Vol. 9 No. 1 (2013)

Volume 9 Issue 1

Cover Date: March2013

For access to the articles and Visual Essays click here.

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Contents

EDITORIAL

Authors:  Glen Coutts

Page Start: 3

 

ARTICLES

 

Creating art, creating identity: Under-privileged pupils in art education challenge critical pedagogy practices

Authors:  Dalya Yafa Markovich And  Tamar Rapoport

Page Start: 7

Keywords

cultural knowledge,critical Pedagogy,under-privileged students,agency

 

Abstract

Studies in the field of education in general, and in art education in particular, point to the contribution of critical pedagogy to the identity empowerment of pupils from an underprivileged socio-class background. Most of the studies conducted so far have examined in detail the theoretical–ideological characteristics of the critical praxis in education, but little attention has been given to the ways in which it operates in practice as part of the learning process in class. This article focuses on the meanings given by pupils from one art class in an underprivileged high school to the critical praxis, and on the ways in which they understood their identity and their social position in light of it. The study is part of an ethnographic field work that took place in the class over an entire school year. This included participant observations in 25 lessons and in-depth interviews with eight leading pupils. The findings suggest that the pupils tended to reject typical critical pedagogical practices that sought to empower them – adopting hegemonic creative tools (the master’s tools) and high-lighting peripheral narratives (ascribing a voice to the subaltern) – this on account of seeing them as reflecting and replicating their underprivileged condition. These objections suggest that critical pedagogy works in differential and unpredictable ways in underprivileged ethno-class contexts, which put its universal ideological assumptions to the test.

 

‘In Between the Fireflies’: Community art with senior women of chinese heritage around issues of culture, language and storytelling

Authors:  Heather Mcleod And  Kathryn Ricketts

Page Start: 23

 

Keywords

community art,empowerment,senior women,Chinese culture,immigrants,multiple literacies

 

Abstract

Participants were empowered through their engagement in the process of two recent separate community art research projects that highlighted the benefits of dialogue in art-making and increased participation as facilitators ceded authority to participants. Both projects used ethnography and narrative methods. The participants were senior women of Chinese heritage in Western Canada who could not fluently speak Canada’s dominant languages and some could not read or write in any language. Their involvement focused around issues of culture, language and storytelling. Reflecting on the projects suggested new avenues of research to learn more distinctly about such empowerment, and facilitated our personal creative work. Based on this learning, we continue to develop new initiatives for the education of pre-service teachers that will involve possibilities for transformation and the counter-hegemonic. Dialogue benefits art-making, and the possibilities for participation in creative community education projects are increased when planners surrender power to participants.

 

 

The lost and found space of the arts in education

Authors:  Lisa LaJevic

Page Start: 41

 

Keywords

art education,teacher education,arts integration,elementary education,curriculum

 

Abstract

Using the metaphor of the ‘lost and found’, I will explore the curricular and pedagogical space of the arts in the elementary classroom and address implications for teacher education. The lost and found – a space where found items are kept for reclaiming by their owners – can help provide insight into the complexities and uncertainties of integrating the arts into the general elementary classroom. This article is based on findings from a qualitative study that attempted to understand arts integration and what is truly happening with the arts in elementary classrooms.

 

Learning and seeing through walls: The Karlín school’s form of education through art (raising questions of location, nation, trans-nation, history, myth and modernity)

Authors:  Jeremy Howard

Page Start: 55

 

Keywords

art history,education history,art and education

 

Abstract

This article examines the Karlín School in Prague as a work of educational art. Built between 1904 and 1906 the school appeared like a modern learning palace and was adorned externally with four large scale murals and a range of sculptural works that taught not just the children studying in the school but also the local citizens about the value of art in education. As much as the monumental artwork combined with the architecture of the school was about sensibility to beauty and quality, it was also pedagogical, historical, highly politicized and ideological. The nature of these multiple signs of the artwork is analysed here, and considered within the contexts of national awakenings (particularly that of the Czechs in the early twentieth century) as well as the rise of teaching through art that Bohemia (through Comenius) had done so much to instigate.

 

 

Investigating interrelations in visual arts education: Aesthetic enquiry, possibility thinking and creativity

Authors:  Victoria Pavlou

Page Start: 71

 

Keywords

aesthetic enquiry,possibility thinking,creativity,studying artworks,elementary education

 

Abstract

Visual arts education can be an important and powerful field of learning for children. This article explores interrelations between the study of artworks and the development of creativity in children’s thinking and art-making. Starting from the premise that engagement with artworks does not automatically release children’s imaginative capacities, the article discusses how an aesthetic mode of enquiry can support children’s artviewing and enable the development of possibility thinking; the ability to make connections, to think differently and envisage new possibilities. Aesthetic enquiry can enable children to actively engage in taking their ideas further, exploring options and employing critical reflection. Providing children with opportunities to materialize their ideas after viewing an artwork, set the prerequisitions for innovative solutions and the development of creativity. These interrelations between artviewing and art-making are argued theoretically and explored empirically through a small scale exploratory study with 7–8 year olds.

 

 

DOUBLE PESPECTIVES: Multimodal degree projects and society

Authors:  Helena Danielsson

Page Start: 89

 

Keywords

degree projects,multimodal forms,visual representation,disability,participation,examensarbete,multimodala former,visuell representation,funktionshinder,delaktighet

 

Abstract

The aim of this article is to highlight the experiences from a research project that studied the use of multimodal forms in degree projects. A visual representation and a written report were presented. Phenomena that occurred in the process are discussed. The article focuses on parts that were conducted in the field of Art Education and uses, by way of example, two degree projects, both of which had disabilities and the inclusion of the disabled as their theme. Participants chose a museum to exhibit their finished projects, to share ideas with the community, and to inspire the industry of pedagogy. The study looked especially at design theory and a socio-cultural view of learning; further, research into visual literacy, media literacy and media reception was used. Using the results, I describe various aspects of tutoring, thesis presentation in a public venue, and the significance of feedback from a student perspective

 

 

VISUAL ESSAYS

 

Scotland vs The United States: Teaching art in universities

Authors:  Jo Ganter

Page Start: 107

 

Keywords

empirical teaching experience,studio practices,teaching abroad,developmental and modular methodologies

 

Abstract

This is a short account of my own particular experience teaching a studio-based art course in America. It compares my experience there with my more common practice of teaching art in a Scottish university. Both institutions have their pluses and minuses when compared with one another, and this essay is intended only to provoke further discussion rather than present any conclusions about national pedagogies.

 

‘ street water’: A community project to discover the underground network that connects the city with its rivers

Authors:  Rachel De Sousa Vianna And  Gaby De Aragão

Page Start: 116

Keywords

community art,environment,art education

 

Abstract

This is the story of ‘Street Water Project’, which took place in the neighbourhood of Santo Antônio, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, between November 2010 and July 2011. The activities consisted of art and environment workshops in schools and poetic interventions in public spaces designed to raise awareness of the population regarding the water sources that supply the city.

 

Visual Essays: A practice-led journey

Authors:  Lisa Kay

Page Start: 131

 

Keywords

visual data research,Arts-based methods,practice-led

 

Abstract

The metaphor of research as a practice-led journey and art making as a catalyst in the research process is the focus of this visual essay. Using a multi-method researchdesign, which combined qualitative and arts-based methods, relationships, patterns, and meanings in the data were examined and clarifiedto explore how students and teachers in alternative high school settings characterize art education. This visual essay includes a selection of these art works to illustrate the research process.

 

REVIEWS

Authors:  Jin-Shiow Chen And  Susan K. Leshnoff And  Katy Macleod

Page Start: 139