Cross-Curricular Learning 3-14

Jonathan is senior lecturer in Education at Canterbury Christ Church University. He has lifelong interests in music, geography, history, religion and art. These cross-curricular leanings led him first to teach history and geography and the history of art in two Kent secondary schools in the 1970s, then to become a primary class teacher for most of the 1980s. His passion for relevance and engagement in learning led him to devise a ground-breaking interdisciplinary curriculum based wholly on the school locality in the Kent school of which he was head throughout the 1990s. Since 2000 as a teacher educator, Jonathan has researched links between the ‘science of learning’, cross-curricular and creative approaches and the well-being of teachers and children. He has taught both children and teachers for extended periods in India, Germany, Kenya and Malaysia instituting innovative curriculum projects. In the UK he has worked with national organisations such as English Heritage, Engaging Places, The Victoria and Albert and Maritime Museums in London as well as being a popular speaker on creative and cross-curricular approaches to teaching. He brought together his wide and disparate experience in a ground-breaking autobiographical PhD entitled, ‘What sustains a life in education?’ He continues to be involved in teacher education and research involving the links between Arts and well-being at Canterbury Christ Church’s Sidney deHaan Research Centre.