Reclaiming relations : embodied practices of visual arts educators knowing, being and doing evaluation

The articles in this work address histories of how visual art educators have come to exist within scholarship on teacher evaluation. This study, reconceptualized outside of methodology through a post qualitative framework of inquiry, embodies poststructural feminist theories of ethics, exemplifying living theory and process as 'lifework'. (Re)situating the evaluative experiences of art educators through their own visual stories grounded in feminist ethics where research acts as sacred practice invites an exploration of more relational ways of being as teachers, leaders, makers, and researchers. In turn, this research seeks to open spaces where we ask what becomes possible in evaluative practice when we look to the arts as a model. Opportunities emerge as the resistances of art educators reverberate beyond current systemic boundaries and offer a possibility to think differently about evaluation. Utilizing the practices of quilting, the work charts a new coursnowledge and think and perform research and teacher evaluation differently as a practice of mending, challenging (mis)representations, building relational trust through power shifts and receptive listening, and constructing a true capacity for connectedness.

Notes From The Couch

As Michel Serres states, “The one who has power is the one who has the source and emission of sound” (1982). The sudden soundlessness of our COVID-19 existence is one of the largest pandemic challenges facing musicians. While some argue that there should be a hiatus on creation, others are embracing music’s adaptations to less traditional forums and formats. As a public high school teacher and conductor-educator with a youth-focused private organization, I am experiencing first-hand the improvisations, challenges, triumphs—and attendant burn-out—of rapidly adapting new spaces in which to keep my musical communities intact. Fellow conductor-educators near and far, working with populations at all ages and stages, are also bravely forging onward, rejecting sound-less and ensemble-less realities by adapting online. This all begs the questions: What does the near future hold for choral singing? And what will singing ensembles look like on the other side of current restrictions? Drawing together personal experience, informal interviews, explorations of the transformations of public and private space, sound and media studies, drift methodology, and the proliferation of recent articles in news and arts media, this essay investigates the novel spaces being created by and for choral arts educators amidst the uncertainties of what new reality awaits us on the other side of the screen-scape.

The Way of the Artist Educator paradigm: Fusing artistic studio practice and teaching pedagogy

The purpose of this autoethnographic study is to examine the experiences of visual arts educators who identify themselves as Artist Educators. In particular, this article investigates how these Artist Educators perceive the fusion of their artistic studio practice with their teaching pedagogy, and how the perception defines their identity and impacts their creative and classroom practices. This study involved a focus group of six individuals, including the researcher. All the participants were practising artists, currently employed or recently retired K-12 visual arts educators certified in the states of Maine or New Hampshire, and members of the Kittery Art Association. This study used a combination of interviews and an arts-based method for data collection. All the data were analyzed and resulted in seven findings that culminated in the Way of the Artist Educator ‐ an alternative paradigm for a quality and holistic twenty-first-century visual arts education. This article presents the paradigm, discusses the study’s implications and offers suggestions for future research.

Using Popular Music Pedagogies to Foster 21st-Century Skills and Knowledge

Recent changes in educational policy have placed 21st-century skills at the forefront of arts education, presenting arts educators with an opportunity to reassess instructional practices. Popular music pedagogies are approaches to learning and practicing popular music that may be useful for addressing 21st-century skills and knowledge in arts classrooms. In this article, the author describes how art and music teachers infused music, art, and technology in two related arts projects for Grades 3 to 5 that explored the artwork of Jean-Michel Basquiat, jazz music, the work of DJ Kool Herc, and a deejay application on electronic tablets. Through the use of popular music pedagogies, teachers addressed many aspects of 21st-century skills and knowledge. Furthermore, the artwork of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the music of DJ Kool Herc resonated with students due to their historical significance and the everlasting artistic themes found within their work—individuality, innovation, communication, expression, and authenticity.

Humanitats digitals i pedagogies culturals: mirades creuades als entorns educatius híbrids.

The Arts and the Humanities are experiencing a rapid process of evolution and change thanks to the growth of the digital universe. Education is also undergoing profound transformations, also motivated by the impact of this virtual reality which is already both local and global, ubiquitous, and affects us all. As teacher trainers, we analyse the hybridizations of the two scenarios of digital humanities and cultural pedagogies which can either create an integrative climate geared towards achievement, or, in the worst case, foster a new model of abuse and excess towards teachers and students at different stages of education. Looking at the situation, we observe that the digital dimension can help to break down the traditional barriers that have been imposed by specific areas of knowledge, and can help to achieve connected scenarios. Here we are interested in the different hybrid models, involving artists, arts educators, historians, linguists and designers, who show us their particular visions of this new model of connected educational contexts.

From global policy to tertiary pedagogy: Transformational thresholds for creative arts degrees

Performing arts teachers, in diverse regions of the world, recognise that globalisation has indelibly influenced how the arts are valued, practiced and taught (Rowe, Martin, Buck, et al., 2018). As illustrated by three key United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO) policies on arts and culture in the 21st century (UNESCO, 2003, 2006, 2011), global mandates can present contrasting imperatives, prompting shifts within regional, national and institutional strategies. So how do tertiary arts educators respond to shifts in global policies? After a brief historical analysis of three UNESCO strategic documents associated with arts education, this article considers how the contrasts within these strategies have presented challenging learning moments for arts educationalists. ‘Threshold concept’ theory is presented as a means of framing such learning challenges, to highlight the professional development needs of designers of tertiary curricula. Critically reflecting on the author’s experiences of codesigning tertiary degree programmes in New Zealand, China and Fiji, this article identifies key conceptual thresholds that can challenge tertiary educators when seeking to align institutional teaching practices with contemporary global policies on arts education.

An a/r/tographic métissage: Storying the self as pedagogic practice

This article traces the experience of four arts educators as they consider ‘self as subject-matter’ through living inquiry. Anchored in arts-based approaches, storying the self four ways offers both an individual perspective and an a/r/tographic métissage of becoming through the weaving of narratives that derive from sociocultural and historical contexts. The practice of narrative as research considers the following questions: how does the presentation/communication component of life writing colour a narrative? What common and potentially universal experiences occur within life writing research? Through the collaborative exchange of four narratives, a fifth emerges: in response to the creative journey of others, and in documenting our entanglements with them, we open spaces. Illustrating how the introspective and extrospective interact with the visual or performative as a vehicle for revealing the self, this article posits that the self-in-relation to theory and practice becomes a way of knowing that broadens educational discourse among artists/researchers/teachers.