My autobiographical research focuses on creating digital heterotopias through social media platforms, providing safe spaces which allow art teacher candidates the opportunity to reflect upon their practicum experiences and question the status quo of institutional myths and inherited discourses in teacher fieldwork. Functions of heterotopic space link together and reflect other pedagogical sites, including institutional spaces. Heterotopias are often designed to be temporal and hidden from public view but are necessary enclaves for exploring non-hierarchical paradigms. Such temporary communal spaces can lead one to a personal praxis in uncovering what sometimes is never fully explored, our own autobiographical narrative of teaching. By creating a digital space utilized by art education student teachers in the midst of their practicum, I recalled my forgotten autobiography of student teaching, where memories of inequities and suppression of difference emerged. Through the lenses of critical theory and resistance theory, this study examines possibilities of crafting digital spaces as forms of artistic resistance and identity reconstruction zones. As such, the goal of examining the student teaching practicum concerning; power inequities, evaluation methods, standardization of teaching, evolving teacher identities, and the social environment of teaching, is to illustrate hegemonic processes and visualize spaces of possibility to deconstruct self and (re) imagine alternative ways of being teachers. Weaving in multiple stories of fieldwork experience allowed for a collocation in visualizing a space of unfolding inquiry, recognizing multiple genres of knowing through the qualitative and emergent methodologies of narrative inquiry and arts-based research.

This study examines current educational practices by looking at factors leading up to increased attention on student achievement and the role of teacher effectiveness evaluation models in delivering a quality education. The RISE teacher effectiveness evaluation model used in Indiana and two teacher evaluation models commonly used, by Charlotte Danielson and Robert Marzano, are examined based on their capacity to evaluate and support the professional performances and growth of art teachers.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the self-perceptions certified public high school teachers in the fine arts have toward their roles as artist and instructional staff member.

"This study is made in an attempt to determine the direction in which certain design understandings can be developed by prospective elementary teachers by means of an experience with scrap material printing. The activity may be defined as one which involves printing with objects of differing shapes, textures, or lines, and combinations of these elements to achieve various effects. The design concepts which were selected as representing positive goals are listed as follows: 1. It does not take expensive materials, necessarily, to make a design. 2. The designer selects and organizes materials for his design. These materials have colors, shapes, textures, and lines, and it is these which the designer organizes in different combinations. Through such combinations he gets varied effects. 3. The designer considers the nature of the materials used for his design. He relates his design to its environment and function. 4. The designer expresses himself and interprets some of the principles or structures in nature. He does not reflect nature itself"--Introduction. / "Aug. 16, 1950." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Julia Schwartz, Professor Directing Paper.

The purpose of this study was to illuminate characteristics of the pedagogical learning environment in three contemporary MFA Visual Arts programs in the United States and to investigate effective pedagogical practice for graduate art students in preparation for teaching in higher education. According to the College Art Association (CAA), the MFA is considered the terminal degree in the visual arts, unlike other related fields such as art history and art education, where the doctorate is the highest degree. While MFA students can pursue a professional practice of creating and exhibiting their artwork after graduation, many students also enter the MFA with the aim of becoming college art educators. However, there has been a lack of research that specifically examines the degree to which MFA visual arts students are being prepared for teaching. How are students preparing to become college art faculty, and what professional development programs are provided to graduate art students to help them teach art at the college level? These are questions that were the background context of this dissertation study. This study took the form of a cross-case analysis that employed qualitative and descriptive case study traditions. Data were collected from multiple sources: primary documents and semi-structured interviews with nine MFA students, six studio art faculty members, and three administrators at three MFA programs. This study presented findings of: (a) the pedagogical preparation offered to graduate students by the selected art schools; (b) the perceptions of graduate art students, studio art faculty, and administrators regarding the quality of current academic career preparation, specifically for teaching, in their MFA programs; (c) the insights of those participants into the most important characteristics of college teaching preparation; and (d) suggestions by the participants for the best practices that lead students to become successful college art educators. Based on the findings through an analysis of the learning and practical experiences of MFA students and the perspectives of faculty and administrators, I hope that the study will extend the field’s understanding of the state of college teaching preparation in higher art education.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Thesis in compliance with the requirements for the Doctor’s Degree in Technology: Language Practice, Durban University of Technology, 2012. / South Africa’s dynamic post-Apartheid education climate is beset by a plethora of new policies designed to transform education. Our county’s educators are expected to be the alchemists of change to create the new and transformed society envisaged in these policies, albeit with insufficient logistical planning and support. Moreover, so many of our schools are operationally dysfunctional, with literacy and numeracy levels at an all time low. Under these daunting circumstances our Provincial Education Department Teacher Development Institution, Ikhwezi In-Service Training Institute, develops training materials and delivers courses aimed at implementing policy while at the same time modelling progressive, internationally recognized and democratic adult-based methodology. In this self-study project of my departmental work with a group of trained educators, I use action research to trace the potential of integrated arts to transform teaching and learning in under-resourced rural and township classrooms. An aspect of this self-study looks at the therapeutic potential of the arts in my own life and career as an arts educator. When my Masters research revealed the dramatic effect a project-like arts approach to teaching could engender, I was motivated by compassion to develop the work further to reach a broader base of learners. I also wished to educate the authorities into mainstreaming the default marginalising of the arts in schools by developing photographic, written and video evidence promoting the arts in schools, mainly to emphasize their holistic educational role, but also as an essential healing, a potential remedy for the ills of the past that continue to impact on the present. / D

This thesis presents a qualitative case study based on interviews I conducted with contemporary Inuit artist and art educator Andrew Qappik. I traveled to Pangnirtung, Nunavut Territory, Canada in order to ask the 45-year-old "master printmaker" about the art education he received as a child and adult while living in a mostly Inuit town of approximately 1,300 in the eastern Canadian Arctic. Additionally, I interviewed Qappik about the art-teaching activities he has been providing to children and adults, in Pangnirtung and beyond, for the past fifteen years. My research sheds light not only on Qappik's personal experiences, but, by extension, on the nature of the art education models recently and currently operating in his local and regional communities. In this thesis, I present information about the "arctic-adapted" nature of art education within a unique borderland society--a location in which the traditions, values and contemporary practices of the indigenous Inuit culture are intertwined with those of the dominant, mainstream, Canadian culture. / text

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to examine the knowledge, skills, and experiences in the enameling arts and the attitudes and perceptions of in-service (n = 12) and pre-service Kuwaiti art teachers (n = 170), art supervisors at the Ministry of Education (MOE) (n = 3) and art education faculty members at the College of Basic Education (CBE) and Kuwait University (KU) (n = 8) about what they believed pre-service art teachers should know and be able to do in order to teach the enameling arts, and (2) to use this information to inform and guide the development of a content outline for an enameling course for pre-service Kuwaiti art teachers that is educationally (how to perform enameling arts skills and how to teach what they know), practically (safety issues, workshop management, etc), and culturally (its relation to Islamic culture) suitable. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. Most of the respondents revealed limited knowledge and skills and modest experiences in the enameling arts. All interviewees in the study expressed positive perceptions and attitudes about the enameling arts. Most agreed that a revision to the current art education curriculum at the CBE was needed and made suggestions about how the curriculum should be revised. It was clear that there is a disconnection and miscommunication between the MOE and the CBE with regards to the information about enameling that should be covered and taught in the art education classes. All respondents expressed support for the inclusion of a course in enameling in the art education curriculum at the CBE. Because of the limited knowledge of the participants in the study, they were not able to provide guidance in shaping the content for a course in the enameling arts. The researcher had to rely on the literature review and his expertise as an enameling artist to develop a content outline that was educationally, practically, and culturally suitable for the pre-service Kuwaiti art teachers. Further study was recommended in regard to curriculum issues, especially those related to the inclusion of Islamic culture, and methods of delivering instruction in the enameling arts.