developed and matured.

In recent years John has supervised half a dozen PhD researchers at Goldsmiths and acted as an external examiner for five PhD candidates and two masters programmes in other universities. In collaboration with Dr. Julia Lockheart and others (Royal College of Art & Central St. Martins), John initiated the international Writing-PAD Network and its ‘Journal of Writing in Creative Practice’ (Intellect Books), which they have co-edited since 2008. The mission behind both ventures is to encourage studio practitioners to see writing as more than a scholastic discipline constrained by the truth-seeking aspects of ‘research’. Rather, we continue to develop methods that also harness talking and writing as a purpose-driven and practical aspect of design thinking.

John has worked as a visiting professor in Japan, Korea and Thailand and given keynote lectures in other countries. He has published over a hundred and fifty articles, papers and chapters, and acted as an editorial board member of international journals in UK, Germany, USA, Australia, Taiwan and Korea. He is currently writing his fourth book, which will explore new possibilities in governance and design thinking. Much of his research into metadesign can be accessed via the Metadesigners webpage.

Recent Book Chapters

Wood, J., (2017), "From Products to Relations: Adding jeong to the metadesigner’s vocabulary", chapter for Handbook of Sustainable Product Design by Jonathan Chapman, Routledge, ISBN-10: 1138910171, ISBN-13: 978-1138910171
Wood, J., (2016), "A Quadratic Model of Consciousness", a chapter for a forthcoming book The Undivided Mind, (ed. Jane Grant), part of the Consciousness Reframed series, to be published by Intellect Books.
Wood, J., (2015), "Collective Metamorphosis; a combinatorial approach to self-transformation", a chapter for Transformation Design (ed. Wolfgang Jonas), BIRD (Board of International Research in Design, BIRKHÄUSER).
Du Noyer P. (2013), Deaf School: The Non-Stop Pop Art Punk Rock Party (pp. Vii-X). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press
Wood, J., (2013), “Metadesigning Paradigm Change: an ecomimetic, language-centred approach”, a chapter in Handbook of Design for Sustainability, edited by Stuart Walker & Jacques Giroud (Berg), 2013
Wood, J., (2012), Creativity & Biodiversity; towards a Synergy-of-Synergies, paper in the Journal of Advances in System Sciences & Applications, Editor, Prof. Jeffrey (Yi Lin) Forrest, An official journal of the International Institute for General Systems Studies, Vol. 12, (3), pp. 232

Recent Recordings

Deaf School (2017) VINYL ALBUM: Let's Do This Again Next Week, (Deaf School Music - London)
The Clang Group (2016) VINYL ALBUM: ‘Practice’, ‎(Domino Records), WIGCD372, UK 2016
Deaf School (2015) CD ALBUM: Launderette, (Deaf School Music - London)
The Clang Group ‎(2015), 10", EP, (Domino Records), RUG639T, Europe,
Deaf School (2011), CD “Enrico & Bette” (Deaf School Music - London)

Recent Exhibitions

(2017) Collaborative installation ‘The Machine for Saying Sorry’ with composer John Lunn and artists Alma Tischlerwood and Sara Willets, Art House, Lewisham. https://vimeo.com/247695736
(2017) Soundtrack for film by Alex Forsey & Alma Tischlerwood
(2014) Heat-guided laser installation within Alma Tischlerwood’s exhibition ‘Madame Lavoisier’s Drawing Room’, at Bildersaal & Artothek, Munich, Germany

See Professor Wood's research output at Goldsmiths Research Centre.

Steve Keirl

Emeritus Professor in Design

Steve explores the relationships amongst general education, ethics, curriculum, pedagogy, democracy, design, and technology.