Abstract

Gesturing towards ‘gatherings of pedagogical minor gestures’ invites UAL staff and students to recognise, value and share the small, often overlooked moments in teaching and learning that quietly shift relations, access and possibility. In this workshop we treat the Creative Education Festival itself as a live Spark lab: a space to notice these minor gestures, experiment with non normative formats (image, sound, text, performance) and sketch feasible submissions for the forthcoming EPRG edited Spark special issue. Our key message is that these tentative, processual acts, rather than only polished outcomes, can become collectively gathered, accessible and celebratory contributions to creative education at UAL.

Session and activities

This 50‑minute workshop, Gesturing towards ‘gatherings of pedagogical minor gestures’, invites participants into the Experimental Pedagogies Research Group (EPRG) Spark’s (UAL’s Journal of Creative Education) special issue as an experimental, participatory space. We focus on the ‘minor gesture’ in teaching and learning as the subtle, fleeting actions, adjustments and encounters that may appear insignificant, yet transform how students and staff relate, feel included, or access learning. The session responds directly to the Festival call for creative workshops by combining reflection, making and dialogue to support colleagues in generating feasible, non‑normative Spark submissions.

The workshop unfolds through a series of concise activities. We begin by collectively mapping words, images and stories that participants associate with pedagogical minor gestures, situating these within the EPRG call and the wider ‘gala’/playlist ambitions to gather diverse practices. Individually, participants then ‘sketch’ a specific minor gesture from their own context, noting who/what was involved, what shifted, and why it matters. In small groups, they share and re‑frame these accounts, surfacing under‑recognised voices, sites and experiments across UAL.

Next, we introduce a set of simple ‘format stations’ aligned with the Spark call as visual/diagrammatic responses, fragmentary or poetic texts, dialogues/transcripts, and outlines for events or performative actions. Participants choose a station and prototype a short, accessible piece that could realistically be developed into a Spark submission, foregrounding attempts, workings‑out and partial documentation rather than polished products. A brief, structured peer‑exchange models the collaborative, transparent and formative review ethos of the special issue, with peers offering appreciative, developmental feedback and prompting consideration of access measures (e.g. alt text, captions, descriptive notes, multimodal pathways).

We close by inviting participants to name a working title, chosen format and next step for their potential submission, and to contribute a one‑sentence ‘micro‑blurb’ to a collective EPRG Spark ‘gatherings’. In this way, the workshop supports the Festival’s aims around engagement, contemporary relevance and diverse, creative approaches to educational practice, while practically enabling colleagues to move from gesture to gathered contribution.

This workshop will function as a live, miniature (minor) version of the special issue itself, where participants collectively compose, test and prototype minor-gesture submissions in multiple media, while also understanding the practical requirements for Spark and the EPRG call.