IDENTITY AND TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I find myself in a constant state of revision. As I reflect upon where I am currently, where I would like to be, and where I am headed in my career as an artist and an educator, I am at peace and pleased with my progress. I can see where I am lacking and need to make growth as well as where I am finding successes and can identify how I might apply those traits to other areas. One of the tenants that I adopted from my class on universal design for learning (UDL) is that change is gradual, and one does not try to fix everything overnight. Day by day, lesson by lesson, I am moving toward becoming a better educator and mentor to my students. My teaching philosophy has not changed nor have my core values, however the atmosphere in which I teach has been in a constant flux.
BACKGROUND AND VALUES
My value system is entrenched in my youth and where I came from and the way in which my parents brought me up. I am the second son of three that my working-class parents raised, born in the waning years of the 1970’s in a rural farming community in Southern Ohio. My father was educated at a Bible seminary amid the torrid social climate of the 1960’s. Although he never pursued an ordained position, it guided his moral compass in a way that made him an outstanding and admirable father figure. My mother was active in our community through church and other volunteer organizations, while working on the farm and holding down a career at a factory in the area. They raised their sons with a stern focus on doing what is right by your fellow neighbor, your elders, your parents, and your partner. Steeped in the religious teachings of rural-white-American-Jesus-Christianity and beliefs, we were raised to make good judgements that reflected well upon you and your family. My parents made a conscious effort to let us know that historically, blind religious faith can both lead you through tough times and, just as effectively, lead you (and whole societies) into devastatingly poor decisions cloaked in righteousness. I retain these core beliefs in my daily life, even though I do not consider myself a religious person.
Letting your actions speak louder than your words has been a common theme in my life and professional life. My father would not dispute the views of other people, he would lead by example. Looking down on prideful behavior, my parents did not brag about virtuous deeds and did not tolerate any of us doing the same. They instilled in me that your moral character was extremely important and needs to be tended to. If it is in question, you most likely had some hand in crafting that perception. This idea applies to your work ethic, your family, and your professional life.
I mention the spin of my parents’ view on religion and moral character specifically because it was not the common or prevailing view of where we were raised. The blind religious faith and revisionist versions of love thy neighbor, unless they were different, were more prevalently on display in the rural white, Midwest. Many folks have so few options, opportunities or hope that I understand their fear of difference and change, but find it ugly and diminutive, nonetheless. I come from a place rampant with racism and fear of otherness that has crafted an available surplus amount of forgiveness in me for people of this ilk, accommodating for their extreme lack of worldliness as an excuse for their bigotry. I fluctuate between valuing diplomacy to bring people together and the feelings of outrage for behavior that seeks to push people apart.
I am a middle-aged, white, heterosexual male who has been politically aware of the raised alertness of the social injustices slowly growing louder over the past 30-40 years. I am aware of white privilege, including my own, and of the intersectionality facing every other class, race, gender, and differently abled persons in America. I am a father and married to successful woman with degrees in finance, business, and Women’s Studies, a factor on my beliefs on female empowerment. I am also an educator, but one who comes to this field late in my career having been a freelance artist, illustrator, and designer for 20 years. I carry all these traits into my identity as a teacher.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
My mother was the creative heart of our family and early on she shared her creative spirit with me. She devoured books of fantasy from Robert E. Howard, Tolkien, Edgar Rice Burroughs and C.S. Lewis. I loved to draw imitations of the covers of Tarzan novels and the like on the inside of cereal boxes...the chosen art material of my youth. I distinctively remember my mom showing me how to draw a nose on a face and it unlocked some magical secret...but it was not a secret or magic. I just had not been taught the language of drawing yet. I hold that knowledge dear in my new passion as an art educator. Talent is an accumulation of problem solving and practice, not some magical trait bestowed at birth. Demystifying artistic practice is part of my research interest and teaching practices.
Part of that demystification is the ability to connect a love for art to an artistic career by way of higher education. My mother had a high school education and although my father strongly opposed art school, he did go to college. I really had no idea of how one became an artist, specifically an illustrator. At a small, rural public school I had no exposure to any practicing professional artist of any kind. An art education was just a vague idea and seemed out of the realm of possibilities. I did not have permission to dream about a career in the art world because it was unknown to me.
I have always identified as an artist (and still do) even when I had stopped taking art classes in high school due to not liking the art instructor. When a new art teacher was introduced, she encouraged me to take classes again. That teacher, Catherine Goodwin, changed the course of my life. Taking me under her wing, she opened an avenue to take that creative identity and make a career of it. The effort that my high school art teacher put forth allowed me to go to a private art school on a scholarship and provided opportunities to me that I had no idea even existed. I take it as a personal mission to pay the favor an art teacher bestowed upon me, forwarding that chance to students who did not know these creative opportunities were available.
Having been a freelance artist and designer before my new career as an art educator has shaped my views and practice as a teacher. Art and the business of art can be applied in many ways to the classroom. Deadlines are important, everyone has them from the fry-cook at a fast-food restaurant to the architect designing a billion-dollar sports stadium. Assessing progress on a project and knowing if one is behind or not is an asset to effectively working on any complex problem. Knowing and clearly understanding what the purpose of a job or clients' needs is directly relatable to a student understanding a teacher’s lesson. If the student does not really understand why they are painting a color wheel, building a paper model, or breaking down an image, they have no tangible way to apply creative thinking to the problem. Are there other ways that this could be solved or approached? There is always more than one way to solve a creative problem and applying creative thinking is a valuable skill. Allowing students to see those options and have permission to traverse those possibilities is key to successful creative thinking and problem solving. I hope to endow my students with those creative problem-solving skills, even those who do not want to pursue careers in the creative fields.
SUMMARY AND WRAP UP
Looking back to the opening line of this introduction to my positionality and philosophy in teaching, I stated that I feel as if I am in a constant state of revision. Reflecting on where I have come from and assessing my progress, mistakes, and missed opportunities, I see myself improving on the practice of teaching. As I have attempted to do in my artistic practices, I seek to constantly learn and grow, especially from my failures. I Know that I have a solid work ethic and try to model that in my role as an educator and artist. Art is not magic and creative skills and techniques can be learned and applied to a variety of situations and problems. I realize that I can show my students career paths that they may have not been aware of and apply my life experience as an artist to applicable situations in teaching.
Looking back
Looking back upon my previous writings, I recall the excitement, and the doubt, that I felt as I began this program in attaining my master's degree. I had a flurry of questions as to how this program would change me and the hopes that it would aid in improving my effectiveness as an art educator. I knew I could do this; however, would I be able to accomplish it in a way that was enjoyable for my students? I doubted whether I would enjoy the process of teaching, or would this experience leave me jaded to the education field and burnt out like so many teachers I have known. Since this program has begun, I have crafted stronger, more effective lessons, and I have seen barriers to learning be removed. I have been able to embrace the curriculum that I am teaching and utilize the strengths and flexibility of art education and its transformative powers.
What has changed
I have been able to successfully pivot in my delivery of teaching digital art from detailed and involved processes to reminding students that they are in an art class. I had wanted to do this from the start, but at the beginning, I was not having much success. Mired in technical difficulties and students’ deficiencies in navigating even the simplest of computer tasks, I struggled through the beginning weeks of every one of my classes. I have embraced ways of removing barriers while allowing students opportunities for self-learning, group learning and varied paths to show understanding in a creative environment. Slowly I have built multiple learning tools (videos, demonstrations, tutorials, student websites, tutoring opportunities, before/during/after school lab access, remote work options, effective work samples) and have found ways to allow a diverse cast of learners and varied skill levels to find a path to success.
What have I learned
Part of what I have learned, and what I am conducting my final research project on, is my students’ feelings of success in artistic practice. It was brought up to me early in this program by my research professor, Dr. Ruth Smith. While exploring research questions and focus possibilities, I had commented on the idea of “giving permission” to one of my students to trace something in the pursuit of a project she was working on. On Dr. Smith’s suggestion, I pursued this in the realm of students preconceived notions that, in art, there were strict ways of creating and artmaking. I have crafted a great deal of my teaching philosophy around this idea. How successful can a student be expected to perform if they have a perception upon entering a classroom that they are horrible at the subject matter? It is up to me to inform them that they have permission to fail and will not be penalized for it. It is up to me, as an art educator, to inform my student artists that it does not matter what level of artistic talent/ability/skill they perceive to have or lack in themselves and that if creative effort is given, it shall be rewarded, and we will learn from it.