Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Dr Lisa Stephenson
Senior Lecturer
Dr Lisa Stephenson is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education. Her teaching and research specialism is creative (drama) learning. She is founder and director of Story Makers Company, a practice-based research centre which champions creative pedagogies and relational learning.
Lisa is Course Leader for the MA Creativity and supervises several PhD students. As a previous, primary school teacher and senior leader, she also teaches creativities across Initial Teacher Education.
Lisa's PhD research demonstrates the way in which drama pedagogy activates children's dispositions and transformative competencies for wellbeing, creativity and critical thinking. Lisa leads several national and international research projects on professional development with teachers, creating holistic curriculum and assessment opportunities through her research in areas such as oracy, communication, collective creativity, critical thinking and emotional literacy. She is currently principal investigator on a two-year research professional development project with teachers across Bradford, integrating creative pedagogy for Oracy across the curriculum through story. She is also co-investigator in a Pan-European project creating educational resources to boost children's wellbeing and creativity.
Lisa works extensively with a wide range of artist educators, schools, communities, marginalised young people and cultural organisations, developing research opportunities in areas of social change through creative pedagogy.
Current Teaching
Course Leader:
- MA Creative Learning: Innovation and Inclusion for Social Change
- Creative Pedagogies International
Modules:
- MA Drama for Social Change
- MA Creative Pedagogies
- ITE Creative Arts
- MA Dissertation
- ITE Action Research
PhD supervisor
Research Interests
Lisa’s teaching and research relates to drama and creative arts learning. Her approach to teaching drama focuses on creating fictional worlds where children are challenged to negotiate and build democratic futures, on their own terms through drama, free writing and art. For her PhD, Lisa explored children’s (aged 10-11) perceptions of using drama and story making processes across two years. Her research findings present a model of eight creative and wellbeing dispositions and transferable competencies, incorporating critical thinking, emotional literacy and 21st century skills which empower young people as change agents. This research is being developed nationally across schools.
Lisa is the founder and director of Story Makers Company, a practice-research based centre which champions creative learning to empower marginalised groups. The centre showed significant research impact in the recent REF case study. Her research and practice also underpinned The Story Makers Press, which she co-founded and led. She has co-created stories with diverse children, writing accompanying teacher’s curriculum guides which explore complex wellbeing issues raised within books through drama.
Lisa current research also looks at digital technology as a tool to amplify story and curriculum using ‘story weaving’ as a methodology. The work has had an impact on children, teachers and communities, through a number of ongoing funded projects since COVID.
Lisa is Principal Investigator for a project running across BD5 Primary Schools in Bradford. Funded by Teacher Development Fund, the project looks at building children’s oracy and communication skills through drama and supporting teacher to integrate creative learning across the curriculum through a story exchange. She is also Co-Principal Investigator for arted, a trans-European ERASMUS+ funded project which seeks to transfer the knowledge of artists to teachers and parents in order to boost children's wellbeing and creativity.
Lisa has recently evaluated creative therapies across 20 primary schools.
Ask Me About
- Children
- Community
- Culture
- Diversity
- Education
- Equality and inclusion
- Mental health
- Teaching
- Wellbeing
News & Blog Posts
Free new resources for schools and parents to boost children’s wellbeing through creative arts
Education research group collaborates with global think tank to empower next generation of learners
Book written in collaboration with Leeds Academy pupils to launch this week
Online story exchange experience to boost Bradford primary school children’s speaking skills
