Title: Reframing New Art Teacher Support: From Failure to Freedom
Abstract: In Episode 1: Investigation from Season 7 of Art in the Twenty-First Century (Art21), artist Leonardo Drew challenges himself in the course of his artwork, asking, How do I get to the next place? (Sollins, 2014). Answering his own question and pushing himself beyond his comfort zone (Fusaro & Hamlin, 2014), Drew responds, ...well you get rid of all the things that you find that are (Sollins, 2014). In this article, I urge art educators in higher education and others invested in art curricula and pedagogy in school spaces, to follow Drew's lead, envisioning ways to move beyond comfortable methods of supporting beginning art teachers by considering the limitations of those methods. The current, comfortable practices involve university teacher preparation programs training preservice teachers through graduation and then letting the new teachers' schools take over with programs such as induction, mentoring, and professional development. However, a review of the literature on new art teachers and new teacher induction indicates that these standard methods may not be enough. For example, many researchers in our field remain concerned about new art teachers' abilities to implement postmodern1 forms of curriculum given the strong hold modernism2 still has on K-12 art education curriculum (Bain, Newton, Kuster, & Milbrandt, 2010; Cohen-Evron, 2002; Gude, 2004, 2007, 2013; La Porte, Speirs, & Young, 2008; Wild, 2011). While the first reaction to problems such as postmodem curriculum implementation might be to continue to refine existing support strategies-refine teacher preparation programs or refine teacher induction programs-perhaps it is time to consider possibilities. For example, could art education departments in higher education play a role in supporting their graduates as they negotiate their first years of teaching? It is time to step outside a zone of comfort and ask, How do we get to the next place?In the same Art21 segment, Drew discusses the way he works on multiple pieces within the space of his studio so that the works can speak to each other (Sollins, 2014). Ideally working on seven pieces within the same space, Drew says that what happens in the making of one work will inevitably inform the making of his works (Sollins, 2014) (Figure 1). Inspired by Drew's example, I intend to situate the beginning art teacher experience in relation to bodies of knowledge, research, and literature both in and outside of art education in order to consider how they might speak to each other. New art teachers, after all, live in the midst of school cultures informed not just by art education, but by a multiplicity of social and political forces. In order to support beginning art teachers and encourage them as leaders of contemporary art education curricula, those invested in the preparation and development of beginning art teachers must examine the forces at play in new teachers' professional lives, as well as the problems with existing support structures. Therefore, in this article, I present seven perspectives relevant to the new art teacher experience. These perspectives range from feelings of failure (my personal experience), to problems inherent to preparation and induction practices, to issues of teacher identity and socialization, to the pursuit of freedom within school cultures. I do not offer practical advice to combat the issues new teachers face; rather I offer up this article as a way to better understand a problem in need of creative solutions and a prompt to begin envisioning those solutions. I intend for the reader to view these seven sections as Drew views seven artworks hanging in his art studio; imagine standing in the midst of these artworks, considering how one informs the so the space as a whole becomes one in which new ideas and possibilities might be imagined.Artwork 1: FailureI have never forgotten what it was like to be a new teacher, constantly negotiating my evolving philosophy of art education, the latest theories in art journals, and the presentations I heard at conferences within the realities of teaching. …
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 4
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