I am approaching the end of the first semester of my grad program at OSU. I am intrigued and excited about concepts we are exploring. I am also filled with anxiety about the new school year in pandemic era America. I question myself on how I will integrate any new, and hopefully more effective teaching processes, while under the rigors of a public health crisis in a very crowded public space. I want to strive for high expectations and I will not settle, so I will crowbar some of these techniques into my classes and see what works and what is realistic.
I finished my final critique and reflection paper for my Issues and Frameworks in Art Education class. My reflection was concerned with the validation of art education in STEM/STEAM learning and the use of community based project learning to bolster and support effective learning. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning platforms in conjunction with the arts (the A in STEAM) has been found to be effective and very successful in transdisciplinary learning. It is a natural melding of curriculums to advocate the creative process in exploratory and visionary studies. Yet, in the world of public education and the reality of budget cuts and program streamlining, the arts are always the first head on the chopping block. It is an important and worthy argument that is not going to lose validity anytime soon.
The following is a list of a few references that I found influential. Of note, is the last article by Buda, S., Fedorenko, J., Sheridan, M. A. (2012) rolling out the experience of integrating art education in a fairytale storytelling structure. In a world where art education is at risk, art teachers should look to add value to their programs and expand beyond traditional art education.
Lee, N. (2012). Culturally responsive teaching for 21st-Century art education: Examining race in a studio art experience. Art Education: The Journal of the National Art Education Association, 65 (5), p. 48-53
“A university level studio art experience aimed to examine racial issues in art education and teachers understanding of the topic through artmaking.” Aids in clarifying the difference between race, ethnicity and culture. Race as defined by Sadker, Sadker and Zittleman (2008) is a “group of individuals sharing common genetic attributes, physical appearance and ancestry”, (I.e. color of one’s skin or texture of hair). Ethnicity is defined as “shared common cultural traits” (i.e. language, religion or dress). Culture, they define as “a set of learned beliefs, values and behaviors, a way of life shaped by members of a society” (i.e. west-side, Methodist, country). Racism is “a system of advantages based on race” (Tatum, 1997, p. 7).
Discussions of race are important and should be tackled head on instead of the “color-blind” approach of the past three decades. Notes that over 80% of teachers in America are white with an ever-growing diverse population of students. It is therefore important to ensure these teachers are prepared to overcome biases. Specifically, art education, can aid in a visual and emotional connection of through artmaking, giving a more meaningful experience to a difficult to navigate subject. “Clover and Stalker (2007) point out that artmaking focused on social justice issues allows individuals to make a personal connection to problems of justice and equity and then use their imagination "to make sense of their world, create meaning in their lives and re-create a better world" (p. I).
The students and future teachers in the study learned to use art making to make multiple frames of reference to discuss race, racism and culture. Utilizing these teaching techniques will allow for a better prepared educator and properly teach meaningfully with focus on student's diverse cultures and experiences.
This article is a particularly poignant piece in today's atmosphere. Notes RACE-The Power of an Illusion (www.pbs.org/race) as a quality source on discussion of race and ethnicity.
Hutzel, K. & Bey, S. (2012). Engaging pedagogy: Curriculum and methodologies for the city. (91-102). Reimagining Teacher Education Through Art.
This chapter in the book, Reimagining Teacher Education Through Art, offers ways the art educator can utilize CBA and CBAE by tapping into local assets and culture and thus better utilizing each student’s individual contributions giving more robust, community connected learning. “The challenge to prepare students to do well on tests results in curriculum that emphasizes facts and figures over people and communities. This part, however, offers possibilities for engaging children in life-enhancing educational experiences in the city through community-based and local art, reasserting the inherent value in centering art and the city in school curriculum”
Several successful examples are given supporting the effectiveness of collaborative art learning and the team building resulting from a group working toward a common goal, concept or product. Value in this type of learning could be better utilized to create students with better learning experiences through collaborating and engaging their communities.
James, J. & Chaban, N. 2013. Inquiry-based Learning In and Through the Arts: Episode 1. Retrieved 07/14/2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zxOAMb-Yec
Dr. Jerry James, Director of Teaching and Learning, and Nellie A.V. Chaban, Manager of School and Community Programs, walks through a lesson integrating the arts with common core learning. James uses a worksheet activity to investigate metaphors in language and how we can translate that into literal and metaphorical imagery. The activity causes the student to engage in higher level thinking skills as they process how to take an idea to a place of a finished piece of art, like a photo or painting, that can visually represent the more complex metaphor.
This is a good example of engaging students to critically think and use imaginative interpretation to align with common-core learning.
Lynch, M. 2016. Happier Students, Higher Scores: The Role of Arts Integration in the Classroom. The Edvocate. Retrieved 07/16/2020. https://www.theedadvocate.org/happier-students-higher-scores-the-role-of-arts-integration/?doing_wp_cron=1433861768.5892550945281982421875
Addresses the need for integrating arts into the STEM model of learning and highlights how the creative process in invaluable to innovations in math, science and technology. The arts are a place where students often feel successful and are given a “voice” and integrating that into STEM learning is an excellent vehicle for student enjoyment of curriculum. Artists and art teachers are presented with examples of using science and math in artwork and in the classroom.
Gives examples and step by step project guidelines for an integrated STEAM project, including approaching the STEM teachers and selling in idea in their curriculum and how art can integrate into it. Be open to new ideas and prospects. Intellectually sophisticated projects and experiential learning enhance the educational process and better engage students.
Walker, S. (2006). How then shall we teach? Rethinking artmaking instruction. Teaching Artist Journal 4(3), p190-197.
Abstract: The author agues for the new approaches to art teaching and learning that center on student engagement with “big ideas” contemporary culture and art.
Discusses the use of “big ideas of human concern such as identity, relationships, humans and nature, power change, conflict” as “central focus for art-making.” Using this centrally focused theme, better allows students to work through a creative process and arrive at poignant meaning making. Focusing students to reflect upon their own experiences and views on a big idea, artmaking is relevant to that student.
Article is relevant towards finding curriculum strategies for meaning making in art. Walker cites other books, good for referencing this idea.
Wynn, T. & Harris, J. Toward a stem + arts curriculum: Creating the teacher team. Art Education: The Journal of the National Art Education Association 65 (5). p. 42-47.
This article in the Journal of the National Art Education Association Sept. 2012 edition explores the value of analytical thinking and creative/imaginative thinking as a value to both STEM subjects and the arts. Exploring mathematics outside of quantitative results and connecting to real world problem solving will better engage students. Primarily showing examples of artists and art teachers finding ways to integrate math and science into the arts, students are engaged with the engineering side of art in making concrete sculptures, laying out graffiti, or painting based upon theories in quantum physics. Basing multiple art/science projects on water conservation and visual representations of imagery supporting understanding and promoting better habits, math, science and art teachers at one school engage students in higher level STEAM learning.
Excellent article with good reference and support for STEAM learning and support for the Arts.
Buda, S., Fedorenko, J., Sheridan, M. A. (2012). Business of Art Education: A fairytale adventure. Art Education: The Journal of the National Art Education Association. p6-14.
This article, by art educator and adjunct professor, Sharon Buda, PhD.,takes a look at positioning art education in a curriculum that is community-based, interdisciplinary and thus has more educational value while dealing with the realistic issues involved in the ever-changing landscape of public education. She argues that art educators need to stay dynamic and be in involved in a wholistic look at learning to validate a seat at the table of education.
The author presents an art education curriculum that evolves, using the Three Little Pigs story as a metaphor, from a technique-based program, to a program that integrates art history and learning, to a program style that integrates all of those aspects with a community driven, need based culturally responsive art program.
In another metaphor, based on Alice in Wonderland, the art program has all the community behind it in a grand, well-rounded art program that is slashed in budget-cutting and adjusting curriculum focus. She is forced to reimagine her role as an educator focusing on team-teaching curriculum that integrates and promotes interdisciplinary learning for real world problem-solving skills.
In a final metaphor, she likens the mood of art educators to The Wizard of Oz. The Wizard, demanding an art education plan that is highly integrated and positions itself in a total education curriculum, asks that art educators become educators through arts. Not knowing how to implement this, art educators are Scarecrows (brainless), Tin Men (lacking heart), or Lions (cowardly) in the face of the flying monkeys (Stakeholders: administrators, parents) screaming about returning to core principles and educational initiatives.
In a world where art education is at risk, teachers should look to add value to their programs and expand beyond traditional art education. She makes a strong argument, integrating that even with value, funding may still get cut and programs need to be rethought
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