Co-Designing a Jewellery Curriculum: Conversations and remembrances about Ann O’Donnell and her work in adult education

Broadhead, Samantha ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9469-1233 and Norton, Frances ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1935-4987 (2026) Co-Designing a Jewellery Curriculum: Conversations and remembrances about Ann O’Donnell and her work in adult education. RELA - European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults. ISSN 2000-7426 (In Press)

Abstract

Two educational researchers whose work is located in the creative arts have come together in a conversational encounter to explore the educational legacy of Ann O’Donnell (1933-2019). O’Donnell was a jewellery designer, maker, and entrepreneur. She was also an important educator working in Leeds, UK during the late 1950s-1993. During the time of O’Donnell’s employment in an art college, its archivists and librarians did not collect many papers, curricula or resources made by women educators, who often had part-time roles. This resulted in their contributions to the field of education becoming invisible. In order to preserve O’Donnell’s legacy conversations between the two researchers were employed to capture the pedagogic knowledge created by her experience and practice in creating a jewellery curriculum with her students. As O’Donnell was working at a significant time for the development of vocational qualifications in the UK (1970s-1990s) the conversation revealed O’Donnell’s pragmatism in interweaving a liberal and vocational education for the benefit of her students.

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