Week 32 - Changes in Practice.

   

   Post Study Self Portrait July 2017

What is so?

The MindLab course has blown my mind. In many ways it has been a struggle. An overload of new content, new ideas and applications that I have not always wanted to engage with. However I have taken away many positives. My learning around leadership has already been beneficial to my position as a Head of the Arts Faculty. The way I look at the changing landscape of learning in the 21st century has changed, I am no longer reluctant but have moved into using digital modes of learning as tools to improve practice and experience for my students. I have tried out new things in the classroom, some will stick some will be modified.

• Visual Art Research standards digitally presented (Video unit for Level 1 and 2 and a digital catalog for level 3) – Makes digital moderation easy.

• Use of Seesaw blog for year 7/8 junior art students. – A digital record that can be shared with their classroom teacher and a digital archive for marking.

• Ongoing inquiry into effective use of Google Classroom in Visual Arts including the usefulness of the in class flip.

• First venture into STEAM with Robotic Art and a conceptual basis for ongoing exploration of this field in my own art practice and in my teaching. Possible further study in this area to be pursued after a rest.

• The nerve to try something different (Sound Art workshop). 

• A deeper understanding of my use of interdisciplinary approaches and the challenges that ensue. 

So What?

A gap has formed between my thinking on what I think is valuable (worth teaching and learning) and what is deemed ‘appropriate’ by the holders of ‘status quo’.

It seems that I can get carried away and find myself way out on a limb. Recently I organized a performance and workshop at my school by sound artist and AUT lecturer Pat Kraus. The short performance left some students bewildered, most staff icy cold and a minority of students elated (interested students’ were pleading to be let into the workshop). During the workshop students were introduced to sound art and asked to listen and paint a sound, to listen and sculpt a sound, to draw part of this sculpture and then recreate this in sound. The workshop finished with group performances of three sounds together. This was unlike anything my students had experienced in their education before. They were at first unsure but afterwards said it was fun and wanted to do another one.

Pat Kraus 2017

‘I want my work to be useful to people, I hope it is enjoyable and stimulating. Obviously it’s not for a broad section of society, it’s just for people like me and my friends: freaks, outsiders, weirdos, losers.’  (Pat Kraus in Russell, 2012, p104.)

I was once told that we ‘educate for the majority’ but I firmly disagree, we must educate for everyone, try to engage all learners, no one should feel that they don’t fit in, that there is not something for them in education.

After the workshop I realised that I had alienated some of the staff as they had been abruptly put out of their comfort zones, their understanding of what art/music is different to mine. This was very upsetting for me as it was a shock to realise I was so far ‘out there’. I guess I assumed they would get it and did not realise that I needed to contextualise the experience more thoroughly (possibly a brief history into the development of sound as art in Aotearoa).

‘When we inquire into our own unrecognized assumptions and behaviors and find them wanting, there is an emotional load associated with self-confrontation and with personal wrestling about how to respond to the awareness.’ (Osterman & Kottkamp, 1993.)

When I inquire into how I got here I have to look right back to where I started. Growing up in Northland, attending a primary school that embraced Maori culture, a girls’ high school in Auckland, a degree in Sculpture from AUT (at a time when art schools became highly conceptual) studying in Pittsburgh (environmental and feminist art). Becoming a mother before becoming a teacher. All this has contributed to my world view, a world view different from anyone else’s.

One of my friends said yesterday that:
‘When you go to Art school you have to drop everything at the door, all your preconceptions about what art is. You have to come with an open mind.’ (2017)

This is where the mis-match came from, my own assumption that one person’s open mind is the same as another’s. Of course it is not! MindLab has now opened my mind even further but it has also reinforced the idea that before we implement in the classroom we should look at the pedagogy behind it, examine our hunches and discover the best way forward depending on the needs of our students and the context of our school.

What now? 

Although I cannot halt the wisdom and inevitable narrowing that comes with adulthood I do still believe I come to new learning with an open mind. Some say that NCEA and the NZ Curriculum do not leave room for creativity in course design.

‘it is not the disciplines that are to be blamed for the staleness of curricular models, but the stripped-down, narrowly conceived, partial representations of these disciplines in the classroom.’ (Freeman & Mathison, 1997)

I think that we need to approach our teaching like artists do. Push the boundaries and work on the fringes or in between disciplines. Manipulate the system to work for our learners. 21st Century teaching and learning calls for us to be guides for our learners so that they can expand their creative capacity and their ability to solve those ‘wicked problems’. We need to create the conditions for students to feel empowered to experiment, to find out ‘what happens when’ (Phil Dadsun as cited in Russell, 2012 p16) and to own their learning. We cannot continue to teach in a modernist/industrialist way, we must ‘Open our doors and our hearts to creatives.’ (Thomas McDonagh Group., 2011). We must blur the boundaries between disciplines, bring in experts or outliers in their fields, work within the ‘empathetic horizon – culture, social norms, social circles must stretch like a rubber band.’ (Thomas McDonagh Group., 2011)


(This has been done in Aotearoa before. If you have not seen ‘The heArt of the Matter’(Bieringa, 2016) it is a must for any teacher considering an arts centered approach to learning. Some of our great artists (Paratene Matchitt, Marilyn Webb and the late Cliff Whiting (NewsHub, 2017), were teachers in this initiative led by Gordon Tovey in the 1950’s). Perhaps it is time we pick up the wero laid down by these pioneers and push for a new cultural change in our institutions.

Engari, kei te ngenge ahau…………However as I am a bit worn out….

I will be silent, I will listen, I will rest, I will complete the 2017 teaching year. I will observe, read, make art, look back to the past and contemplate the future.

Because…..

Thanks to my husband and children for all your support, to my Dad for helping with the robotics, Mum for your comments on my blog, to Pat Kraus for a wonderful sound art experience, to Kate Watts for talking art with me and to my fellow MindLab students for all your amazing comments. 

References

Bieringa, L. (2016). The heART of the Matter. New Zealand. Retrieved from https://www.maoritelevision.com/tv/shows/tuesday-feature-documentaries?available=0

Freeman, M. E., & Mathison, S. (1997). T HE L OGIC OF I NTERDISCIPLINARY S TUDIES.

NewsHub. (2017). Master Carver Cliff Whiting Dies Aged 81. Retrieved from http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/07/master-carver-cliff-whiting-dies-aged-81.html

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.

Russell, B. (Ed.). (2012). Erewhon Calling. Experimental sound in New Zealand. Audio Foundation and CMR.

Thomas McDonagh Group. (2011). Interdisciplinarity and Innovation Education. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdNzftkIpA