Notes have helped me remember; they’re my safe space; they’re therapeutic; and they’ve liberated my imagination

An anthology investigating how educators, creatives, and learners can liberate and uplift their voices through writing, teaching, investigating, and intentional everyday living.

An instructive and inspiring collection written by Masters’ students at Goldsmiths’ university, and pupils from South London schools. Essential reading for anyone interested in finding ways of thriving in a fractured world.

This book contains many tips for helping teachers of creative writing, written by my students on the MA Creative Writing and Education at Goldsmiths.

Abstract or Description This article enumerates four ways that education can make the world more socially just, drawing upon the expertise of the educationalist in the Department of Educational Studies at Goldsmiths. Reference: Gilbert, Francis. 2024. Four ways education can make the world more socially just. Educational Studies blog, [Article] TextSocial Justice Feb 2024.pdf – Accepted VersionAvailable […]

Newbolt strongly advocates imaginative ways of teaching writing, championing self-expression above rote-learning. The Report illustrates that an effective teacher of creative writing should be well read, sensitive, cultured and open-minded.

Aspects of the neoliberal education system can preclude the development of young writers. Feedback can be unempathetic, but it can also be productive, creating an internal dialogue that develops the writer over time, giving them control over the writing process and facilitating redrafting.

What do primary school children in Lambeth want for their local parks? February 2024. It’s a cold, rainy morning outside Hillmead Primary School, but inside their assembly hall, the Year 3/4 (8-9 year olds) pupils are happy and engaged. Some of their classmates are delivering speeches about what they want from their local parks to […]

Abstract or Description This article explores a case study of a mindfulness teacher, Beth, and her experiences of teaching mindfulness to 11- to 16-year-olds in several English schools. It shows why Beth was drawn to teaching mindfulness, which was both to alleviate the stress amongst her pupils and improve her own mental health. It illustrates […]

It is a cold January Sunday afternoon in 2022, but Angela Kreeger’s living room feels gorgeous. I am surrounded by walls covered beautifully with art, and I’m eating far too many slices of a delicious almond cake Angela has made.

Abstract or Description Our parks have a problem with young people. While our parks cater for children aged 0-8 years with playgrounds, they too frequently make older children feel unwelcome and unwanted, particularly young people from poorer backgrounds. This is because young people struggle to find their own spaces and activities in them, and often […]

Abstract or Description This research illustrates how teacher-writers can improve their craft and pedagogy by writing for a specific audience, namely school children. It also illustrates why they might do so. It interrogates what was learnt from an innovative collaboration between a university teacher-education department, an inner-city secondary school and the United Kingdom’s National Maritime […]

To “diagrart” (my neologism combining the words diagrams, dialogue and art), one must write and draw, and believe you are creating art, no matter how crude you think your work to be.

Abstract or Description In her ethnographic study, Factories for learning: Making race, class and inequality in the neoliberal academy (2017), Christine Kulz depicts an oppressive system in a United Kingdom secondary school, Dreamfields. Kulz illustrates how many children and teachers are stripped of their autonomy, rights and dignity. In this article, Northfields, a school like […]

This teacher-centred article explores specifics therapeutic pedagogies that help people ‘vent’ their traumas and issues. It contains lots of practical suggestions based on research evidence, and offers a rationale for ‘letting it all spill out’ in educational settings.

This academic, peer-reviewed article is a piece of research which shows how freewriting and drawing can have a therapeutic effect when working online. It draws upon the experience of my students and my colleagues, Dr Miranda Matthews. It also suggests a methodology for this approach.

Creative writing can be used to nurture ecoliteracie, helping people developing an organic, ecological view of language.

Abstract or Description This article is a short summary of a conference presentation given online for the NAWE Conference, Spring 2021. It suggests some different ways of teaching creative writing online, using puppets, stories, drawings and metacognition. Gilbert, Francis. 2021. Teaching Creative Writing Online: Research-Informed Strategies. Writing in Education, 83, pp. 89-91. ISSN 1361-8539 [Article] Reference: […]

Abstract or Description This article argues that we need to ‘descend into the crypt’ of creative writing, and use rigorous, academic research methods and methodologies to examine it. The communities that writing arises from, processes of writing, the unique psychologies of writers, the ways in which writing is used in different settings and eras all […]

This academic, peer-reviewed research article explores the different reasons why creative writing is taught. One of the purposes I suggest, based on my research, is ‘to heal’, in other words, creative writing is taught as a form of therapy. I suspect this happens more than is actually openly stated. Many teachers set therapeutic tasks such as freewriting, storytelling about a different psychological issue etc (like bullying, childhood trauma etc), so that the authors can learn and grow from the experience of writing about it.