Joanna Fursman is an artist, researcher and educator, employing lens-based practice to critically explore the distinct fields of pedagogy, contemporary art-practice and the photographic image. Fursman’s research and art practice examines non-normative representations of education, specifically through photography and film making. Her research approaches interrogate collaborative practices through an ongoing project entitled ‘Looking for a new School Portrait’. This situates the camera in spaces where education happens, employing practice-based research to investigate experiences of being educated and explores the possibilities of camera technology as a pedagogue.

Fursman has published book chapters and journal articles that explore the crucial role of the camera and the photo-walk that employ Bolt’s theory of ‘imaging’ to document education and pedagogy from the point of view of young people and more recently how film making in education contexts signal to embodied and affective practices of pedagogy.

Fursman is the subject leader for the PGCE Art and Design and has worked in Secondary, Further and Higher Education since 2005. Fursman has also taught Fine Art, the Artist Teacher Scheme and led the MA Art and Education Practices at Birmingham School of Art and BA Art and Education and Primary Initial Teacher Education at Newman University. Fursman was a co-director, curator and fundraiser at Catalyst Arts, Belfast, is a member of the Women in Photography Birmingham network, has an ongoing exhibition practice and has also been a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language in Madrid.

• Practice-based Research.
• Art Practice.
• Photography and Lens-Based Practice.
• Art Education.
• Pedagogy and philosophy of education.
• Young people’s photography.
• Collective and socially engaged art practice.