Visual Arts Integrated Curriculum in a United States Elementary School: A

Visual Arts Integrated Curriculum in a United States Elementary School: A Desired Pedagogical Strategy for Implementing the Integrated Curriculum in the Jamaican Primary Schools

Dissertation

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

Verona Barnes M.A.T

Graduate Program in Art Education

The Ohio State University

2010

Dissertation Committee:

Vesta A Daniel, Advisor

Patricia L Stuhr

Robert Hite

Verona Barnes

2010

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify how Visual Arts can play a pivotal role in the implementation of an integrated curriculum in elementary education. In order to increase my knowledge base I reviewed a body of theoretical and philosophical writings that revealed how the arts, especially Visual Arts, have been valued in the field of education. Next I use case study methodology to investigate how an exemplary Visual

Arts educator/teacher has been putting theories to practice by providing state-of-the-art teaching and learning in, with, through and about Visual Arts, as well as how she has been using Visual Arts as anchor for and an engine to drive an integrated curriculum in an elementary school setting.

I explain how the data was collected using a triangulation research design process.

These included on site observations, reflective journaling, interviews, and artifacts and document analysis. I reported and analyzed the data to ascertain the knowledge, skills dispositions and commitments the Visual Arts teacher displayed that reflected theoretical and philosophical knowledge of best practices related to art education, general education and teacher education. After stating my findings, I make recommendations for how teachers in Jamaica can implement an integrated curriculum that is anchored and driven by the arts, especially Visual Arts.

Dedication

To the memory of my four parents My mother Enid “Mamma” Rose: Sunrise 1935 – Sunset 1994 My father Gilbert “Pappa” Barnes: Sunrise 1924 – Sunset 1994 My aunt and her husband who in my formative years were my foster parents Cynthia “Aunt Cynth” Hamilton: Sunrise 1925 – Sunset 2000 Edward “Mass Eddy” Hamilton: Sunrise 1916 – 94 years, still running the dash As I write this document, he is home in Jamaica nurturing and guarding the vegetable garden with organically grown callaloos (green leafy vegetables) and Scotch Bonnet peppers he planted in April in preparation and anticipation of my return home & My dear friend Beverlyn Cameron – Sunset 2009 She literally dragged me out of my house to the Art School in 1987 & I hope this will be an inspiration to “The Two Men of Verona” – Junior and Dwynell My grandchildren My sisters and brothers My nieces and nephews & Future descendants of Mamma and Pappa 1st born to both – a survivor of a pair of twin had situated me My responsibility and obligation were to chart the course I feel honored to have been chosen “Tenky Massa tu de” CREATOR Mission accomplished May the Barnes-Rose “roots” and “vines” flourish/thrive and flower continuously Bloom where ever you are planted

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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Dr. Vesta Daniel for not only being my advisor and guide, but also for giving me some of the social and spiritual support I needed during my four years academic sojourn at the Ohio State University. For sharing you family with me, on those occasions when families met for special celebrations, you provide the anchor that was needed for my stability, a home away from home. Our journey did not begin here at the Ohio State University, in the United State. The seed was planted on the Jamaican soil in October 2003, when you (re)presented the Department of Art Education at the OSU, as the guess speaker at the launch of the Caribbean Association of Art Educators and

Artists. The roots for the relationship we share grew stronger each time you visited

Jamaica, as an academic ambassador for the Art Education Department at OSU. You were the driving force behind my decision to pursue the Doctor of Philosophy Degree at

OSU. The experiences within and beyond the academic sphere have nurtured and created the bond that was necessary to cement the relationship.

I would like to thank all the other members of my committee, Dr. Patricia Stuhr,

Dr. Ballangee-Morris, Dr. Robert Hite for all the support and academic and professional advice you had given me over the years and Dr. James Sanders III, who did not hesitate, when asked to fill the slot a few days before my final examination, when one of my committee members was not be available due to medical.

To all the professors in the departments of Art Education and Education, Policy and Leadership, for providing the academic challenges and scaffolding that enabled me to move from my zone of proximal development (ZPD) and achieve my full potential. On reflection, quantitatively and qualitatively, my engagement in the reading and writing processes over the past four years, have surpassed the accumulation of the first half a century of academic my life. I have grown; the courses you offered have allowed me to build on my scholarly, interpersonal and emphatic geniuses. They have provided me with the practical and theoretical frameworks necessary to grow professionally and have prepared me to return to my country, Jamaica, to make a worthwhile contribute to the development of the education system in general and teacher education to be specific.

Special thanks to Dr. Buda, the co-creator for my research; I owe you a world of gratitude for your imput and output that generated the data necessary for me to write the fourth and fifth chapters of my dissertation. You did not only facilitate and accommodate me in your school and the artroom as a novice researcher; you took time out of your very busy schedule, each time I visited the school, to provide the vehicular transport needed from and to the points where my bus ride terminated and/or commenced. I am not sure how many other persons would have so generously and graciously provided this necessary assistance, especially to an outsider who could be viewed as a stranger and/or an intruder. Although I was an outsider, I did not feel like a stranger while on the campus of your school. The professionalism and camaraderie displayed by members of the learning community created an atmosphere within the building; that made me feel

welcomed each time I visited. Thanks also to the other educators at your school who

engaged in the interview sections of the data collection process.

I am forever grateful and will continuously speak about and share my experience

regarding your ability to provide and facilitate state-of-the-art learning opportunities for elementary school students to develop and enhance their innate abilities to be creative as you engaged them in artmaking processes and procedures that enabled them to be imaginative and innovative. I will tell of the pedagogical strategies you employed as you engaged in integrated curriculum that brought Visual Arts to take center stage at your school is living testimony that, for a successful implementation of an integrated curriculum an anchor is needed and Visual Arts can be the anchor (Daniel, 2003) and that, Visual Arts is the engine that can drive an integrated curriculum (The Ohio State

University TETAC mentors, 2002).

Thanks very much to the staff in the Department of Art Education who have been providing the technical and administrative support I needed from the moment I submitted my application to be a member of the “community of learners.” Kristen Thomas, I cannot forget our initial experience during the processing of my application, the many telephone calls between us to and from Jamaica. You also provided the leg-work that was needed to transport the required documents to/from the different offices/buildings. It must have been an exhausting experience; your effort enabled me. Thanks to Holly

Longfellow, from my first day on campus you have been providing me with the support that I need to navigate my way around the campus. You provided most of the social

experiences that was necessary for me to live and breath in the cold and dreary state of

Ohio, you provided most of the multi-cultural experiences that I will be able to reminisce about, when I share my experiences with others. Thanks for providing the editorial, technical support I needed during the final leg of my academic journey. You saw me through some crucial moments when I thought I could not make it. Emily, the efficiency and courteous disposition you displayed as you went about your daily duties as one of the receptionists in the department did not go un-noticed. On occasions when modern technology got the better of me and I was at a lost, not knowing what to do, you offered you expertise and assisted me with solving the varying problems. Your assistance was highly appreciated.

To my colleagues and friends whom I encountered and/or made connection with during the four years of my student life, most of who were limited to the boundaries of the Art Education Department and might not have extend beyond the peRIMeters of the classrooms and the scope of a course; you have all added to the tapestry I created at OSU.

I brought with me from Jamaica a warped loom, my experiences and encounters with you provided the weft yarns that enabled the design to surface as I wove continuously from day to day. In this tapestry we will find strong yarns and weak yarns; long yarns and short yarns; brilliant yarns and dull yarns; silky yarns and coarse yarns, soft yarns and tough yarns; smooth yarns and rough yarns and there are those yarns that are in between.

Quantitatively and qualitatively each yarn has played a significant part in the creation of this tapestry. As a textile artist I will acknowledge that some aspects are transitory,

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while others will be enduring; but most of all it has been emancipative and detoxifying.

Thanks to you all for whatever position you took in this chapter of my life. As the

Jamaican motto states “Out of Many, One People.” Thanks to Laura Hetrick (PhD) and

William Nieberding (Bill) for sticking it out with me to the end. You both have provided the collegial support I needing throughout the four years; so it was in the beginning, so may it continue to the end. Dr. Laura, my councilor, mentor and friend, your ears with now get space to breathe. Thanks to my African American friends and colleagues who provided a circle of friendship during the final days of my journey in Ohio, Ivy (Dr.

Chevers), Joni, Toni, Shirley and Tanisha (Dr. Jackson). Many thanks to Younglim, my

Korean friend, who provided well needed typing assistance for the transcription of the interviews and during the editing stage.

To my family and friends who were at my beck and call. My sons Junior and

Dwynell, Aunt Del, my sister Marcia and her family, my niece Sashan and her family, my dear cousin Sharon and her family, Maxine, Prudence, Fitzalbert, Angie and

Marshall. You encircled me with your love and provided needed financial and spiritual support and the Jamaican connections.

Last but not least, thanks to the Creator, who has paved the way and lifted me above my raising. He has taken my from the cane fields to the lecture theatres.

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VITA

December 13, 1953 ………………………………. Born Kingston, Jamaica

1973 – 1976 ……………………………………..... Pre-trained Teacher, Port Henderson Primary School, St. Catherine, Jamaica

1979 ……………………………………………….. Trained Teachers’ Certificate, Mico Teachers’ College, Kingston, Jamaica

1979 – 1981 ………………………………………. Classroom Teacher, Friendship Primary School, St Catherine, Jamaica

1981 – 1992 ……………………………………….. Mathematics Teacher, Jonathan Grant High School, St. Catherine, Jamaica

1992 ……………………………………………….. Diploma, Textiles Designs and Firbe Arts, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Kingston, Jamaica

1992 – 1996 ……………………………………… Assistant Lecturer, Shortwood Teachers’ College, Kingston, Jamaica

1998 ………………………………………………. Masters of Art in Teaching, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

1998 – 2000 ………………………………………. Lecturer, Shortwood Teachers’ College, Kingston, Jamaica

2000 – Present …………………………………….. Senior Lecturer, Shortwood

Teachers’ College, Kingston, Jamaica

2008 ……………………………………………….. Lecturer, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

2008 – Present …………………………………… Art Education Instructor, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

AWARDS

2006 – 2008 …………Primary Education Support Project (PESP) Scholarship Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, Jamaica.

1991 ………………………………………. Mutual Life Gallery Scholarship, Jamaica.

PUBLICATIONS

1. Primary Art Education in Jamaican Teachers’ Colleges, The Caribbean Teacher, Caribbean Education Annual, March (2000). UNESCO/CARNEID

FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Art Education

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………. ii Dedication ………………………………………………………………………………. iii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………... iv Vita ……………………………………………………………………………………… ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... xi List of Tables ...... xv List of Figures ...... xvi Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 1 Background to the study ...... 2 Overview of teacher education in Jamaica ...... 4 Overview of primary education in Jamaica ...... 17 What does an integration curriculum mean in the Jamaican context? ...... 20 What is a best practice integrated curriculum? ...... 24 Statement of the problem ...... 27 Research questions ...... 32 Definition of Terms...... 33 Limitations of the study ...... 37 Delimitations of the study ...... 38 Significance of the study ...... 40 Chapter 2: Review of Literature ...... 44 What is integrated curriculum? ...... 45 what does an integrated curriculum look like? ...... 47 What should teachers know about how people learn? ...... 52 The relevance of the arts in education ...... 59 Horace Mann’s advocacy ...... 64 John Dewey’s advocacy...... 65 Elliot Eisner’s advocacy ...... 67 Herbert Read’s advocacy...... 69 Political advocacies...... 70 Arts Integrated Curriculum ...... 77 What Teachers should know and be able to do? ...... 83 The teachers knowledge base...... 84 Teachers ability to create state-of the-art teaching/learning environments ...... 87 The importance of assessment in teaching and learning ...... 89 The Visual Arts teacher and integrated curriculum ...... 90

Chapter Three: Methodology ...... 95 Methodology of the Study ...... 96 Case Studies ...... 99 Data Collection Methods ...... 102 Oservation...... 103 Journaling...... 107 Interviews...... 109 Transcribing the interviews...... 115 The artifacts/documents...... 116 Data analysis...... 118 Analysis of the observations...... 119 Analysis of the interviews...... 120 Aanalysis of the documents/artifacts...... 121 Situational obligations and concerns...... 125 Trustworthiness...... 126 Credibility...... 127 Generalizability...... 128 Transferability...... 129 Validity...... 131 Chapter 4: Results, Analysis and Interpretations ...... 133 The Anticipated (Art) Integrated Curriculum ...... 135 The journey to the site...... 137 What did I expect to Research? ...... 139 Reporting the data ...... 148 Data collected from artifacts and documents ...... 152 Murals: site #1 - Grades 1-5 artists...... 153 Murals: site #2 - The gymnasium a space for authentic artworks ...... 154 Murals: Site #3 – The pedestrian tunnel ...... 156 5th Grade project ...... 163 The P.O.N.D. project ...... 167 The stepping stone path...... 168 Professional development for the teachers...... 172 The P.O.N.D. day...... 174 The stained glass windows...... 176 This activity titled – Learning Community Focus 17: The Journey ...... 181 Data from the interviews ...... 183 The teachers’ content and professional knowledge and skills...... 185 The teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and skills...... 188 The teachers’ skills and expertise...... 191 The teachers’ professional knowledge, dispositions and commitments...... 191 Interpretation of the data ...... 193 The teaching/learning environment...... 193 Using traditional and non traditional materials, tools and equipment...... 194 Using technological resources...... 196 xii

Who is this exemplary teacher? ...... 201 Evidence of visual arts content knowledge and skills...... 203 Teaching subject matter knowledge...... 205 Teaching two-dimensional work making...... 205 Teaching three dimensional artmaking...... 207 Evidence of pedagogical content knowledge and skills...... 210 Professional knowledge, dispositions and commitments...... 216 Leadership qualities and community building...... 222 Leading a schoolwide integrated curriculum driven and anchored by visual arts...... 225 Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations ...... 248 Integrated curriculum ...... 250 (Visual) Arts and the integrated curriculum ...... 255 The teacher and the arts integrated curriculum...... 256 Recommendation ...... 262 My Goals for Visual Arts and the Integrated Curriculum in Jamaica ...... 273 Ministry of Education goals and objectives ...... 273 Goals relationships and descriptions ...... 275 References: ...... 282 APPENDICES ...... 292 Appendix A – IRB Exemption Letter ...... 293 Appendix B – Letter Seeking Access to Field Site ...... 295 Appendix C – Letter of Permission from the School ...... 298 Appendix D – Letter Recruiting Participants ...... 300 Appendix E – Participants Consent Form ...... 304 Appendix F – Interview Questions ...... 306 Appendix G – Narrative: Observation Data...... 309 Narrative representation of the data collected from the observation ...... 310 Day One: Entering the educational space ...... 312 The teaching/ learning environment - the artroom ...... 313 The teacher’s content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge and skills: engaging in formal teaching and learning...... 317 Figure 4.1: Time Table Scheduling for the Special Areas Subjects at the Research Site ...... 318 Engaging the third graders...... 318 a. Recapitulation: Revision and discussion session...... 319 b. Students’ engagement in the art process...... 321 Engaging the fourth graders ...... 322 Engaging the fifth graders...... 325 a. introduction/ recapitulation/ demonstrations ...... 325 b. Students’ engagement in the art process...... 325 c. closure/dismissal ...... 326 Lunch break...... 327

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Engaging the first graders...... 328 a. introduction/revision/demonstrations...... 328 b. Students’ engagement in the process...... 330 c. closure and dismissal...... 331 Engagement with the second graders...... 332 a. introduction/recapitulation/discussions/demonstrations...... 332 c. closure/dismissal...... 333 Day’s conclusion...... 335 Day Two – observations ...... 335 Non-contact time ...... 335 Engagement with the learners...... 336 a. Third graders...... 336 b. Fifth graders ...... 337 c. Fourth graders...... 338 d. First graders...... 338 End of the day discussions ...... 338 Conclusion ...... 339 Artmaking processes and products – Greades 1-5 ...... 339 1st grade – abstract tempera paintings...... 339 1st grade - clay holiday ornaments...... 340 1st grade - paper weaving...... 342 2nd grade - 3 dimensional paper mask...... 343 2nd Grade – weaving on the cardboard loom...... 344 3rd grade – artwork showing my special place – outdoor...... 346 4th grade – optical illusion from solo act to collaboration to public auction...... 347 5th grade – creating clay mask...... 350 Three months’ review...... 351 Mosaic mural - an authentic real experience: collaboration, connection and cooperation ...... 352 The professional artist first engagement with young artists – (Friday, May 7, 2010) ...... 355 The artist’s engagement with the students...... 358 The students’ engagement in the design process...... 359 Engagement beyond the walls of the school/artroom - My observation at the mural site ...... 360 The art show - It’s a family affair ...... 364 The pottery display...... 365 Family participation...... 367 Visit #21 – An opportunity for reciprocity...... 369

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List of Tables

Table 1. 1: Scope and Sequence of Jamaican Grades 1-3 Curriculum .………….. 22-23 .. Table 4. 1: Time Table Scheduling for the Special Areas Subjects at the Research Site …………………………………………………………….317

List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Diagram of the brain ………………………………………………… 55

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Chapter 1: Introduction

“Althea, why did you choose Art and Craft as your specialization; couldn’t you have thought of a different subject to specialize in?” Before Althea could answer a calm, smooth voice, said, “Miss Barnes, why did you ask Althea that question? Why shouldn’t she have chosen Art and Craft?” These questions were directed to me by Mrs. Dyer, the head of the Visual Arts department, who was standing close by. My response was, “Well

I think there are better subjects she could have chosen for her career.”

The statement “ignorance is bliss” is not a true value statement in the above scenario. It is more appropriate to say “ignorance is blitz”. I cannot believe the person who is currently advocating for Visual Arts to play a pivotal role in education (to be an integral part of the curriculum at all levels of the education system) is the same person who made a demeaning attack on the subject as a career choice by a 10th grade student.

Guilty! I am so guilty! In 1984, I was a Mathematics teacher at a high school in Jamaica,

and out of sheer ignorance I asked that devaluing and devastating question. My colonial

and academic orientations had entrenched in me the idea that Visual Arts as a subject

choice is not indicative of a person who displays high levels of intelligence. If I knew

then, what I know now, I would not have displayed that negative disposition towards the

subject. My prejudice was short lived. Three years later I enrolled at the Jamaica School

of Art at the Cultural Training Centre (now School of Visual Arts at Edna Manley

College for the Visual and Performing Arts) to pursue a course in Textile Designs and

Fibre Arts, not for academic pursuit but for skills development. This signaled the

commencement of an emancipating and detoxifying journey.

The diploma from the School of Visual Art coupled with a trained teachers’

certificate and five more years teaching experience earned me an assistant lecture

position at a teachers’ college. Shortly after I accepted the position, I conducted a needs

assessment to ascertain how equipped I was to perform the task of preparing teachers to

cultivate future generations to be adoptive and tolerant citizens in democratic societies. I

realized that I possessed the content knowledge and expertise to facilitate prospective

teachers to develop and/or improve their artistic skills but I did not have the theoretical

and pedagogical knowledge to prepare teachers to make Visual Arts an integral

component of teaching and learning. So, in 1996 I journeyed to the United States of

America to pursue a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) at an art college. The two year

allowed me to develop and enhance my scholarly, interpersonal and emphatic geniuses thus enabling me to return to Jamaica to prepare K to Grade 13 teachers to make Visual

Arts and integral component of teaching and learning.

Background to the study

The general purpose of education should be to foster growth, which should cultivate a human being who is individualistic and at the same time harmonizing the individuality thus educed with the organic unity of the social group to which the individual belong. (Read, 1970, p. 8)

I have been a teacher in my country Jamaica for over thirty-seven (37) years. In

order to contribute to the development and advancement of the education of the future

generation of citizens in my native country Jamaica, I have embarked on a journey of

academic pursuit in the United States. Jamaica, a section of the globe that is constantly

referred to as “third world” and/or “developing countries” is an island surrounded by the

Caribbean Seas, and is the third largest island in the Caribbean, Jamaica currently has a population of approximately 2,760,000, comprised mainly of African descent about

90.9%, East Indians 1.3%, White 0.2 %, Chinese 0.2%, Mixed 7.3% and others 0.1 %.

The country's Motto “Out of Many One People” signifies that all citizens of Jamaica should be afforded equal opportunities, especially in education.

(http://www.123independenceday.com/jamaica/demography.html)

At a glance, I might be mistaken for an African American; however, my accent speaks to my West Indian origin. Like my American colleagues who are of dark complexion with “curly hair” (M. Angelo, personal communication, February 2010), we are of African descent; our ancestors were stolen from the motherland, Africa, uprooted from their rich cultural heritage, and brought to the western hemisphere across the oceans to a denigrating culture of slavery. Our African ancestry has privileged us to join Robert

“Bob” Nesta Marley and sing “Old pirates yes they robbed I, sold I to the merchant ships” (Redemption Song, 1979). Unlike my colleagues in the United States, I am not considered a “minority” in the country of my birth. The statics above shows that the

Jamaican population is majority people of African descent.

When Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica in 1494, two years after he landed in the United States of America, he found a group of South American Indians, the

Tianos/Arawaks, inhabiting the island. The Spanish settled the island in 1509, but

Jamaica was captured from the Spanish by the British in 1655, and was formerly ceded to

Great Britain in 1670. The Spanish exploitation had decimated the Tianos/Arawaks, and

so with the coming of the British, a huge, mostly African slave population grew up

around the sugarcane plantations in the 18th century when Jamaica was a leader in sugar

production. Jamaica became a British colony in 1865, thirty one years after the emancipation of slavery, and gained independence from British rule on August 6, 1962.

The abolition of slavery with and apprenticeship period spanning from 1834-1838 heralded in the establishment of the Jamaican education system for the masses. Prior to emancipation there were some elite schools for the plantocracy, while other children were sent to England to receive quality education. After emancipation, the West Indian

Commission granted a sum of money to establish elementary schools for the children of freed slaves. Most of these schools were administered by the churches such as the

Moravian, Baptist, Methodist, and Roman Catholic. (White, 1977)

Overview of teacher education in Jamaica

There are twelve government institutions in Jamaica preparing teachers for the early childhood, primary/elementary and secondary levels of the education system.

Currently, the certification offered to graduates at ten of these institutions is a diploma in teacher education. This diploma certificate is equivalent to an associate’s degree in the

United State education system. The other two institutions are universities, therefore their offerings include a bachelor’s degree in education, a master’s in education and doctor of

philosophy degree in education. A review of the history of teacher education in Jamaica

will reveal that fifty percent of these institutions were established prior to the mid to late

19th Century. One of these institutions, Mico Teachers’ College (Mico University

College since 2006), the oldest in the western hemisphere, was established in1835 during the period leading to the emancipation of slavery. (White, 1977) It is appalling to discover that one and a half centuries after the abolition of slavery and establishment of the first training college, Jamaica is still lagging behind countries such as the United State in the preparation and certification of teachers. There is evidence that Mico Teachers’

College, the first formal teacher education institution in Jamaica, was established at least

4 years before the United States of America. According to Labaree (2008), “The most prominent and ultimately most influential form was the state normal schools, the first of which opened in Lexington, Massachusetts in 1839. The state normal school … was a single-purpose professional school for future teachers” (p. 292). To show the progress of teacher education in the US, Labaree cited Tyack’s (1967) statement that “By the start of the twentieth century state legislatures would begin transforming normal schools into teachers colleges and between 1911 and 1930 there were 88 such conversions” (p. 295).

Labaree further pointed out that, “With this change, the former normal schools could grant bachelor’s degrees, giving heft and credibility to all their programs” (p. 295).

Since “change is the only constant” and education should not be viewed as static “the process of educational evolution reached its culmination in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when one after another of these former normal schools took the last step by seeking and winning the title ‘university’” (Labaree 2008, p. 295). Given this historical development of teacher education in the United State, I would like to provide an overview of how the

Jamaican teacher education institutions have progressed over more than one and a half

centuries after the first institution was established.

Since the mid 1960s, the teacher education institutions, in collaboration with the

Joint Board of Teacher Education (JBTE), have been offering a three year diploma

program in teacher education. JBTE (formerly, the Institute Board of Teacher Training),

an arm of the Institute of Education at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus,

is the certifying and accrediting body for non-graduate teacher education in the Western

Caribbean. Although the diploma offered in the Jamaican education system is equivalent

to an associate’s degree in the United States, having an established organization such as

the Joint Board of Teacher Education acting as facilitator and gatekeeper is a key element

when developing a learning community for preparing teachers. As an oversight

organization, JBTE ensures that the “importance of developing a common mission, sense

of purpose, and shared locus of activity importance among the many actors involved in

teacher education is a central theme” (Bransford, Derry, Berliner, Hammerness, with

Beckett, 2005, p. 453). But, are these three year diploma programs adequately preparing

teachers to meet the challenges of the 21st century classroom as they attempt to prepare future generations to be adoptive and tolerant citizens in this our changing world?

The country is demanding better trained teachers. Teachers that are confident and

competent to meet the myriad demands of the learner, the complex nature of the

learning environment and the dynamics of a changing society. As a result, The

Task Force on Educational Reform established by former Prime Minister, the Rt.

Hon. P. J. Patterson, recommended that teachers entering the profession should

have a minimum of a Bachelor's degree.

(http://www.sjtc.edu.jm/BEdCite.htm#vision)

The Task Force on Educational Reform Final Report (2004) revealed that of the

“over 22,000 teachers employed in the 1000 public schools, only 20% are trained university graduates” (p. 9). If one were to conduct a survey, it would confirm that most of these teachers obtained their teacher certification at one of the teacher’s training colleges before pursuing degree(s) at one of the three universities or from universities abroad. There is need for celebration as there is evidence of growth in the teacher population in general and the number of teachers who are trained university graduates since the 2004 report. The Annual Statistical Review of the Education Sector revealed that,

For the academic year 2008/ 2009 the Ministry of Education employed 25,013 teachers in the public formal education system. … The data also indicates that the percentage of teachers who are trained university graduates grew from 19.8 percent in

2002 to 34.2 percent in 2008” (Jamaica Education Statistics, p. 34). http://www.moec.gov.jm/Edstats%202008.pdf

This remarkable increase in trained graduate level teachers could be attributed to the fact that over the past few years some of these teacher education institutions have been offering degree programs awarded by the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ), the

University of the West Indies, or in partnership with universities abroad. Just to name a few, Shortwood Teachers’ College, in a joint effort with the University of the West

Indies, has offered a Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Education since 1996, and the University of South Florida in collaboration with Shortwood Teachers’ College has offered a Master of Science in Early Childhood Education since 2000. Since August

2006, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in collaboration with The

Ohio State University has established an online Masters of Arts in Art Education. The first cohort of 14 students was awarded the Masters Degree in Art Education at the summer 2009 commencement. Hip-hip-hurray! This is progress, a giant step forward in the progress of Art Education in Jamaica. Fourteen masters in one cohort have certainly surpassed the accumulated number of Art Education Masters degree we can account for in the Jamaican education system over the past one and a half centuries.

There is evidence that the recommendation of the Task Force on Educational

Reform Report (2004) had not fallen on “deaf ears,” and, as the saying goes “unity is strength.”

In order to realize the national vision the ten colleges offering teacher education

programmes at the diploma level, viz; Bethlehem Moravian College, College of

Agriculture, Science and Education, Church Teachers' College, Edna Manley

College, G.C. Foster College, Mico University College, Moneague College, Sam

Sharpe Teachers' College, Shortwood Teachers' College and St. Joseph's

Teachers' College formed the Consortium of Institutions for Teacher Education

(C.I.T.E.). (http://www.sjtc.edu.jm/BEdCite.htm#vision)

Although, the teacher education institutions might not have the capacity to be elevated to the status of universities, after wearing the title teachers’ colleges from inception over one and a half centuries, it is time they give “heft and creditability” to their programs by offering the minimum of bachelor’s degrees to graduates. Over a two year period, 2004 – 2006, the community of learners of the Consortium of Institutions for

Teacher Education (CITE) worked enthusiastically and energetically preparing for the

task of providing non-degree practicing teachers and the future generations of teachers to

effectively and efficiently perform the vocation of producing “a globally competitive,

qualify workforce and a disciplined culturally aware and ethical Jamaican citizenry” (The

Task Force on Educational Reform Final Report, 2004, p. 15). All this effort paid off.

On May 24, 2006 while reporting on a press briefing by the then Minister of Information

and Development, Senator Colin Campbell, Edmond Campbell, Senior News Coordinator

of the Jamaica Gleaner (newspaper), wrote that, “Cabinet on Monday approved the

establishment of a Consortium of Institutions for Teacher Education (CITE), as a degree-

granting body for the country's 10 teacher-education institutions” (Campbell, 2006).

Campbell continued that “In less than five years, persons training to become teachers will graduate with degrees, as the government moves to revolutionise teacher education, by phasing out certificate programmes.” Coincidentally, the Jamaica Information Service

(JIS) report titled Cabinet has Accepted Proposal for the Establishment of CITE was also dated May 24, 2006. It provided the following information:

• Cabinet yesterday (May 22), gave its full support to a proposal from the Ministry of Education and Youth to establish a Consortium of Institutions for Teacher Education (CITE), which will institute a four-year degree course of study at teacher colleges, instead of the current three-year diploma programme.

• Providing details of the CITE programme at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing, Information and Development Minister, Senator Colin Campbell, said the project originated after "recent reviews found that the teacher training certificates offered by these institutions [teacher colleges] are becoming less marketable or usable, not only in Jamaica but within the global marketplace."

• Minister Campbell informed reporters that the CITE programme is expected to get underway in time for the start of the new school year in September. It is anticipated that within the next three to five years, the current certificate 9

programme now being offered in teacher colleges would be phased out, resulting in "everybody going to a teacher training institution leaving with a degree."

• Ten teacher colleges across the island have been identified to participate in the programme. They are Bethlehem Moravian College, the College of Agriculture, Science and Education; Church Teachers' College, Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, G.C. Foster College, Mico College, Moneague College, St. Joseph's Teachers' College, Sam Sharpe Teachers' College and Shortwood Teachers' College.

• Under the CITE programme, Mr. Campbell said prospective teachers, for the most part, would learn by way of distance education and by technology, "whereby students in any college could receive lectures from any campus."

• The Minister emphasised that given that the CITE programme was a major undertaking, it was expected that legislation would have to be drafted and taken back to Cabinet in order to permit the phasing-in of the programme in September [2006].

It is significant to note that the above institutions, as members of the Joint Board of Teacher Education (JBTE), currently use common curricula for each discipline or program that is certified in the diploma in teacher education programs and administers a common examination for each course at the end of the semester for semester long courses and at the end of the year for year long courses. Therefore, it is envisaged that there will be little or no difficulty to deliver the bachelor’s degree collaboratively because it should be a natural progression/development from the existing diploma in teaching. It has been suggested that the operation of the Consortium will not interfere with the mission and affairs of the individual colleges. However, these institutions will have to come to the realization that they will be facing challenges and overcoming obstacles. Although they are smaller structures obtaining degree status will mean their program(s) offerings should be on par with the teacher education offerings at universities and institutions that are exemplary. Although these institutions have been oriented as members of a community

preparing teachers, all concerned should be au fait of Bransford, Derry, Berliner,

Hammerness, with Beckett (2005) warning that “The process of renewal and transformation poses many challenges. Whereas strong programs tend to support collaboration, offer professional development for faculties, and supportive democratic leadership ... efforts to create these conditions can run into a host of difficulties” (p. 463).

An advantage for these institutions is that as members of the JBTE over the past four decades, they have worked jointly in a collaborative and cooperative manner to foster the development and sustenance of teacher education.

My experience as a faculty member at one of the teachers’ colleges is that there is a two to three day Joint Board of Teacher Education conference at the beginning of each academic year. These conferences, which are hosted by the Institute of Education/JBTE with joint sponsorship from all the colleges, are most times held before students report to the colleges for formal classes, therefore all principals, vice-principals and faculty members at the above mentioned teacher education institutions are expected to attend.

The first day generally commences with a plenary session where we are provided with a review of the foregoing year and an overview of the policy and academic plans and changes that will occur in the forthcoming year. There will always be invited guest(s) from local and/or international professional organization(s) to provide relevant information that will build professional and scholarly knowledge and sometimes economic and/or a socio-cultural knowledge base and skills. After the plenary session, the teacher educators meet in their Boards of Studies based on their disciplines/subjects.

Each Board of Studies is comprised of the chief external examiner who is a faculty member of the Institute of Education at UWI and his/her team of external

examiners who are most times retired teacher educators in the specific discipline with the

discipline/subject faculty member(s) from each college. Each Board of Studies has a chairman, a vice-chairman, a secretary and a treasurer all of whom are elected by the members from among the faculty of the colleges. They serve a two year term. My experience as a member of the Visual Arts Board of Studies is that of camaraderie among a community of learners who come together to build on their scholarly, interpersonal and/or emphatic geniuses as artists and art teacher educators. We review the year that just ended and discuss strengths and weaknesses regarding the academic and pedagogical

performances of the students at the different year levels and programs as well as

institutions. We make decisions and plan for the upcoming years for the teacher

candidates as well as the academic and professional development of the members of the

Board of Studies. The students at all the colleges “sit” common examinations in each

subject/discipline, therefore the members of the Board of Studies meet at least two more

times each academic year for the “vetting” of examination questions and moderation of

examination grades.

This orientation provided by JBTE reflects Darling-Hammond, Pacheco, Michelli,

LePage, Hammerness with Youngs’ (2005) recommendation that “Teacher preparation

programs that support strong collaborative communities often provide incentives for

collaborative planning and teaching, support and insist on the development of coherent

curriculum within and across programs, and organize professional development grounded

in discussions about teaching” (p. 454).

Since autumn semester 2006, CITE has been activated and the ten colleges

preparing teachers for the education sector have engaged in the collaborative effort. The

Consortium of Institutions for Teacher Education (CITE) has been offering a Bachelor in

Education degree (B. Ed.) on a part-time basis. The following are the objectives for the

CITE Bachelor in Education program:

• Strengthen the teacher’s pedagogical competence and subject knowledge

• Develop a reflective practitioner and teacher-researcher who will be able to

analyze and respond to the demands of the learner, the school and the community

• Increase language fluency and the communication skills of the teacher

• Broaden the teacher’s general education, and

• Deepen the commitment to his/her country and the learners.

My interest in the current happenings in the Jamaican education system, with particular attention in teacher education, stems from the fact that I have been an educator in Jamaica for the past thirty-seven years, with the last seventeen years being spent in teacher education. I am conscious that I am a member of this “professional learning community” that is situated in a so called “developing country.” My scholarly engagement has caused me to realize that the commitment I made reflects that I am acting as a critical social theorist. I am not only willing to study, understand and explain the system of which I am a member, but I will also intervene by recommending and/or implementing changes to the system. After undergoing some degree of metacognition and reflexivity, I have come to realize that, in order to be adequately informed and be situated in the position to accomplish the self-assigned task and fulfill my commitment, I

have been conducting archaeological digs and archival searches within and beyond the

boundaries of my field of art education.

Due to the changes that are occurring in the Jamaican education system, we will

need to look beyond the shores of the Caribbean Sea to equip our human resources to

face the challenges that are inevitable. Fortunately, I am currently pursuing a doctoral

degree in Art Education in a “developed country,” and I realize that I will need to be

equipped to participate in the changes that will be taking place when I return to my job.

As a result, it is my intention to design a course for primary school teachers pursuing the

Bachelor of Education. This course will equip the teachers with the knowledge, skills,

dispositions and commitments necessary to position Visual Arts Education to play a

pivotal role in curriculum integration. I have been wondering: Is my presence in the USA

coincidental, or am I at the right place at the right time? There is a renaissance in the

classrooms in the US. This is evident in Kliebard’s (1995) statement cited in Parsons

(2004), “We are currently witnessing a renewed interest in integrated curriculum in both

art education and in education in general. Integrated curriculum, not always with that

name, has been a recurrent interest in American education since the late 19th century,” (p.

775).

In 2001, the Ministry of Education and Youth in Jamaica had established the

Primary Education Support Project (PESP). The PESP was intended to give support to developments initiated under PEIP I and II so as to ensure the sustainability of the gains made in primary education in Jamaica. The goals of the project were to contribute to the improved performance, efficiency and equity of the primary education system. [One of] the strategic objectives of the project aim is to: Improve performance through the

effective implementation of the revised primary school curriculum and national

assessment standards in all primary schools.

http://www.moec.gov.jm/projects/pesp/about.htm.

A review of the revised curriculum revealed that this is an integrated curriculum.

Although PESP had provided training for primary schools teachers to implement the new integrated curriculum, not much had been done to prepare or familiarize new teachers to implement the integrated curriculum they will face in the classrooms. How are they to put into practice pedagogical strategies that they had not been exposed to? As suggested by Bransford, Derry, Berliner, Hammerness, with Beckett (2005), teacher educators need to be cognizant that most people tend to teach in ways that mirror how they were taught.

Since the Bachelor in Education will be the minimum certification offered to graduates of the collaborative program, it is inevitable there will need to be revision of existing programs and curricula as well as design of new programs and curricula. The primary school teachers who have been prepared under the soon to be phased out three year diploma program were offered a three semester Visual Arts Education course that focused on the improvement and development of their artistic skills. Due to a time constraint, little emphasis was placed on exposing them to pedagogical strategies that would prepare them to engage the students in their charge in Visual Arts activities. The new Bachelor in Education program means an increase in the time in which the perspective teacher will be registered in the certification program. I will therefore seize the opportunity to increase the Visual Arts offering to these teachers because Freedman

& Stuhr (2004) recommended that “art should be approached as an equally legitimate

school subject and conceptually integrated with the rest of the school curriculum”

(p. 826). My understanding of the value of arts education is that “Creative/critical inquiry is not only for secondary level students; in fact, it should begin at the elementary level. Young children are already adopting postmodern visual culture as a framework for understanding reality outside of school” (Freedman &. Stuhr, 2004, p. 825). This knowledge has made me realize that I can make an invaluable contribution, not only at the teacher preparation level, but nationally. By equipping primary school teachers to use

Visual Arts as the tool to make curriculum integration possible, I would be supporting

The Ohio State University TETAC mentors (2002) who stated that “Our belief is that arts is a basic way of making sense of the world and as a powerful engine of curriculum integration” (p. 15).” Additionally, Ballengee-Morris (1998) informed that,

According to Friere, students should experience this process in education by

experiencing art, expressing through their cultural arts, integrating subjects,

integrating on to the world, developing a critical consciousness and encourage

dialogue. This requires a new pedagogy, attitude and approach. (p. 50)

In light of Friere’s recommendation, I shall return to Jamaica with the attitude to

approach teacher preparation with new pedagogical strategies which I will practice on a

daily basis. I do not only love to teach, I also love those I teach. Therefore I need to

prepare prospective primary school teachers to effectively and efficiently implement an

integrated curriculum. “They need to experience the joy of teaching and making a

difference in one person (all students). They need to have the support of those who

already understand this and not to feel inadequate,” (Freire, as cited in Ballengee-Morris

1998). I must confess that, in my over thirty seven years experience in the teaching profession, I have never had any formal experience with an integrated curriculum in practice. However, at the interview for a PESP fellowship in 2006, I promised that if I were awarded a fellowship to pursue the Doctor of Philosophy degree, I would design a course to be a part of the pre-service preparation for elementary teachers. The course I envisage will equip primary/elementary school teachers with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments necessary to make Visual Arts an integral part of the integrated curriculum on a daily basis.

Overview of primary education in Jamaica

Public education in Jamaica dates back to 1835, when Jamaica, a British colony,

received financial assistance under the Negro Education Grant, for the education

of the formerly ex-slaved populace. Several religious bodies were given the

responsibility for the administration of the grant while the colonial legislature

gave the educational directives. (Task Force on Educational Reform Final

Report, 2004, p. 41)

A visit to Jamaica will reveal that over the years the population has remained predominantly descendants of the African continent. Although the inhabitants were no longer classified as slave, for more than a century later, the nation was still under British rule. As a result all levels of the education system were based on the model(s) and resources from England. In 1944, Representative Government replaced Crown Colony

Government, for the first time all adults were allowed to vote based on the law of

Universal Adult Suffrage. The new constitution provided for an Executive Council of five nominated members and five elected members. One of the elected members was a

Minister of Education. By the middle of the twentieth century, changes began to take place. This is evident when,

what may be described as the dawn of the modern era began in 1953 with the

establishment of several government ministries as part of the process of gradual

autonomy in the management of the country’s affairs. By 1958, the Minister of

Education was given full responsibility for education and with Independence in

1962, came the challenge of introducing new policies and programmes, and

commencing the process of reforming the education system. (Task Force on

Educational Reform Final Report, 2004, p. 42)

After approximately three centuries of colonial rule, 1665 – 1962 and with the emancipation of slavery in between (1834-1838), Jamaica gained independence from

British rule, the red, white and blue Union Jack was lowered and has been replaced by the black, green and gold flag on Monday, August 6, 1962. Independence from Britain was not as immediate as it sounds. For years after it was just a “word” not a reality. It was only the beginning of a long and treacherous journey to self-government. Over the years, the Government of Jamaica, through the instrumentality of the Ministry of Education and other key stakeholders who have had a vested interest in the development and progress of the Jamaican education system and the education of the nation as a whole, has been successful in designing curricula that are of relevance to Jamaica and the Caribbean in general. Like most other countries, Jamaica has witnessed a few reforms in the education

system at the elementary/primary level over the past four decades. A UNICEF report

revealed that, “According to 2003/04 statistics, there are 792 government-operated

primary schools. There are also a number of privately operated, fee paying primary level

institutions (called prep [preparatory] schools) in the island” (Noorani, 2005,

www.unicef.org/jamaica/children_1569.htm).

Although the preparatory schools are privately owned and operated, they are expected to use the common curricula that are designed by the Ministry of Education and

Culture, because at the end of the primary level, grade 6, all students “sit” a common examination, Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), in order to transfer to grade seven and commence their secondary level education.

A UNESCO report (1983) stated that,

One very impressive characteristic of Jamaican education is the great quantitative

progress made over the past decade. The country can be proud of being close to

universal primary education that is continued on to grade 9. Just about all

primary school leavers received some post-primary/secondary education…The

fact that about one of every two primary school leavers is considered illiterate is

alarming. (Task Force on Educational Reform Final Report, 2004, p. 43)

In an effort to reverse the negative trend that was pointed out in the UNESCO

report, the Government undertook massive investment in education during the 1990’s.

The Government of Jamaica (GOJ) and a group of lenders led by the Inter-American

Development Bank (IDB), worked together on a project to improve the quality of primary

education in Jamaica. This project was called the Primary Education Improvement

Project - Phase II (PEIP II), (Ministry of Education and Culture Jamaica: Curriculum

Guide Grades 1-3). There was an urgent need for a revision of the Primary Curriculum.

A major aspect of the revised curriculum is an integrated approach at Grades 1-3 while the Grades 4-6 curricula are discrete subject areas and opportunities for integration are provided through research and projects based on interdisciplinary themes. The Primary

Education Improvement Project (PEIP II) has made a significant change in the quality of education in the primary schools. It addressed the areas of teacher preparation, physical infrastructure and evaluation and revision of the curriculum. The revised curriculum was piloted in thirty schools over a period of two academic years, September 1997 to June

1999. (http://www.moec.gov.jm/projects/pesp/index.shtml)

It is more than a decade since the revised curriculum, which is an integrated

curriculum, was introduced in 792 government primary schools in Jamaica in September

1999. The second phase of the Government of Jamaica and Inter-American Development

Bank project came to an end (1999), however in January 2001, Phase III, the Primary

Education Support Project (PESP), was established to support the gains made through

PEIP II.

What does an integration curriculum mean in the Jamaican context?

Unlike the United States, in Jamaica the early childhood and primary teacher education programs prepare teachers to teach from Anthropology to Zoology. They teach all the curricular subjects - Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies,

Religious Education, the arts (aesthetics) Visual Arts, Physical Education/Movement

Education, Music, and Drama/Theater. A review of the Primary Education Support

Project background reveals that PESP aims to contribute to the improved performance, efficiency and equity of the primary education system with the following objectives as its guide:

• Improved performance through the effective implementation of the Revised

Primary Curriculum (RPS) (which is an integrated curriculum) and national

assessment standards in schools

• Increase efficiency through the rationalization of teacher education and the

strengthening of educational management capacity at all levels

• Enhanced equity in the delivery of educational services to children from the

lower socio-economic background through target interventions for improved

literacy, numeracy and attendance

The revised curriculum is intended for children to make connections between what they learn in all subjects and between school and the world outside. It is designed to facilitate a more child-centered approach to teaching and learning. Grades 1-3 are fully integrated using an overarching theme of “Me and My Community.” Special time slots referred to as “windows” have been designed for focusing on developing literacy and numeracy skills. As a result, Language Arts and Mathematics are allotted two time slots – one for integration with other subject areas and the “windows” slot which are assigned approximately 60 minutes per day. When the teacher “opens” the “windows,” the focus is not on the integrated theme. Instead s/he teaches aspects from the subject as an individual discipline divorced of all the other subject areas. The grades 4-6 curricula do not reflect integration. The format changes to a discrete discipline.

However, a thematic integration across subject areas is expected in the students’ projects and research work. (http://www.moec.gov.jm/curricula/GuideGrade1-3.pdf)

The diagram below provides an overview of the theme and subthemes that guide the curriculum for grades 1 – 3 during the course of an academic year, which like some elementary systems in other countries, is divided into three segments. In some schools in the United States, the division of the academic year into three sections is referred to as trimesters and in Jamaica the three sections it is referred to as terms.

SCOPE AND SEQUENCE GRADE 1-3

GRADE 1 GRADE 2 GRADE 3

$THEME ALL ABOUT ME AND MY ENVIRONMENT TERM

SUB- M Y S E L F

THEME

Unit 1 Who Am I? My Body (Part II) My Body (Part III) 1

Unit 2 My Body (Part Care and Safety Satisfying Others September to of Self Needs 1 December

SUB- MY HOME MY FAMILY MY COMMUNITY. THEME THE NATION AND THE WIDER WORLD Unit 1 My Family Living together in Providers of 2 a Family Goods and Unit 2 Services January to Things in the Satisfying our Home Needs Relating to Others March/April Outside of Jamaica

Aspects of Jamaica Culture

SUB- MY SCHOOL MY MY PHYSICAL COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT THEME

Unit 1 Myself at This is My Living and Non- 3 School Community living Things in Unit 2 My Environment April to Together at Places of Interest School in My Caring for My June/July Community Environment Unit 3 ______Plants and Animals in My Community

Figure1. 1: Scope and Sequence of Grades 1-3 Curriculum

Relying on my knowledge and observation, there should be evidence of great efficiency and competency in the delivery of the integrated curriculum. Information retrieved from the Ministry of Education and Youth revealed that, as of December 2004, eight thousand five hundred and forty two (8,542) teachers received training to deliver the Revised Primary Curriculum to grades one through six. In addition, two hundred and seven (207) principals were trained under the diploma program for principals and thirty three (33) fellowships were awarded to teachers’ college lecturers for upgrading to masters and doctoral levels. (Ministry of Education and Youth, Jamaica, http://www.moec.gov.jm/projects/pesp/index.shtml) I am privileged to be an awardee of one of the fellowships for lecturers at the teacher training colleges for the academic year

2006 – 2007. The Primary Education Support Project (PESP) came to an end in

December 2008. It is now over ten years since the Revised Curriculum was introduced nationwide in 1999. I believe, it is time for the Jamaican education system to be

witnessing examples of “best practices” in the implementation of an integrated

curriculum.

What is a best practice integrated curriculum?

According to Zemelmann, Daniels &Hyde (2005),

The expression “best practices,” was originally borrowed from the professions of

medicine, law, and architecture, where “good practice” or [and] “best practice”

are everyday phrases used to describe solid reputable, state-of-the-art work in a

field. If a professional is following best practice standards he or she is aware of

current research and consistently offers clients the full benefits of the latest

knowledge technology. (p. vi)

In this context of education “best practices” in the teaching/learning environment,

Zemelmann and colleagues identified ten principles which they divided into three clusters. The first cluster is a student-centered environment that should be experiential, holistic, authentic, challenging; the second cluster refers to cognitive environment which should be developmental, constructive, expressive, and reflective; and lastly the social aspect which should be collaborative and democratic. In a best practices integrated curriculum, all subjects should be treated with equality. This means all subjects will be afforded an equal amount of time and space/place in the daily teaching and learning activities.

A best practices integrated curriculum should reflect Lake’s (2001) suggestions: a

combination of subjects, connections among subjects, an emphasis on projects, sources

that go beyond textbooks, relationships among concepts, thematic units as organized

principles, flexible schedules and flexible student grouping. Teachers will need to realize

that for effective and efficient implementation of an integrated curriculum it is not limited

to the subjects/disciplines in the curriculum. There should be collaboration and

cooperation among the academic, administrative, ancillary staffs, and the parents in their

schools. There should be connections that go beyond the walls of the classroom and the

school. In order to provide state-of-the-art learning experiences in state-of-the-art learning environments for the students in Grades 1-3, the teachers will need to keep the doors of the classrooms constantly opened and reach over and beyond the walls of the school to identify, access and utilize sources and resources that will enhance, ensure and enable the successful implementation of an integrated curriculum. They will mine for and utilize the knowledge, skills and expertise that are available in the local, parish and national communities. Children should be taken to sites to have authentic experiences that will allow them to make connections with what is being taught in the curriculum and what happens in real life situations.

The teachers will show that assessment is an essential component of teaching and learning. It is an ongoing process for both the teachers and the students and it should also reflect the methodology used for instruction. This means assessment will be based on an integrated format. When teachers include formative assessment, it enables them to identify what the children have learned and what they might not have understood. This

provides the teachers with the opportunity to review their teaching strategies and employ

new approaches that will enable all the children an opportunity to perform at their

maximum level of proficiency. When the teachers include formative assessments, they

provide the students with feedback and allow the students opportunities to revise or redo

assignments to improve on their performances. A question I would like to pose to

teachers who should be implementing an integrated curriculum is: Where is it written that

class only happens in a classroom and learning only happens in the traditional way?

Jamaican primary school teachers teach all the curriculum subjects, therefore it should

not be difficult for them to implement an integrated curriculum in general and arts

integrated curriculum in particular. However, how must teachers put into practice

pedagogical strategies that they were not exposed to in their teacher preparation? Since

the Jamaican primary school teachers are the all inclusive teachers, teacher education

program(s) should adequately provide them with the content knowledge, pedagogical

knowledge, professional knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments necessary to

effectively and efficiently implement an integrated curriculum before they are deemed

suitably qualified to commence their practice, thus enabling elementary teachers to

provide and sustain superior quality educational opportunities to a diverse population of

Grades 1-6 students while exposing and engaging them in appropriate activities and experiences that will prepare them to be adoptive and tolerant citizens in our changing world.

Statement of the problem

The introduction of the Revised Primary Curriculum (RPC), an integrated curriculum, in the Jamaican primary/elementary schools signaled a need for new orientations in the planning and implementation of the curriculum content to the young people who will be the future adult citizens of this the 21st century. However, for teaching to reflect best practices in the implementation of an integrated curriculum, the teachers should be equipped with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments necessary to adequately perform the task. Grossman, Schoenfeld with Lee (2005) argued that “Prospective teachers need to have a solid foundation in the subject matter they plan to teach and the requisite disciplinary tools to continue learning within the subject matter throughout their career” (p. 206). Ball’s (2000) thought is that, “Knowing subject matter and being able to teach it is at the heart of teaching all students” (p. 243). Also, the successful implementation of an integrated curriculum requires assignment for time for planning.

My knowledge of what is ‘best practices’ in the implementation of an integrated curriculum and my reflection on what is happening in the Jamaican education system that requires full integration at Grade 1-3 levels reveals that there needs to be improvement in the (re)presentation of arts in general and Visual Arts in particular. The arts are not being afforded equal time and space/place in the daily teaching/learning activities, neither as discrete disciplines nor in curriculum integration. “Winner uses what could be considered an essential rational for arts education by saying that art is a time-honored way of learning, knowing and expressing and is therefore just as important as science”

(Brewer, 2002, p. 33). Using one or more of the arts as culminating activities at the end

of teaching one or more of the traditionally labeled “core subjects” is doing a disservice

to the art(s). In such situations “the arts become handmaidens to the end that are not

distinctly artistic and in the process undermine the value of the art’s unique contribution

to the education of the young” (Eisner 1998, p. 13). If the students are taught the arts as

distinctive disciplines, it means they will be exposed to the vocabulary, history, samples

of works and artistic processes and procedures in each discipline. When it is time for

them to do projects the students would have been equipped with the knowledge and skills

necessary to utilize one or more of the arts to create excellent works that will reflect the theme being investigated and show the “linkage between learning in the arts and learning in other subjects” (Brewer, 2002, p. 33).

There needs to be improvement in the time allotted in preparing primary teachers in Jamaica for the teaching of any of the discrete arts discipline, as well as for providing that them with the pedagogical strategies necessary to use the arts as an anchor for the integrated curriculum. Currently, each discrete arts discipline is afforded only three hours per week over three semesters (1 semester spans 15 weeks) in the elementary teacher preparation program. Majority of these teachers had little to no formal experience or exposure to artmaking before their initial teacher preparation program, and so they come to the art education course with a fear and most of them like to say up front to the art educator/lecturer, “Miss or Sir, I cannot drawing.” Based on an arguments

presented by Grossman, Schoenfeld and Lee (2005) and Ball’s (2000) regarding what

teachers should know and be able to do to teach a subject well, I believe, a total of one

hundred and thirty five hours is inadequate for engaging perspective teachers in learning

the subject discipline for the acquisition of the necessary content knowledge as well as

pedagogical content knowledge and strategies necessary to empower them to teach the

subject, especially for Visual Arts, a subject that entail exploration and experimentation

with a wide array of media and techniques. Duncum (1999) stated that,

Many elementary generalists feel that if they cannot draw, they can teach art.

Instead, they explore numerous materials, or one material in numerous ways.

Limited time devoted to art during pre-service, inadequate in-service education,

and competing curriculum demands, conspire to ensure that elementary

generalists posses very little specialist knowledge in art. Consequently,

preservice teaching of elementary generalists is sometimes considered the “black

hole” of art education. (p. 33)

A contemporary concept in adult education is that of lifelong learners. Currently, little or no facilities and/or provisions are in place for practicing teachers to put in motion the disciplinary tools to continue learning within the arts throughout their career. There will be need for in-service Professional Development Programs that provide pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical strategies for teaching in, with, through and about Visual

Arts, as well as the other arts disciplines, to practicing primary school teachers, especially those who received certification over a decade ago. This will provide them with experiences that will equip the teachers with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments necessary to make the arts an integral component of teaching and learning in the primary schools.

There is a need for improvement in making community connections with regards to the teaching of the arts either as discrete disciplines and/or as they are related to the

implementation of the integrated curriculum. Although there is evidence that teachers are attempting to make connections within and across disciplines, sometimes they do not make connections outside their classrooms or beyond the boundaries of the walls of the school. As was said before, unlike the elementary education system in the United States, the primary school teachers in Jamaica teach from A to Z, all the subjects in the curriculum. Currently, there are no arts specialists in their schools for them to connect to and/or collaborate with. Although there might not be evidence of professional or amateur artists in the community in which the schools are located, if they do a thorough investigation they might reap rewards and find that there are artists in their communities.

They need to employ the knowledge, skills and expertise of artists and collaborate with them in an effort to provide the students with authentic and novel teaching/learning experiences. Also, all high schools employ specialist arts teachers in at least two of the distinct disciplines. The primary teachers can make connections with these teachers who should be more knowledgeable and skilled and work collaboratively to provide the students with rich arts teaching and learning experiences either for discrete arts learning or for the implementation of integrated curriculum.

Assessment is another area that needs improvement. Like the arts, another essential and important component of education, teaching and learning that is sometimes not given the attention that it deserves is assessment. Assessment should be an integral part of teaching and learning and should be relevant not only to the content of the curriculum but also the methodology that is being used for curriculum implementation.

Since the arts are process-oriented and the products are always evolving, assessments in the arts should not be done only at the end of production. Beattie (1997) cited in Daniel,

Stuhr & Ballengee-Morris (2006) stated that, “Assessment is an ongoing process for both

teachers and students” (p. 10). Unlike some subjects, the arts do not lend themselves to

the traditional and/or most widely used assessment strategy, paper and pencil/pen. When

the students’ learning occurs in the arts and through the arts, performance assessment is a

natural choice. Beattie suggested that, “There are many approaches to assessment such

as portfolio, diaries, journals, logs and performance” (Daniel, Stuhr & Ballengee-Morris,

2006, p. 10).

The purpose of this study is to identify best practices where the arts, in particular

Visual Arts, play an integral role in the implementation of an integrated curriculum at the

elementary or primary level of an education system. It is my aim to establish how art

educators, artists-teachers and classroom teachers are working and/or have been working

collaboratively and cooperatively to insure that the arts are brought from the periphery of

the learning environment to the core of the curriculum on a daily basis. I want to

establish how arts integrated curriculum practices that are utilized in learning

environments beyond the shores of the Caribbean can be used as a pedagogical strategy

to create an authentic fit for the implementation of the integrated curriculum in the

Jamaican elementary/primary education system. Thus, it was my intention to conduct a

case study in an elementary school in the state of Ohio, in the United State, where

exemplary teachers have been using state-of-the-art pedagogy to provide state-of-the-art learning experiences in an integrated curriculum that brings Visual Arts to the core of the curriculum.

Research questions

In August 2006, I committed my doctoral research to investigate how Visual Arts can play an integral role in the implementation of the integrated curriculum that was introduced at the primary/elementary level of the Jamaican education system since

September 1999. In fulfillment of this commitment, my study sought to identify theoretical perspectives and best pedagogical strategies in arts integrated curriculum in the United States education systems that can be customized to create an “authentic fit” for the successful implementation of the integrated curriculum in the Jamaican classrooms.

Thus, the primary question guiding this study is: How can the arts integration curriculum used in an exemplary public elementary school in the state of Ohio, in the

United States, be used as a guide for the implementation of the integrated curriculum in the Jamaican primary education system?

In order to adequately generate the appropriate answers this premise prompts the following sub-questions:

1. What are the characteristics of an integrated curriculum and how should it be implemented?

2. How relevant is an arts integrated curriculum with regards to the preparation of students to be adaptive and worthwhile citizens in the ever changing complex world?

3. What is the scope of the arts integrated curriculum implemented in a selected elementary school in Ohio?

4. What are the functions of the Visual Arts and the Visual Arts educator in the integrated curriculum in the selected school? 32

5. How do the classroom teachers at the selected school facilitate the arts integrated curriculum in their classrooms on a daily basis?

6. What should teachers know and be able to do to implement an integrated curriculum that brings the arts to the core of the curriculum?

Definition of Terms

The purpose of this section is to define the terms associated with the research proposal; it is intended to provide readers with an understanding of the context within which they are used in the inquiry.

Art or Visual Arts – These two terms will be used synonymously in reference to two and three dimensional works that are created by professional, amateur and student artists using art media/materials that are commercially manufactured or natural and indigenous as well as unconventional materials, sometimes referred to as recycled materials, and art making techniques that are traditional, contemporary or experimental.

Artifacts – The collaborative projects, works of art, that are documented evidence of the art integrated curriculum that was implemented at the school over a five year period before I conducted the research.

Arts - Is used in reference to two or more of the arts disciplines and might or may not include visual arts.

Arts Education - Is the teaching and learning in and about the arts; it includes the visual as well as the performing arts.

Arts Educators - Teachers who are professionally trained and equipped with a body of scholarly knowledge necessary to provide learning experiences in the arts and through the

arts. It includes content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content

knowledge and professional knowledge in one or more of the arts.

Arts Integrated Curriculum – A pedagogical practice (teaching and learning) where one

or more of the arts is/are taught as important subject(s) in the curriculum of the school

and/or used as an anchor for or an engine to drive an integrated curriculum.

Artist(s) – A professional and/or amateur who creates and or performs one or more of the arts forms. The term is not only used for persons who have had formal training in a particular art form but also persons who have had no formal training and are sometimes referred to as intuitive artists. In Jamaica the term artiste is used to distinguish a person

in one of the performing arts from a visual artist.

Content or Subject Matter Knowledge – Content knowledge refers to the teacher’s

knowledge of the facts, concepts, and procedures within the discipline (or subject) and

relationship among them. (Broko and Putnam, 1995, p. 43)

Curriculum - In formal education systems, curriculum (plural curricula) is the course or

courses that are taught at an educational institution to a particular group of students in

light of the characteristics of the students and teaching context. It includes the goals and

learning experiences, pedagogical strategies, the materials, tools and equipment as well as

the human and other resources that will factor in the learning experience(s).

Facilitate – The extent to which the teachers set goals, design, plan and implement

lessons and measure the results to ensure they create an awareness of the value(s) of

Visual Arts in an integrated curriculum.

Implementation – How curriculum is put into practice.

Integrate – The act of bringing people or things together that may or may not be related,

also they might or might not have had prior connection, thus creating a whole new thing

or holistic experience. For example, the language arts or social studies teacher and an

artist working together with students to create art projects that will demonstrate learning

of themes and concepts in the other subject discipline.

Integrated curriculum – A pedagogical strategy where members of the school community work collaboratively and cooperatively together as team(s) to provide authentic and rich learning experiences for the learners. It entails the bringing together of two or more subjects/disciplines, two or more classrooms and/or grade level teachers and others working together to plan for and create learning activities that are inter-related and most times connected by a common theme or a big idea and guided by essential questions.

Narrative – A narrative is story that reports the lived experience of the story teller and or other person(s) in spoken or written form. In the case of this research the term

narrative(s) refers to a “story form for research reporting … (dealing with a phenomenon

as it changes over time). It contains surprises, coincidences, embellishments, and other

rhetorical devices that draw the reader in and hold attention in different manner”

(Shhwandt, 201).

Pedagogy – The principles or method of instruction used to facilitate teaching and

learning.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge – Pedagogical content knowledge or subject-specific knowledge consists of an understanding of how a subject area, and the topics and issues within it, can be organized and represented for teaching. (Broko and Putnam, 1995, p. 46)

This includes being able to teach a particular subject, knowledge of instructional

strategies and representations, knowledge of students understanding and potential misunderstanding and knowledge of curriculum and curricular materials.

Pedagogical Knowledge – General pedagogical knowledge encompasses a teacher’s knowledge and beliefs about teaching, learning and learners that transcend particular subject-matter domains. It includes knowledge of various strategies for creating learning environments and conducting lessons; strategies and arrangements for effective classroom management and more fundamental knowledge and beliefs about learners, how they learn and how that learning can be foster by teaching (Broko and Putnam,

1995, p. 39).

Performing Arts – The art forms that are performed before an audience; they are music, dance and drama/theater.

Primary Schools – In Jamaica these are government owned public educational institutions that provide formal teaching and learning to children ages 6-12 in grades 1-6.

(Privately owned schools catering to these grade levels are called preparatory schools).

Professional Knowledge – “All professions have a body of scholarly knowledge and a social calling that form the basis of entitlement to practice” (Bransford, Darling-

Hammond & LePage, (2005, 12). Teaching is a profession that provides service to others, therefore the professional knowledge relevant to teaching would be the range of information that teachers need to know and understand in order to successfully carry out their roles and responsibilities with regards to the students, the school as well as their colleagues and society as a whole.

Public Elementary School – Educational institutions in the United States system that are owned and operated by the state and provide education for children ages 6-11 years old

and are in Grades 1-5.

Thick Description - Thick description should not be thought of as providing a robust amount of relevant details only. “Rather, to thickly describe social action is actually to begin to interpret it by recording the circumstances, meanings, intentions, strategies, motivations … that characterize a particular episode. It is this interpretative characteristic of description rather than detail per se that makes it thick” (Schwandt, p. 296).

Visual Arts – See Art

Visual Arts Educators – Teachers who have been professionally trained and are certified specialists who are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to engage learners in creating one or more of the two and/or three dimensional works of art.

Limitations of the study

Like all other research projects, this study has (a few) limitations that will restrict the conclusion that can be drawn from the findings.

1. The study was limited quantitatively; it was restricted to observation(s) in one

school, in a single state. It was limited to observations of the Visual Arts

teacher/educator only and interviews with two classroom teachers, the Media

Specialist, the Music and Physical Education teachers and a Librarian as well as

the Visual Arts teacher/educator. The limited time frame in which I had to collect

the data and limited and restrictive access to classrooms in the US limited the

number of schools I was able to gain access. As a result the findings will not be

generalizable to all elementary schools in the selected state in particular or the

US in general.

2. The study was limited by the seasons of the year in which the data was collected.

My visits to the school spanned the period November 2009 to May 2010. Most of

these months are the coldest and snowiest months of the year in the United States

of America and the weather in Ohio fluctuated. As a result I was not privileged to

observe many outdoor activities and to witness how the participant would engage

utilize nature and the outdoors as learning environments and teaching tools.

3. I sought access into the learning environment to participate as an observer, a

passive participant and not an active participant; therefore I was not totally

immersed in the teaching and/or learning activities. I only had the opportunity to

observe unsolicited performances of the participants as they conducted their daily

routine activities in the teaching/learning environments. I had no control over

what was taught, and who taught or facilitated learning, when and/or where

teaching/learning was done or how it was done. As a result I was not privileged

to determine any of the contents and context that I observed. I was privileged to

ask about the whys after my observation and the answers that were conclusive.

Delimitations of the study

These were the limits that I had chosen to place on the study. What I investigated in this inquiry is how Visual Arts educator(s) and classroom teachers in the selected public elementary school in the US education system collaborated in the planning and implementing of an integrated curriculum.

1. I did not conduct my observations in elementary school(s) in any other country

than the United State. Although I did not travel to any other country to

investigate and identify elementary/primary education institutions in which the

arts integrated curriculum, I was able to access and review written

documentations to ascertain how some educators in elementary/primary

educational institutions in other countries implement arts integrated curriculum.

2. I did not investigate how the performing arts were being used in the

implementation of an integrated curriculum. As a researcher/educator, I thought it

was best to investigate phenomena that are related to my discipline. My area of

specialization is Visual Arts and I am aware that I am not equipped with the

knowledge, skills and expertise necessary to make true value judgments about

teaching and learning in the areas of the performing arts.

3. I was not interested in arts integrated curriculum in the secondary/high school

level. Students in secondary/high schools are at different levels of development

physically, cognitively, socially/morally and artistically. These learners do not

“do things” in the same ways as elementary school children. Teachers at this level do not facilitate students’ learning the same way as elementary school teachers do, even if the teacher has had elementary teaching experience. On reflection, I recalled my experience in college. Teacher candidates who were being prepared to teach at the primary level took a course titled “Childhood

Psychology” while the secondary level teacher candidates took a course titled

“Adolescence Psychology.” Therefore I am conscious that there will be differences in the way these children learn and should be facilitated in the learning environments. Also, teachers and students in secondary/high schools are

most times of the orientation for segregated teaching/learning of subjects. In the

elementary school, the classroom teacher is situated in a position to facilitate

integration in most if not all subjects.

Significance of the study

The findings of this inquiry will be useful not only to fellow researchers, but also

to policy makers, administrators, curriculum designers and educators who are engaged in

or want to engage in designing, planning for and implementing state-of-the-art learning experiences for learners at the primary/elementary level of any education system. It will be useful for improving teaching and learning. The data gathered can be utilized in creating professional learning communities in elementary schools among administrators, faculty, support staff, students, parents, and other persons beyond the perimeter of schools. It will encourage classroom teachers to collaborate with arts teachers, as well as professional artists in designing and administering learning activities to ensure that children are provided with learning experiences that cater to the diverse population of learners, thus enabling all children to perform at their maximum capability. This would be in keeping with the Jamaican Ministry of Education motto “every child can learn, every child must learn” and the NCATE (2008) standards that require that education programs prepare candidates who “operationalize the belief that all students can learn.”

It should inspire educators to strive to seek out and adopt best practices and to obtain current, relevant and appropriate sources and resources that will help to build their capacity to create the most conducive and enriching learning environments.

The results should encourage all relevant personnel involved in the elementary education system to conduct needs assessment within themselves, among members of the system and/or organization to identify their individual and collective potentials and inadequacies.

Acting as change agents, they should be motivated and inspired to participate in professional development activities to enhance their ability and/or equip themselves with the additional knowledge, skills/expertise, dispositions and commitments necessary to efficiently and effectively perform the multiplicity of tasks they perform as they make an invaluable contribution to curriculum integration in their school, districts, states and/or countries as a whole.

The findings should revolutionize the thoughts and practices of educators, thus creating a reformation and transformation in elementary/primary education systems. As a result, children will be the recipients of authentic, rich and novel learning experiences, reflecting the merger of assessment with instructions. This will ensure that assessment will not only be summative and conductive with pencil/pen and paper, but will also be performance based. The experiences will lead to an increase in the overall performance on internal and external assessments. Some of these strategies will inform students, parents, teachers about what the students are learning, how well they are learning it, and how they demonstrate that learning. If parents are involved and informed about their children’s learning, they will become advocates for the type of curriculum that they deem most empowering to their children’s learning.

The findings of this inquiry should also have implication for teacher education programs not only at the elementary level, but also for subject specialists who are being

prepared for K-12/13, especially those in the arts and sports who consider situating

themselves within learning communities in elementary schools. It will be necessary for

teacher education programs to design new courses or revise existing courses that will

suitably equip teacher candidates with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and

commitments necessary to effectively and efficiently engage in the planning and

administering of an integrated curriculum in the learning environments of the 21st century.

It is hoped that the findings will be accepted as a valuable resource for promoting and encouraging the practice of implementing arts integration curriculum in 21st century

elementary education systems in developed as well as developing countries globally,

especially in the Caribbean region.

For teaching to reflect best practices in the implementation of an integrated

curriculum, the teachers should be equipped with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and

commitments necessary to adequately perform the task. They should have acquired the

content knowledge of the subject(s) they intend to teach and they should be equipped

with the pedagogical content knowledge and strategies necessary to successfully

implement an integrated curriculum as well as the professional knowledge and

dispositoions to enable them to commit to “lifelong learning.” Teachers will need to

realize that for effective and efficient implementation of an integrated curriculum it is not

limited to the subjects/disciplines in the curriculum and academic, administrative and

ancillary staffs in their schools; connection goes beyond the walls of the classroom and

the school. In order for exemplary teachers to provide state-of-the-art learning experiences in state-of-the-art learning environments for the students in Grades 1-3 the

teachers will need to keep the doors of the classrooms and if available the artrooms constantly opened and reach over and beyond the walls of the school to identify, access and utilize sources and resources that will enhance, ensure and enable the successful implementation an (arts) integrated curriculum. They will mine for the knowledge, skills and expertise that are available in the local, parish and national communities.

Relying on my knowledge and observation, there should be evidence of great efficiency and competency in the delivery of the integrated curriculum, because as of to

December 2004, eight thousand five hundred and forty two (8,542) teachers received training to deliver the Revised Primary Curriculum, which is an integrated curriculum, at grades one through six. In addition, two hundred and seven (207) principals were trained under the diploma program for principals, and thirty three (33) fellowships were awarded to teachers’ college lecturers for upgrading to masters and doctoral levels. I am privileged to be an awardee of one of the fellowships for lecturers at the teacher training colleges, for the academic year 2006-2007.

Chapter 2: Review of Literature

A researcher cannot perform significant research without first understanding the literature in the field. Not understanding the prior research clearly puts a researcher at the disadvantage. To be useful and meaningful, education research must be culminative, it must build on and learn from prior research scholarship and topic. (Boote & Biele, 2005, p 3)

My introduction to academic reading/writing has informed me that, in order to be adequately informed and be situated in the position to accomplish the self-assigned task and fulfill my commitment, I have come to realize that I have to be a scholar before I can be a researcher. According to Boote & Biele, 2005, “One of our responsibilities – whether we become a researcher, teacher, administrator, or leader – is to know the literature in our field” (p. 4). This is the prerequisite, especially for novice researchers, that will help in the building of a “logical framework for the research and locate it within a tradition of inquiry and a context of related studies” (Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p.

43). Like a quilter, I have become bricoleur, reading widely to become knowledgeable about many interpretative paradigms. Over the past three years, I have been reading, and when possible writing about integrated curriculum to help find focus for my topic; I have assiduously prospected among the treasuries of noted scholars, theorists, philosophers, researchers and critics for the purpose of forging a link between my research question, theories and phenomenon. These readings afforded me the opportunity to interact with literature within and beyond the field of arts education, most of which will guide and build my knowledge-base for this research. For the purpose of this inquiry I provide a

review of some of the readings on integrated curriculum in general, the values of arts in

education, arts integrated curriculum and the content knowledge, professional knowledge,

pedagogical content knowledge, and pedagogical, skills, dispositions and commitments a

teacher should acquire in order to implement an integrated curriculum that brings the arts,

Visual Arts in particular, to the core of the curriculum.

What is integrated curriculum?

My recent introduction to and orientation in the education system in the United

States of America have made me aware that there is a renaissance in the classroom, and

that integrated curriculum is not a new phenomenon. According to Burnaford, Aprill and

Weiss (2001)

The history of curriculum integration suggests that we are talking about much

more than simply joining one piece of content with another. Integration of

content is really more an educational philosophy than it is an instrument for doing

something in the classroom. (p. 6)

Parsons (2004), in a review of literature on integrated curriculum in art education

pointed out Kliebard’s (1995) statement that, “we are currently witnessing a renewed

interest in integrated curriculum in both art education and in education in general” (p.

775). Parsons explained that integrated curriculum has been a recurrent interest in

American education since the late 19th century; however it has not always been identified by the same name. Parsons seems to be building on Lake’s (2001) report on Integrated

Curriculum. She stated that “The subject of curriculum integration has been under

discussion on and off for the last half-century with a resurgence occurring over the past decade” (p. 5). Parsons also drew attention to the fact that, “Many different practices go by the name of integrated curriculum and there are many names for similar practices (The

Consortium of National Arts Education Association, 2002)” (p. 776) which in essence is not authentic integration curriculum. Parsons presented a list of six of the alternative names: interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary or cross-disciplinary curriculum, the experience curriculum, activity-centered curriculum, and project method. In her report on Integrated Curriculum, Lake (2001) reviewed fifty three documents. Like Parsons,

Lake discovered that, “There are many variations on the term” (p. 7). She also explained that, “when attempting to define integrated curriculum, it is also necessary to look at related terms” (p. 2). Parsons’ list of six names when coupled with Lake, (2001) provided a total of eight names. The name interdisciplinary takes first place on both lists and it is the name that is most times used synonymously and/or interchangeably with the term integrated curriculum in discourse research, articles and related literature. Lake’s other two names are thematic teaching and synergic teaching. In addition, Lake provided different definitions for integrated curriculum and interdisciplinary curriculum which she claimed “Support the view that integrated curriculum is an educational approach that prepares children for lifelong learning” (p. 3). I have found these definitions to be informative, enlightening and very helpful as a guide for researchers, educators, teachers and administrators to be able to differentiate and identify curriculum integration in practice in educational settings. They are: a. "An integrated study is one in which children broadly explore knowledge in various subjects related to certain aspects of their environment" (Humphreys, Post, and Ellis 1981, p. 11). 46

b. Shoemaker defines an integrated curriculum as, “education that is organized in such a way that it cuts across subject-matter lines, bringing together various aspects of the curriculum into meaningful association to focus upon broad areas of study. It views learning and teaching in a holistic way and reflects the real world, which is interactive (1989, p. 5). c. In the integrative curriculum, the planned learning experiences not only provide the learners with a unified view of commonly held knowledge (by learning the models, systems, and structures of the culture) but also motivate and develop learners' power to perceive new relationships and thus to create new models, systems, and structures (Dressel, 1958, pp. 3-25). d. Interdisciplinary curriculum is defined in the Dictionary of Education as a curriculum organization which cuts across subject-matter lines to focus upon comprehensive life problems or broad based areas of study that brings together the various segments of the curriculum into meaningful association" (Good, 1973). The similarity between this definition and those of integrated curriculum is clear. e. Jacobs defines interdisciplinary as "a knowledge view and curricular approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, issue, problem, topic, or experience" (1989, p. 8). f. Everett defines interdisciplinary curriculum as one that "combines several school subjects into one active project since that is how children encounter subjects in the real world-combined in one activity." g. Synergistic teaching is “a process of teaching whereby all the school subjects are related and taught in such manner that they are almost inseparable. What is learned and applied in one area of the curriculum is related and used to reinforce, provide repetition and extend the knowledge and skills learned in other curriculum areas (Bonds, Cox, and Gantt-Bonds 1993).

what does an integrated curriculum look like?

After reviewing the definitions for different terms that are used synonymously with integrated curriculum, Lake (2001) concluded that an integrated curriculum includes, a combination of subjects, an emphasis on projects, sources that go beyond textbooks, relationships among concepts, thematic units as organized principles, flexible

schedules and flexible student grouping. Additionally, Parsons (2004) stated that

“Integration occurs when students make sense for themselves of their varied learning experiences, when they pull these together to make one view of their world and their place in it. It takes place in their minds or not at all” (p. 776). From Burnaford, Aprill &

Weiiss’s (2001) perspective, “Curriculum integration often involves a structured inquiry process that encourages finding problems and asking questions. Students work from what they know and what they want to know, and they develop complex means to represent and present what they are learning” (p. 6). Based on these reasons, before teachers attempt to engage in an integrated curriculum, it is important that they have an idea of the students’ “funds of knowledge”. That is, teachers should get to know their students by spending “time with them and time in their communities paying careful attention to who they are, what they know and what is the context of their experiences”

(Banks, Cochran-Smith, Moll, Ricert, Zeichner, LePage, Darling-Hammod, Duffy, with

McDonald, 2005, p. 232). This would be very valuable experience and preparation for teachers because,

Curriculum integration is a methodology for assisting students in negotiating

between their personal needs and their connection to the larger community. This

negotiation is the basis of all meaningful learning…. Integrative curriculum is

more than a set of basic discrete skills that can easily be measured by standardized

means. But such curriculum can engage students in learning and using those

skills as they grapple with deeper concepts and themes that are not limited to one

specific content field. Integration brings teachers and students together for co-

teaching and co-learning. Curriculum integration is a means towards deeper

instruction and meaningful learning, toward greater social, and towards a more

complex and more interesting view of the world. (Burnaford, Aprill & Weiiss,

2001, p. 7)

Having been informed of some of the many and varying names which are connected with integrated curriculum, and being sensitized to the different definitions, I am now better prepared to read about and understand relevant literature and observe and interpret curriculum integration in practice. In most of the more current literature on curriculum integration, one author keeps recurring. For almost two decades Heidi Jacobs has been contributing to our understanding of curriculum integration through her engagement at conferences, workshops, seminars and most importantly, her books,

Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Design and Implementation, Getting Results with

Curriculum Mapping and Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum &

Assessment K-12. It is worth noting that Dr. Heidi Jacobs was one of the consultants who had provided guidance in the area of integration and format of units for the Revised

Primary Curriculum that is being implemented in Jamaica since 1999, (Ministry of

Education and Culture Kingston, Jamaica, September 1999). There is evidence that

Jacobs’ (1997) statement that, “essential questions are an exceptional tool for clearly and precisely communicating the pivotal points of the curriculum” (p. 25), has been influential in the way some (arts) educators view curriculum integration. Parsons (2004), in his reflection on the Transforming Education Through the Arts Challenge (TETAC), program commented that,

We adopted two ways about ideas and role in integrated curriculum: Key ideas

and essential questions (Jacobs, 1989). Without these we found curriculum

projects tend to disintegrate into a set of parallel activities that had little more in

common than the use of the same name. (p. 788)

Also, May (1994) warned that, “When integrating school subjects, we risk

creating thematic units that are little more that floating topics, airy breaks from school

routine, textual fragmentations, a blur of images, disconnected encounters with

pedagogical sound bites, and hands-on activities” (p. 141). To add to the discourse,

Freedman stated that, from a contemporary educational standpoint, our goal is to make

many connections, because connections produce integrated learning (cited in Freedman

& Stuhr 2004). What this is implying is that, like the “No Child Left Behind” Act of

2001, it would not be impertinent to envisage that educators should also be embracing the

idea of “No Subject Left Behind”. This can be realized because,

In an integrated unit, a broad theme is chosen that cuts across disciplines, so each

content area or intelligence can explore the central idea in a meaningful way. The

integrity of each intelligence or discipline is maintained. Application and

synthesis of ideas from one discipline to another are encouraged, leading students

to develop deeper understanding and critical thinking through the comparing and

contrasting of ideas. (Snyder, 2001, p. 36)

However, Daniel, Stuhr & Ballengee-Morris (2006) cautioned that, “It is not necessary to connect or utilize all subjects, but it is important that the subjects included address the key concepts and essential question in a substantive and meaningful way”

(p. 9). They also recommend that, “Teacher and students might take their inquiry further in order to ensure the key concepts and essential questions are relevant and appropriate to

the subjects selected for an integrated curriculum” (p. 9). The concept of key ideas and/or key concepts are reflecting Ballengee-Morris’ (1998) revelation that, “Freire recommended exploring issues, ideas, values, concepts … which impede human fulfillment (p. 50-51).” Although these authors seem very positive that “key ideas” or

“key concepts” along with essential questions will ensure the success of an integrated curriculum, which was the pedagogical approach Friere practiced and encouraged, Lake

(2001) has drawn our attention to an important factor that should also be considered. She cited Jacobs’ (1989) statement that, “Teachers who are not provided with adequate inservice or time to thoughtfully develop an integrated curriculum may go to an unstructured, ‘a little of everything approaches’ rather than a truly integrated approach to learning” (p. 13). What this is pointing to is that, administrators and leaders of schools and other educational institutions will need to adapt the concepts of building “learning communities” and that, teachers are “life long learners.” As such, they will ensure that, for the successful implementation of an integrated curriculum, teachers are afforded professional development opportunities that will equip them with the pedagogical content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge (strategies) that will prepare them for the planning and implementation of an integrated curriculum. They will also guarantee that adequate time is allotted for the teachers to plan and prepare for the implementation of an integrated curriculum.

Being informed by some of the many and varying names which are alternated with integrated curriculum and being sensitized to the different definitions of the alternative names should better prepare us to listen to, observe and/or put an integrated curriculum into practice.

What should teachers know about how people learn?

“Every child can learn, every child must learn” (MOE Jamaica 2004) “All children can learn and should learn” (NCATE, 2007, p. 3)

The characteristics of an integrated curriculum reflect that its implementation is a strategy that will help to confirm the belief of both the Ministry of Education Jamaica

(2004) and National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (2007). However, before teachers engage students in activities that encourage and enhance an integrated curriculum, they need to be cognizant of the characteristics of learners and theories of learning and their roles in the learning process.

According to Parsons (2004)

Integrated curriculum is usually associated with a constructivist psychology. The

student is thought of as actively constructing meaning of what is learned,

inquiring into topics of interest relating what is learned with what is already

known. It is the student, not the teacher who integrates what is learned in their

own understanding. (p. 782)

Educators need to be informed that,

Constructivism is a theory of knowing, not a theory of teaching … instead, it

implies that teachers must take account of students’ prior conceptions in

designing instruction, because these will influence what students learn – for good

or for ill-whether or not the teacher is aware of them. (Branford, Derry, Berliner,

Hammerness with Beckett, 2005, p. 53)

What is taught in school should make connection and build upon students’

previous knowledge and experiences. Students tend to learn more effectively when

teachers use authentic real-life activities, than when they are introduced to or experience

learning tasks that are artificial, vague, or are based on make belief situations. Making

references to the students’ “funds of knowledge” that is the students’ lived experiences

that are related to and relevant to their homes and communities, teachers will be building

bridges for helping them to learn in school. When teachers are able to make connections

and explain things in ways that make sense to the students, they are more motivated and

want to learn because they realize that their teachers know and care about them.

(Branford, Derry, Berliner, Hammerness with Beckett, 2005)

A contemporary movement in some education systems is the alignment of

curriculum with Gardener’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences. “Gardener suggested

that there are at least seven [eight], intelligences that most people bring to learning”

(Burnaford, Aprill & Weiiss, 2001, p.8). As indicated by (Branford, Derry, Berliner,

Hammerness and Beckett 2005), there are assumptions that have important effects on

learning and motivation that people make about their own intelligence and that of others.

Some people believe that “intelligence” is something that is inherited, thus placing limits on people’s abilities to learn. There is a misconception that individuals’ intelligence and brain development are entirely predetermined by biology. In reality, education and experiences help develop the brain. Branford, Derry, Berliner, Hammerness with Beckett

(2005) clearly maintain that physical and mental activities help people develop their capacity to learn, and “what teachers do can affect brain development by engaging students in activities that help them develop their capacities” (p. 63). According to

Snyder (2001),

The new movement towards interdisciplinary curriculum has been fueled by

current research on the brain and learning. Early interest was sparked by

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which described music, movement,

and visual image as discrete and specific ways of knowing, equal to and unique

from linguist and mathematical understanding. (p. 32)

Gardener’s reference to intelligence(s) is not to be viewed as the “thing” that can

be measured by standardized tests that have been used to create a hierarchy in education

systems based on bureaucracy’s horrific attempts to place human beings into categories

that leads to segregation, thus privileging and enabling of some citizens while

disenfranchising, restricting and marginalizing others. “There is no test that can measure

a person’s intelligence” (Postman, 1988, p. 89). Postman continued by drawing our

attention to Joseph Weizenbaum revelation that, “The idea that intelligence can be

quantitatively measured on a singular linear scale has caused untold harm to our society

in general, and to education in particular” (p. 131).

These eight intelligences, which some persons refer to as learning styles, are

explained in great details by Armstrong (2003). He also provided information about the areas of the brain that are associated with each of the eight intelligences. See figure 2.1

for a labeled diagram of the brain.

Figure 2.1 Diagram of the Brain

The eight intelligences and their characteristics are as set out in Armstrong (2003):

1. Linguistic intelligence – left temporal and frontal lobes of the brain: The capacity to use words effectively, whether orally (e.g., as a story teller, orator, or politician) or in writing (e.g., as a poet, playwright, editor, or journalist). This intelligence includes the ability to manipulate the syntax or structure of language, the phonology or sound of language, the semantics or meanings of language, and the pragmatic dimensions or practical uses of language. Some of these uses include rhetoric (using language to convince others to take a specific course of action, mnemonics (using language to remember information, explanation (using language to inform) and metalanguage (using language to talk about itself).

2. Logical-mathematical Intelligence – left frontal and right parietal of the brain: The capacity to use numbers effectively (e.g., as a mathematician, tax accountant, or statistician) and to reason well (e.g., as a scientist, computer programmer, or logican). This intelligence includes sensitivity to logical patterns and relationships, statements and propositions (if-then, cause-effect), functions, and other related abstractions. The kinds of processes used in their service of logical-mathematical intelligence include categorization, classification, inference, generalization, calculation and hypothesis testing.

3. Spatial Intelligence – occipital and parietal regions (especially of right hemisphere): The ability to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately (e.g., as a hunter, scout, or guide) and to perform transformations upon those perceptions (e.g., as an interior decorator, architect, artist, or inventor). This intelligence involves sensitivity to color, line, shape, form, space, and the relationships that exist between these elements. It

includes the capacity to visualize, to graphically represent visual or spatial ideas, and to orient oneself appropriately in a spatial matrix.

4. Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence – cerebellum, basal ganglia, motor cortex: Expertise in using one’s whole body to express ideas and feelings (e.g., as an actor, mime, an athlete, or a dancer) and facility in using one’s hand to produce or transform things (e.g., as a craftperson, sculptor, mechanic, or surgeon). This intelligence includes specific physical skills such as coordination, balance, dexterity, strength, flexibility, and speed, as well as proprioceptive, tactile and haptic capacity.

5. Musical Intelligence – right temporal lobe: The capacity to perceive (e.g., as a music aficionado), discriminate (e.g., as a music critic), transform (e.g., as a composer), and express (e.g., as a performer) musical forms. This intelligence includes sensitivity to the rhythm, pitch, or melody, and timbre or tone color of a musical piece. One can have a figural or “top-down” understanding of music (global, intuitive), a formal or “bottom-up” understanding (analytical, technical), or both.

6. Interpersonal intelligence – frontal lobes, temporal lobe (especially right hemisphere), limbic system: The ability to perceive and make distinction in the moods, intentions, motivation, and feeling of other people. This can include sensitivity to facial expressions, voice, and gestures; the capacity for discriminating among many different kinds of interpersonal cues; and the ability to respond effectively to those cues in some pragmatic way (e.g., to influence a group of people to follow a certain line of action).

7. Intrapersonal intelligence – frontal lobes, parietal lobes, limbic system: Self- knowledge and the ability to act adaptively on the basis of the knowledge. This intelligence includes having an accurate picture of oneself (one’s strengths and limitations): awareness of inner moods, intensions, motivations, temperaments, and desires; and the capacity for self-discipline, self-understanding, and self-esteem.

8. Naturalist intelligence – left parietal lobe (important for discriminating “living” from “nonliving things”): Expertise in the recognition and classification of the numerous species – the flora and fauna – of an individual’s environment. This also includes sensitivity to other natural phenomena (e.g., cloud formation, mountains, etc.) and, in the case of those growing up in an urban environment, the capacity to discriminate among inanimate objects such as cars, sneakers, and CD covers.

It should be noted that Gardener’s theory of multiple intelligence is not new.

Read (1970) drew our attention to the fact that, Holmes (1911) distinguished six educable instincts, which, based on their relatedness, are paired into three groups. They are:

a. The sympathetic instincts: which comprise the communicative instinct, the desire to talk and listen, and the dramatic instinct, the desire to act. 56

b. The aesthetic instincts: which comprise the artistic instinct, the desire to draw, paint and model, and the musical instinct, the desire to dance and sing.

c. The scientific instincts: which comprise the inquisitive instinct, the desire to know the why of things, and the constructive instinct, the desire to make things.

It is evident that, Gardener’s eight multiple intelligences and Holmes’ six

educable instincts reflect some degree of connectedness and interrelatedness. It could be

deduced that Gardener might have built his theory on Holmes’ classification and both are

attempts to inform us that learning is not a “one size fits all” because all human beings do

not learn the same way. Also, close scrutiny of the eight intelligences and the six

instincts reveals that both theorists are drawing our attentions to creativity, an innate

characteristic with which all human beings were born. However, a study of most school

systems will reveal that most of these intelligences are left “untapped.” As a matter of fact, only two of these eight intelligences are predominantly used in most classrooms, the linguistic and logical/mathematical. What this implies is that some education systems have still held on to the century old thinking about intelligence, which Postman (1988) refers to as one of the “Invisible Technologies.” In most educational systems,

We are made to believe that a test can reveal precisely the quantity of intelligence

a person has, then for institutional purposes a score on a test becomes his or her

intelligence. The test transforms an abstract and multifaceted meaning into a

technical and exact term that leaves out everything of importance. (Postman,

1988, p. 89).

Postman further stated that, “Intelligence is a general term used to denote one’s

capacity to solve real-life problems in a variety novel context” (p. 89). Postman’s idea of intelligence shows relevance to Gardener’s theory,

With respect to schooling is that not all children learn the same way and that, if

we expanded on the repertoire of teaching practices to include more attention to

students’ capacity to use musical, spatial, intrapersonal, interpersonal and

bodily/kinesthetic intelligences, we may reach more children (Burnaford, Aprill

and Weiss, 2001, p. 8).

Like Burnaford and colleagues, Read (1970) also pointed out that, “It is the fifth instinct, which Holmes calls the inquisitive instinct, the desire to know, which stands out in sharp contrast to the rest, and which has received an over-whelming emphasis in the educational systems of the past” (p. 10). Gullatt (2008), brought to our attention Eisner’s suggestion that, “The more intelligences students were required to use for learning, the deeper their understanding of the content presented” (p. 18). Additionally, Snyder

(2001) stated that, “Gardener’s work suggested that all intelligences are necessary for complete human development and communication and that education without the arts is indefensible” (p. 1).

Therefore, the marginalization, trivializing and/or omission of the intelligences and/or instincts that draw on human innate ability, their creative capacity, should be considered a disservice to education and a disenfranchisement to the learners as a whole.

There is evidence that an integrated curriculum will enhance teaching and learning and that if all the intelligences are catered to, then no subject will be left out of the school

curriculum and no child will be left behind in the education system. For the purpose of

education, schooling and curricula, these innate abilities which are inherent in all human beings, are grouped under the discipline titled the arts, which are further broken down as

the visual and performing arts. The Visual Arts “are a major part of this larger visual

culture that includes fine arts, advertising, folk art, television and performance arts,

housing and apparel design, mall and amusement park design, and other forms of visual

production and communication” (Freedman & Stuhr 2004, p. 816) while the performing

arts are dance, music and drama/theater. Let us examine how the arts, especially Visual

Arts have been and is being advocated for and are included or excluded in education,

especially at the elementary level.

The relevance of the arts in education

Art and education are two of the most noble [noblest] achievements of mankind. They both have led individuals to sublime heights of achievement and revealed the infinite potential of homo sapiens (Smith, 1996, p. 1).

So why it is the arts are continuously being sidelined to the peRIMeter of the

learning environment? Their position is that of ‘reserves’ waiting for any mishaps to ‘fill

the gaps’ left void by unfortunate ‘star players’ (core subjects). This is not just a current

happening because “the tendency to regard art as an inferior subject also has had a long

career in the history of ideas, going back to Plato” (Efland, 1990, p. 260). It is appalling

to realize that in this the 21st century, in several developed and developing countries, the

arts do not play an integral part in formal education. Some reasons for this are they are

seen as nonacademic, leisure activity and irrelevant to employment or the economy.

“From the earliest days of this country [USA], the role of the arts in education was seen

primarily as a refinement, not as something of value in itself” (Burnaford, Aprill & Weiss

2001, p. xxxvii). On the contrary, the arts should be viewed as integral because they are essential elements of the curriculum, as well as important aspects of our daily lives.

The arts have played an important role in the preservation of our stories.

Literature, poetry, theater, music, dance, and the visual arts have been the primary

means of preserving our history and our stories for all to share and from which to

gain insight and understanding. Throughout time and across all cultures, stories

preserve human experiences in the most unique and personal way. (Olson, 1998,

p. 165)

Gullatt (2008) stated that, “In order to appreciate the role of the arts in the present

PK-12 academic curriculum, one must note the role that the arts have played in the history of education” (p. 13). “Only after we have studied the teaching of art in earlier times can we understand its role in education today” (Efland, 1990, p.1). The following is a brief overview of the early introduction of the arts as subjects to be taught and/or learned and their introduction in education.

As long as the arts have existed, artists, performers, and audience members have

been educated for their roles. Every culture has devised ways to select and

prepare individuals to engage in these roles… The ways visual arts are taught

today were conditioned by the beliefs and values regarding art held by those who

advocated its teaching in the past. Many of these early supporters were socially

powerful individuals who influenced the education policies of their day. For

them, the teaching of art was neither capricious nor accidental; but rather it was

done to further social, moral, and economical aims. A sense of elitism clings the

teaching of visual arts. Many schools regard the arts as special subjects to be

pursued by a privileged or talented few. To understand how these attitudes arose,

we must look back to the beginning of education in Western culture. … Only after

we have studied the teaching of art in earlier times can we understand its role in

education today. A central issue in art education, as in general education is access

to instruction. In very early times the arts were either learned through group

rituals that were an integral part of worship or taught to a selected few through

arduous apprenticeship. While some societies regarded knowledge of the arts as

the privilege of a social elite, others thought that the visual arts were subjects fit

only for slaves and the children of artisans. In the nineteenth century working-

class women in Europe could study the decorative arts, while study of the fine

arts, except under highly unusual circumstances, was for men. (Efland, 1990, p. 1)

There is evidence that for centuries, philosophers, theorists, educators and scholars and a few politicians have been advocating for the arts in education. Efland

(1990) used a contentious battle to draw our attention to how Plato and Aristotle viewed art and education in their political writings. Although Plato stated that the arts are an integral part of proper education, the guardians, who were neither the hereditary aristocracy nor the wealthy but the educated elite who “demonstrated their fitness to rule by their complete integrity” (p. 13), he had little regards for the arts and valued music more than poetry and visual arts. Plato believed in the ultimate reality, the “ideal form”, and saw visual arts products as imitation and not the truth. For example,

The idea of the bed is eternal and is made by God and hence is most true … the

bed of the carpenter has actuality but is an imitation of the ideal, which we cannot

see. Images of the bed that appear pictures, then, are imitation s of imitations …

the picture lacks many attributes of the archetype it imitates. Hence all pictures

are unreliable sources of knowledge because they do not tell the whole truth, and

by extension, all art is prone to error… Plato observed that hearing poetry, seeing

beautiful architecture and statuary are among the highest pleasures open to the

citizen, but the pleasure is not a sufficient test for the efficiency of art... Plato did

not advocate elimination of the arts in education, … Arts of the right sort could

serve as an indispensible resource in the child’s development… The arts that

imitate these forms can thus serve a useful function, since they can enter the soul

through the senses long before the power of reason has matured. Because the

impressions formed in childhood are indelible and lasting, moral education could

begin by exposing the child to good works of art. Thus he proclaimed: “Let our

artists be those who are gifted to discern the true nature of the beautiful and

graceful; then will our youth dwell in the land of health, amid fair sights

and sounds, and receive the good in everything” (Efland, 1990, p.p. 13 - 15).

Efland continued the discussion by informing that, like Plato, Aristotle viewed art on the basis of reality; however,

For Aristotle the artist was one who is skilled at the making of imitations. A

drama might present imitation of people who did not exist in actual life, although

they might have existed and might yet in the future. Though the work imitates

nature, it is wholly unique. Art is not an imitation of imitation, … it is, rather,

the one place where true representation can occur. To make art is to know the

dynamics of nature and psychology of human affairs. Artistic training involves more than mastery of a medium; artist must also know about causes and effects in nature and motive and consequence in human action. Otherwise they would fail to produce convincing representation. Aristotle was also concerned with the effects of art. He noted that audiences obviously derived pleasure from dramas in spite of their presentation of fearful and pitiable events and that somehow the violent emotions felt by the beholder are discharged, thus yielding a pleasure sense of relief. Indeed this might be the purpose of drama – to purge one of destructive emotions and thus to restore order to the polis. Aristotle regarded music and poetry as essentially educative in moral sense; moreover, he did not confine their educative role to the training of the young but extended it to the culture of citizens as well… Aristotle identified four branches of instruction, these being reading and writing, gymnastic exercises, music and sometimes drawing.

Reading, writing, and drawing are justified by their usefulness to life; gymnastic training, by its ability to infuse courage… in our own time we divide human endeavors into two categories – work and play. Work includes all necessary toil, while play encompasses our recreational activities. To these categories

Aristotle added a third, namely leisure. Leisure is neither the absence of toil nor the recreational activity involved in play. Instead, leisure is that which we for the intrinsic satisfaction it gives, that which can be the greatest happiness. Music is such a pursuit because it is an intellectual activity to be valued for its own sake…

“There remains, then, the use of music for intellectual enjoyment in leisure; which is in fact evidently the reason for introduction, this being one of the ways it is

thought a freeman should pass his leisure. ... It is evident, then, that there is a sort

of education in which parents should train their sons, not as being useful or

necessary, but because it is liberal and noble” (1990, pp. 15 – 16).

In a review of literature and research on the benefits of arts in teaching and learning, Gullatt (2008) stated that “It is important to recognize that integrated curriculum is an old idea, and that as long ago as Dewey’s day correlated curricular approaches were used” (p. 31). Gullatt brought to our attention a few key and significant names who contributed to modern thinking about the arts in education; some of whom are Horace

Mann, John Dewey, and Elliott Eisner.

Horace Mann’s advocacy

From Gullatt’s (2008) review, we are informed that in the late 1800s Mann demanded that visual arts and music be taught in the common schools in Massachusetts as an aid to the curriculum and an enhancement to learning (Darby and Catterall, 1994, cited in Gullatt, (2008). Efland also drew attention to Mann’s advocacy for the arts in the curriculum. “Mann declared: ‘Drawing may well go hand in hand with music’” (Mann, cited in Efland, 1990, p. 74). “By 1844 Mann was making a concerted effort to promote instruction in drawing with arguments stressing both its practical and moral advantages”

(p. 89). “While Mann was unsuccessful in seeing drawing added to the schools of

Massachusetts during his tenure as board secretary, … the school committee of Boston in

1848 placed the word ‘Drawing in on the list of grammar school studies’” (p. 91).

Smith (1996) pointed out that,

Although Mann wanted drawing introduced in public schools, there is some

question as to Mann’s valuing of art in society. His remarks in his European

travels (quoted in Saunders, 1970) show that he favored the word over the image

as an ethical-moral imperative. His attitude towards art may be revealed in his

choice of the Schmid’s school training system, rather than a system of art for

instruction that would lead to the development of artistic talents and enthusiasm

for artmaking. (p. 20)

To prove his point, Smith (1996) included a quote from Mann

The study of this art develops the talent of observing, even more than that of

delineating. … The skillful delineator is not only able to describe far better what

he has seen, but he sees twice as many things in the world as would do otherwise.

… Teaching the child to draw, then, is the development in him a new talent, -- the

conferring upon him, as it were, of a new sense. (p. 28)

John Dewey’s advocacy.

Gullatt’s (2008) review informed that Darby and Catterall (1994) “Noted that

Dewey posited the correlation between instruction in the arts and cognition to be positive, which had a profound effect on curriculum decisions of the time in many locations”

(p. 13) and that Bresler (1995) “noted that the roots of integration of the arts in the curriculum could be tracked as far as Dewey with his views on progressive education” (p.

13). Efland (1990) drew our attention to Dewey’s Laboratory School which opened in

January 1896 in a private dwelling with 16 pupils and 2 teachers. In 1898 it moved to a

larger quarters. A gymnasium and manual training rooms were added in an attached barn, while art and textile rooms occupied the large attic rooms. Dewey saw school as an experiment to obtain answers to four main problem or questions. The first had to do with integration of school with home and community. To introduce the second, Efland(1990) provided the following quote from Mayhew & Edwards,

How can history, science, and art be introduced so that they will be of positive

value and have real significance in the child’s own present experience? … how

far first-hand experience with the forces of the world and knowledge of its history

and social growth will enable him to develop the capacity to express himself in a

variety of artistic forms? (p. 169)

Boisvert (1998) pointed out that “Dewey’s title Art as Experience signals his belief that making art is not divorced from the context of ordinary life. Inde”ed, it is to be understood as a refinement of what occurs naturally” (p. 125). Smith (1999) stated that “Dewey referred to art education that used laissez-faire approach as ‘stupid’” (p.

100). In John Dewey: Rethinking Our Time, Boissvert (1998) pointed out that,

“Making” is an ongoing process that includes both what the artist fabricates, and

what the art work itself prompts as it enters into community experience. Dewey

turns away from the artificial cultivation of a wholly independent category “Art.”

The making of what came to be called “fine art” do not exhaust human creativity.

Once the biases of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have been overcome,

marginalized arts such as garden and park designs can be welcomed into the fold.

But that is not all. Artisans and engineers, long forgotten relatives, are reinstated

as members of the artistic family. Pottery, quilting and dance, as well as bridge

building and subway design can all exhibit fineness. (p. 121).

Elliot Eisner’s advocacy

In the review Gullatt (2008) revealed that “Eisner (1998) proposed a three-tiered system of outcomes concerning arts education” (15). Efland (1990) drew our attention to the Sixty-fourth Yearbook of NSSE (National Society for the Study of Education, 1965).

“The volume was divided in three main sections. The first dealt with the setting for art education in the second half of the century.” (pp. 238 – 239).

It was in the chapter on future needs that Elliot Eisner raised items for the new

agenda for the field. For him a major problem was the status of art curricula in

public school. He decried the lack of published tests in art, … and he described a

survey he conducted to determine what adolescents in the eighth grade knew

about art. He found that the most basic terms, such as value, saturation, hue,

contour, and symmetry, were understood by less than half the students tested. …

The art programs taken by these students were ones in which the making of art

was a dominant activity, yet fewer than 25 percent understood the meaning of the

term media” (p. 239).

In his account of the curriculum development projects in the decade following the

Penn State Seminar, Efland (1990) stated that, “A third was a project in elementary art education funded by Kettering Foundation and directed by Elliot Eisner” (243).

Smith (1996) pointed out that, 67

In 1989 Elliott Eisner presented an address … in which he questioned how history

research contributed to the field of art education. The presentation was titled

“The Efflorescence of the History of Art Education: Advance into the Past or

Retreat from the Present?” With such a title, it may not be surprising that Eisner’s

view of art education historical research was not overtly warm. “Efflorescence”

has an aura of luxuriant bacteria growth, of fungi on a very dead and rotten

creature, the implication being that historical writers are like maggots on the

decaying and useless corpse of days long dead. (p. 3)

To prove his point, Smith quoted Eisner’s explanation that,

Although I have a deep admiration for high quality scholarship and while I

believe it is important for those in any field, I do experience a slight nagging

feeling when I think more broadly about the efflorescence … that attention to

historical matters in American art education may reflect … a retreat from the

problems which plague it at present (Eisner 1992, p. 38, cited in Smith 1996,

pp. 3-4).

With regards to art and picture study, Smith (1996) pointed out that ‘Eisner and Ecker

(1966) stated that Picture Study “was directed to issues that present-day art educators

would be inclined to call extraneous to concerns of art’” (p. 83).

Below is a list of “Ten Lessons the Arts can Teach” compiled by Elliot Eisner, which he has stated and restated over and over again. I had the opportunity to hear them first hand at the 2008 National Art Education Convention in New Orleans, when he was

the recipient of the Vicktor Lowenfeld award. To ensure accuracy, I have replicated the

list from the NAEA website;

1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum where correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.

3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

4. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

5. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving, purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstances and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

6. The arts make vivid the fact that words do not, in their literal form or number, exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

8. The arts help children to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

10. The arts' important position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.

Herbert Read’s advocacy.

Read (1970) argued that “art should be the basis of education” (p.1), and that he does “not distinguish science and art, except as methods … Art is the representation,

science is the explanation – of the same reality” (p. 11). Read further explained his belief by stating that:

Education is the fostering of growth, but apart from physical maturation, growth

is only made apparent in expression – audible and visible signs and symbols.

Education may therefore be defined as the cultivation of modes of expression – it

is teaching children and adults how to make sounds, images, movements, tools

and utensils. A man who can make such things well is a well educated man. If he

can make good sounds, he is a good speaker, a good musician, a good poet; if he

can make good images he is a good painter or sculptor; if good movements, a

good dancer or labourer; if good tools or utensils, a good craftsman. All faculties,

of thought, logic, memory, sensibility, and intellect, are involved in such

processes, and no aspect of education is excluded in such processes. And they are

all processes which involve art, for art is nothing but good making of sound,

images etc. The aim of education is therefore the creation on artists – of people

efficient in the various modes of expression. (p.11)

Political advocacies.

From a political perspective, let’s examine how the “change we can believe in” situates the arts in education. A perusal of Obama Arts Policy Committee Briefing

Papers and Policy General Statement of Purposes and Needs in Development Arts Policy

(June 2007 – September 2008) is very enlightening and insightful. It must be an

illuminated site for the sights of arts educators and arts advocates. The statement,

“Barack Obama believes that the arts should be a central part of effective teaching and learning” (p. 7) is worthy of acknowledgement. In a proposal for Senator Barack Obama,

Sheffer stated that the last great era of interest in policies and programs regarding arts and culture was in the late 1950s and 1960s, when Presidents Kennedy and Johnson articulated the need to strengthen and promulgate American achievement as ballast to the

Soviet Union’s dominance in space technology and in culture (p. 36). This certainly had nothing to do with arts in education.

Sheffer also included in the proposal two statements by Dana Gioia, the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The first statement that “The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though it is a byproduct. The real purpose is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society” (p. 7). However, Smith (1996) drew our attention to the fact that, “Art in school, is pushed into the margins of the curriculum, the last subject to find a home in the school and the first to be cast out in times of adversity” (p.1). In support, Rabkin &

Redmond (2006) posited that “Two decades of efforts to raise standards, focus schools on academic fundamentals, and close the achievement gap have steadily eroded the place of the arts in public schools” (p. 60). Postman’s (1988) contribution to this conversation is that;

As every teacher knows, the numerical mark changes the entire experience and

meaning of learning. It introduces a fierce competition among students by

providing sharply differentiated symbols of success and failure. Grading provides

an “objective” measure of human performance and creates the unshakable illusion

that accurate calculations can be made of worthiness. The human being becomes,

to use Michel Foucault’s phrase, “a calculable person.” (p. 140)

The second of Gioia’s statement is that, “in most other countries, arts and culture

are viewed as primary and essential expressions of identity … [but] in America, culture

and the arts are seen as secondary to business and politics – as inessential luxury goods.”

(p. 37)

Three issues of the Arts Policy Committee that are worth mentioning are

1. Cuts in the arts over the last 20 years have resulted in the majority of American children not having access or exposure to the arts in school; furthermore, “No Child Left Behind” has left the arts behind and the trend is that in underperforming schools the arts and sciences have been cut in order to make way for focus on reading and math.

2. Access to arts education for all children – need incentives for local districts to integrate the arts into curriculum.

3. Promoting the arts and visual learning … our children are becoming more and more attuned to visual cues – visual literacy and arts education will be increasingly important in reaching and educating children.

With President Obama now the Commander and Chief in the Whitehouse, it is hoped that the “change we can believe in” will enable him to live up to the statement that,

“Given the needs of the twenty-first century it is imperative that students are exposed to a comprehensive, rigorous curriculum that includes arts education. We cannot afford a public system that limits teaching and learning to just math and reading” (p. 11). The foregone statement must have caused arts educators and arts advocates to be anticipating jubilation, they must have exhausted their patience, after almost a decade of waiting with bated breath to see the enactment of the mandate of the Federal No Child Left Behind

(NCLB) Elementary and Secondary Education Act which identified the arts among core academic subject, but instead NCLB has left the arts behind.

On Sunday, June 27, 2010, I had a telephone conversation with one of my

Jamaican friends who is a substitute teacher at an elementary school in Florida. We were discussing how my writing was proceeding and I read to her the first paragraph in my introduction chapter and the final paragraph I envisage for my conclusion. She exclaimed,

I wish the people in Broward County could hear what you are saying. For the

academic year 2010 – 2011 they have proposed to eliminate Music and Art. They

claim that this is a result of budget cuts. They have already dismissed the

teachers, so you know there will be no teaching of art and music. These are the

fine things in the curriculum; why are they taking them away? They are too

“blinking” out of order. (A. Grant, personal communication, June, 2010)

The cutting of Music and Art from the school curriculum and the dismissal of the teachers do not reflect President Obama’s vision for the arts. The actions are not in keeping with some of the statements in Obama Arts Policy Committee Briefing Papers and Policy General Statement of Purposes and Needs in Development Arts Policy (June

2007 – September 2008) .

Since children are the future and the school is the institution that has been bestowed the responsibility by society (in any country) to prepare the children for the future, then the schools will reflect the views of the society/country in which they are situated, because “values operating in the larger society influence children” (Chapman,

1978, p. 5). Chapman also reminded us that, “In Dewey’s philosophy of education, the school is a microcosm of everyday life” (Chapman, 1978, p. 1). It goes without saying

that the education system, schools in particular, “must help young people engage with the

cultural universe where they live and must make their way. It is through the arts that

cultural values are most vividly expressed,” (Burnaford, Aprill & Weiss, 2001).

If the change is materialized, then the arts would earn a pride of place in

education and be brought from the peRIMeter of the classroom with elegance and style

as members of the core of the curricula at all levels of the education system, from K-12.

This will ensure that children are provided an authentic education in, with, through and

about the arts. As stated in Attenborough (2002), “according to Cornett (1999, p. 2), ‘to

lack an education in the arts is to be profoundly disconnected from history, from beauty,

from other cultures, and from other forms of expression’” (p 88). It should therefore be

realized that if the aesthetic subjects, the arts, which are manifestations of these innate

creative abilities, are incorporated with other subject areas, they will create deeper, richer

educational experiences for children on a whole, with the possibility for learners at higher

educational levels as well.

Chapman (1978) informed us that, “It is important to note that in our society the

school is the only institution officially responsible for educating children in art. The role

of the teacher will be to mediate the child’s education in and through art” (p. 4).

Therefore, administrators, curriculum designers and non-arts educators need to be

cognizant that, “learning through the arts provides students the opportunity for

constructing meaning of content material through the use of the visual, dramatic, and

musical arts while learning the arts gives students the exposure to specific skills gained

through instruction in these art forms” (Gullatt, 2008, p. 24). Additionally, Gullatt

recommended that, “While the arts should be recognized as subjects that can stand alone and be important in their own rights, parents and educators should also embrace the concept that the arts can enhance true understanding of a content area” (p. 24). Gullatt posed the following question.

If research and best practice identify benefits to the academic curriculum provided

by the art which can enhance academic gain, then why are the arts so often

blatantly overlooked as a ready medium of assistance for teaching and learning in

schools across America? (p. 12)

A few researchers and scholars have provided appropriate answers to Gullatt’s questions. Beane (1991) recommended that “It is time we face the fact that subject areas of disciplines of knowledge around which the curriculum has traditionally been organized are actually territorial spaces carved out by academic scholar for their own purposes”

(p. 9). I believe, this could be because they are seeing through lenses of selfishness.

Additionally, Snyder (2001) drew our attention to the fact that, “The underlying problem is that, when important curricular decisions are made without representative arts educators involved, arts programs are frequently squeezed out” (p. 33). This is most evident at the elementary level, where there are no arts teachers on staff, or there is an itinerant teacher rotating at two or more schools; therefore, his/her presence at the school is only to engage in the teaching the students. Sometimes when there are arts teachers, they are asked to “baby sit” the students while the teachers in the “subject areas of

disciplines of knowledge” meet to discuss the “Ws”, why, what, when, where, who and

how of the curricula to be specific and education in general. Their voices are left out of

the conversations; as a result, their subjects are left out of the big picture. Freedman &

Stuhr (2004) argued that “creative/critical inquiry is not only for secondary level

students; in fact, it should begin at the elementary level. Young students are already

adopting postmodern visual culture as a frame for understanding reality outside of

school” (p. 825). It is heart rending to know that over the years the arts have mostly been

used as reward for good behavior or a token for finishing work well and in prescribed

time, in the elementary schools.

Strand’s (2006) research confirmed this notion as well as offered a ray of hope.

One of the two programs in the research was a theater company and an elementary

school, while the other was a summer enrichment for gifted and talented students. Strand

reported that the elementary school principal supported and sustained the teachers with

what one teacher called “intelligent support.” She encouraged arts integration and

allowed the teachers to develop their curricula as they saw fit. She consistently called for

the use of teaching strategies to promote success. However, the mere fact that one of the

sites in the research was a summer enrichment for gifted and talented student is cause for

concern. Firstly, it was held during in the summer, as a result, there might be little or no

correlation to the schools’ curricula, therefore, the students would not have been provided

with opportunities to make connections with the academic aspect of their education. The

other is that students who did not wear the label ‘gifted’ and/or ‘talented’ would have been disenfranchised and barred from the opportunities for ‘enrichment’, that is, developing and enhancing their creative skills. What administrators, curriculum

designers and educators need to be doing is planning, designing and implementing curricular activities that will provide students with experiences where the arts are integrated into curriculum. This will enable students and parents to realize that the arts are integral and valued components of their education.

Arts Integrated Curriculum

In pointing out the role and importance of women in art education, Smith (1999) drew attention to Eugenia Eckford Rhoads, who seem to have been influenced by Dewey.

Rhoads advocated an integration of art with other subjects to show that art has a role to play in relation to “English, mathematics, Latin, history or music” ([Eckford, 1928,cited in Smith, 1999, p. 339).

Art should not be a class just in learning to draw, divorced from all other school

life and, therefore, students’ interests. Rhoads was aware that some persons

rejected integration and correlation, but she felt that since art always played a role

in everyday life and had a service to perform, it would not, ipso facto, stifle art to

deal with it in school in relation to other subjects or use it to understand history

and civilization” (pp. 146 – 147).

Additionally, Smith cited Rhoads’ statement that,

When art come into the classroom as a vital, inseparable part of the work, the

child gains in knowledge and the love of creating as he could not so easily do

were art just another subject. It is now a language for him. ([Eckford, 1928,] p.

348 in Smith 1996, p. 146).

If the arts are brought to the core of the curriculum and teachers are providing children

with learning experiences in the arts, through the arts, with the arts and about the arts;

like Rabkin & Redmond (2006) we will confirm that “they began to practice arts

integration and instruction that brings the arts into the core of the school day and connects s the arts across curriculum” (p. 60). Also, it would not be ambitious to envisage arts educators and/or classroom teachers and artists playing an integral role in implementation of integrated curriculum, especially at the elementary/primary level of an education system which includes Grades 1–5 in the US system and Grades 1–6 in the

Jamaican system. “Art teachers would work with other teachers to breakdown the barriers that fragment curriculum” (Brewer, 2002, p. 31). Classroom teachers and art teacher(s) would also employ the expertise of resource persons as well as technology and materials from disciplines and professions beyond the field of education, while providing authentic, rich and novel learning experiences that will prepare learners to be adoptive and tolerant citizens in our changing world. This would be reflective of curriculum in practices that include a combination of subjects and sources that go beyond textbooks.

These learning environments would be modeling Gable & Manning’s (1997) recommendation that, “They (teachers) in all grades and disciplines will need to work together cooperatively with colleagues and representatives from other professional disciplines” (p. 21).

According to Strand (2006), “Arts-integrated curricula can provide meaningful and powerful learning experiences for students of all ages and capabilities” (p. 29). Fisher &

McDonald (2004) reported that, “The call for curriculum integration with and through the arts is evident within many elementary school environments. Arts specialists are frequently asked to link their classroom curriculum to other content area instructional

goals and standards” (p. 240). This could be because some educational reformers have

come to realize that “in harnessing the arts to other subjects, arts integration turns curriculum toward work that does not merely reproduce knowledge, but uses it in authentic intellectual ways” (Rabkin & Redmond, 2006, p. 63) as well as “energized teachers and lead to broader school changes” (p. 61). However, Brewer (2002) drew our attention to Hope’s (1997) position that, “Too many calls for integration or interdisciplinary study ignore the crucial point that that each discipline has its own core and connections. One discipline does not become or substitute for another, even in

combination” (p. 33). This could be one reason “during the 1990s … some arts educators

began developing new programs and practices grounded in the idea that the arts were

cognitive and that arts study could have serious academic benefit” (Rabkin & Redmond,

2006, p. 60). They must have recognized that “arts specialists are simply, within these

new contexts, no longer a solo act” (Fisher & McDonald, 2004, p. 241) because for true

arts integration to occur, they will have to work collaboratively and cooperatively with

classroom teachers and teachers of other disciplines. They might have also realized that

entering into these integrative situations “without clarity about the intrinsic value of the

arts, art educators proceed at their own peril” (Brewer, 2002, p. 32). It is for this reason

Fisher & McDonald (2004) asked, “How do we connect learning within the general curriculum and at the same time preserve the integrity of discipline-specific instruction in

the arts?” (p. 240).

Although Fisher & McDonald’s question is cause for concern, it should not drive

fear in arts specialists. Art teachers/educators who are adequately equipped with the

content knowledge and pedagogical skills have the potential put into “practice arts

integration and instruction that brings the arts into the core of the school day and connects the arts across curriculum” (Rabkin & Redmond, 2006, p. 60). If done successfully, art educators would be validating Daniel’s (2003) statement that, “In order to make curricular connections an anchor is needed. Art can be the anchor” (p.9). In contributing to this conversation, Freedman & Stuhr (2004) recommended that “Art should be approached as an equally legitimate school subject and conceptually integrated with the rest of the school curriculum” (p. 826). There is evidence that it is not as easy as it sounds. The Ohio State University TETAC Mentors (2002) pointed out that it has not been their tradition in art education to focus teaching on broad themes or to integrate the whole curriculum through art because they have been preoccupied as a profession with the autonomy of art, with its importance as a separate discipline. They found out that defining arts/visual culture in the school curriculum was a particularly challenging task.

This is reflective of Olson’s (1998) reminder that,

Educators have become so specialized that they have rarely understand how their

own subject areas relate to other areas of study. Art educators, for example, have

believed so thoroughly in the “art for art sake” philosophy that many bristle at the

mere mention or possibility that art can be instrumental in the learning process of

another subject. Without an understanding of how art relates to all areas of the

curriculum and, consequently, how art relates to all areas of their lives, students

will never develop to the point where they value art for its own sake.

(pp. 172 - 173)

Although challenging, the TETAC Mentors proceeded with the project because of their belief in the arts as basic ways of making sense of the world and as a “powerful engine of curriculum integration” (p. 15). Their belief could have gotten its grounding from Ballengee-Morris’ (1998) report that,

According to Friere, students should experience this process in education by

experiencing art, expressing through their cultural arts, integrating subjects,

integrating on to the world, developing a critical consciousness and encourage

dialogue. This requires a new pedagogy, attitude and approach (p. 50).

In support of Friere’s argument, Freedman (2000, 2001 cited in Freedman, Stuhr, 2004) stated that, “in order to conceptualize curriculum in this way, it is necessary to understand curriculum as a process rather than a single text” (p. 823). This is so because,

The realm of the visual arts inherently overlaps with other disciplinary domains.

Artists and other cultural producers draw on all types of knowledge and cognitive

processes to create. Connecting content typically considered part of other school

subjects in the curriculum helps students to understand the importance and power

of the visual culture and their place in the world (p. 819).

An investigation of literature related to integration curriculum, arts education and arts integration reveals that,

there has been little research on the ways that the more positive and powerful

curricula are developed and implemented; neither the collaborative relationship

nor the influences external to teaching partnerships have been documented in

depth to learn how such programs can be developed and maintained” (Strand,

2006, p. 29).

As a result, I conducted this phenomenological inquiry to identify how the Visual Arts are being used in the implementation of an arts integrated curriculum in an elementary school in the state of Ohio, the United States. As was stated before, my interest in arts integrated curriculum at the elementary level began over three years ago, when, at the interview for a fellowship to pursue doctoral studies in art education, I informed the interviewing panel that I would focus my research on art education and the integrated curriculum. The question might be asked, why have I concentrated on only one of the arts? Brewer (2002) brought to our attention that Kindler (1987) emphasized that “there may in fact be situations when concentrating on only one art domain provides students with a more substantial and profound aesthetic experience”. In Jamaica, the saying goes

“parson crissten him pickney fus” meaning “the pastor christens or blesses his child first.” As a Visual Arts specialist and art educator it is imperative that I advocate to ensure my discipline is brought from the peRIMeter to the “muscle and sinews” of the daily curriculum. Brewer (2002) cited Hope’s (1997) reminder that;

We must make distinction between the individual arts discipline and “the arts” as

a group, because each discipline has its own language, vocabulary, history, body

of work, and artistic procedure. Too often many calls for integrated or

interdisciplinary studies ignore the crucial point that each discipline has its own

core and connections. One discipline does not become a substitute for another,

even in combination. (p. 33). 82

What Teachers should know and be able to do?

“Every child can learn, every child must learn” (MOE Jamaica 2004) “All children can learn and should learn” (NCATE, 2007, p. 3) “An education in art is for all students” (NAEA, 1994, p. 3)

The thought that “education maketh a man” or woman confirms that formal educational experiences should prepare children for worthwhile citizenry in their adult life. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, along with the belief(s) of the above three organizations, reflect that all children, Pre-K-2 or Pre-K-13 should have equal rights to the same quality of education. The school, a fifteenth century development, is the institution that has been bestowed/bequeathed the responsibility by society (in any country) to prepare the children for the future. “Schools became … structures for legitimizing some parts of information and discrediting other parts… a means of governing the ecology of information” (Postman, 1992, p. 63). A rough calculation shows that children spend an accumulated one and a half decades in schools between the

Pre-K to 12/13, “That is a pretty stiff sentence just for being born a child. Yet the serving of this sentence is supposed to qualify a youngster to take his place as a contributing and well-adjusted member of society” (Lowenfeld & Brittain 1968, pp. 1-2). With the establishment of schools followed “the invention of what is called curriculum (which) was a logical step towards organizing, limiting, and discriminating among available sources of information” (Postman, 1992, pp. 62-63).

It is an established fact that teachers are the persons with whom children would have spent most of these years. They are the professionals societies have placed in

charge to implement the different curricula as they engage students in acquiring the

knowledge, skills and dispositions that will prepare them for their future in democratic

societies in which they will choose to live. How teachers engage children in preparing to

fit in the different societies they choose to live in during their adult lives will be based on

their teacher preparation programs. I believe the mission of all teacher preparation

programs should be to cultivate competent and confident teachers who are adequately

equipped with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments necessary to

effectively and efficiently provide and sustain superior quality educational opportunities

to a diverse population of (Pre-K-12 or Pre-K-13) students while exposing and engaging them in appropriate activities and experiences that will prepare them to be adoptive and tolerant citizens in our changing world.

The teachers knowledge base.

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE, 2007) standards highlighted that candidates preparing to work in schools as teachers or other professionals know and demonstrate the content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and skills, pedagogical and professional knowledge skills and professional dispositions necessary to help students learn. Grossman, Schoenfeld, with Lee (2005) argued that, prospective teachers need to have a solid foundation in the subject matters they plan to teach and they should acquire the prerequisite disciplinary tools that will prepare them to continue learning within the subject discipline throughout their careers. These tools include a deep connection in the subject matter so that they will be informed of curricular and

pedagogical choices they are relevant to the discipline, and an understanding of how knowledge is generated within a field as well as have some grasp of the subject. In addition,

They need to know how to solve the problems they pose to students and to know

that there are multiple approaches to solving problems. … Effective teacher know

much more than their subjects, and more than “good pedagogy.” They know how

students tend to understand (and mis-understand) their subject; they know how to

anticipate and diagnose such misunderstanding; and they know how to deal with

them when they arise. (p. 205)

Bransford, Derry, Berliner, Hammernesss with Beckett (2005) drew our attention to Shalman (1987) explanation “that effective teachers need to develop “pedagogical content knowledge” that goes well beyond the content knowledge of their discipline” (p.

48). With regards to professionalism, Bransford, Hammond and LePage’s (2005) belief is that, “in any profession there are key elements that define what it means to be professional.” (p. 6). Teachers should understand their role and responsibilities as professionals in their schools as they prepare all students to be equitable participation in a democratic society. Brandsford and colleagues continued that,

What teaching has in common with other professions is that the work serves

others and, because of its social importance, must do so responsibly. ….

Teaching can viewed might be viewed as a field that sits at the intersection of

these other professional fields. Teachers might be viewed as similar to women

and men of the cloth, as teaching has elements of a vocation or calling, and it as

strong connections to values and commitments. (p. 12)

I recall Reverend Grace Jarvis, at service to launch the new academic year at Shortwood

Teachers' College in Jamaica, informing the teacher candidates gathered that, 'teaching is a ministry' and they should be willing to show commitment to the profession.

It is true that, experience “teacheth” wisdom, therefore it is not anticipated that the teacher candidates would have acquired the knowledge, skills/expertise and dispositions to position them to perform at the level of competency as their senior colleagues. However, it is expect that all teacher education institutions would have developed well designed programs that provide teacher candidates with adequate scholarly knowledge and experiences that will forms the basis of entitlement to practice.

These should include pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, content knowledge and professional knowledge, as well as field experiences, that will enable them to develop a vision for what teachers do, what good teaching is, and what they hope to accomplish as teachers. They should also inculcate in prospective teachers the importance of committing themselves to “life long learning” in order to improve their knowledge for practice, knowledge of practice, and knowledge in practice, thus empowering them to develop and establish their identity in the teaching profession, worthy of being categorized as “women and men of cloth”.

PRAXIS III Domain D states that professional responsibilities of all teachers, including beginning teachers, also include sharing appropriate information with other professionals and with families in a way that support the learning of diverse student populations. This will be evident if the teachers know who in the school is experienced in working with students of the same level or in the same subject area, and should be aware of other people in the school and district who can help to improve their

instructional skills. The teachers should be aware of others who can provide assistance with curricular materials or other resources to enrich the learning experience of students.

The teachers should be aware of how and with whom, they could or should coordinate plans, schedules, and resources for the benefit of the entire class or individual students.

As teachers gain skill, they are able to collaborate effectively with their colleagues.

Teachers ability to create state-of the-art teaching/learning environments

A vital learning environment offers rich resources. The resources come in many forms and can be accessed in multiple ways. Colleagues, experts, literature, and technology present different options that appeal to different learning styles (Wald & Castleberry, 2000).

Teachers should have the ability to select and use instruction materials, tools, equipment and other resources as well as select and create learning environments that are appropriate to the learners and learning tasks. Garibadi (1992) argued that,

The teachers of today's culturally diverse classrooms must understand that there

are difference between the sociological dimensions of “culture” and “class” as

they prepare to teach; know how to plan and organize effective instructional

situations, how to motivate students and manage their classrooms, and how to

motivate students, in addition to being competent in the assessment of the

academic strengths and weaknesses of all children; and learn how to encourage

the cooperation of their students' families and communities in the conduct of their

daily responsibility. (p. 25)

Additionally, “to be effective educators, teachers must be highly competent in planning and organizing instruction as well as in managing the classroom environment if

their students are to be academically successful” (p. 29).

Horowitz, Darling-Hammond, Bransford, with Corner, Rosebrock, Austin and

Rust (2005) also stated that “Effective teachers are able to figure out not only what to teach, but also how to do so in a way that students can understand and use the new information and skill” (p. 88). As a result they propose that, teachers should have an understanding of where the children are developmentally, their individual learning style and their cultural backgrounds. The knowledge will be most important keys to shaping and planning appropriate learning tasks that are engaging for the students. A teacher who cannot create learning tasks that are appropriate for the diverse population of students may result with classroom environment that are chaotic, with little learning taking place and little success is achieved. Teachers should understand that when they pose tasks for students, they should ensure that the students have the experience base to draw upon; if not “the teacher should be prepared to demonstrate, explain, or provide other opportunities for students to acquire the experiential knowledge they need in order to succeed” (pp. 103-104). The teacher should also be skilled in taking the students beyond what Vygosky refers to as the zone of proximal development (ZPD). In so doing the teacher would be aware of what a student already knows and can do and what the students are ready to learn next. Teachers who are able to identify the students ZPD will be better able to create appropriate learning tasks that will cater to the things the students are ready to learn and when needed, provide the scaffolding; the support, that will enable the students to face challenges with confidence and develop the competence necessary to be successful.

The importance of assessment in teaching and learning

Teachers should use of assessment strategies to demonstrate their awareness of its power as an effective/efficient evaluative tool, and its ability to foster and enhance teaching and learning. Shepard, Hammerness, Darling-Hammond, Rust, Snowden,

Gordon, Gutierrez and Pacheco (2005), stated that “Assessment is an integral part of the learning process. … To be effective, teachers must be skillful in using various assessment strategies and tools such as observation, student conferences, portfolios, performance tasks, prior knowledge assessments, rubrics, feedback, and student self-assessment” (p.

275). However, Brandford, Derry, Berliner and Hammerness, with Beckett (2005), warned that, “First teachers need to ask what they are assessing. This requires aligning their assessment criteria with the goals for their students (part of being knowledge- centered) and the “readiness” of students in their classroom (learner-and community- centered)” (p. 67). Therefore, it is important for teachers to have an understanding when and how to conduct assessments as well as the ways in which assessment practices relate to theories of transfer. Most people are familiar with assessments that are conducted at the end of a unit or a period; for example, at the end of a course or the end of the year.

This type of assessment is called summative assessment, which most times are done with paper and pencil and/or pen and come in forms such as “multiple-choice tests, essays, presentations by the students. These assessments are important. Often they reveal important information that teachers wish they had seen earlier.” (Brandford, Derry,

Berliner and Hammerness, with Beckett, 2005, p. 68)) This is one of the reasons it is important that teachers to engage in continuous assessments, which are called formative assessments. They are included in the planning and implementation of the lessons and

are used for the improvement of teaching and learning. “They involve making students’

thinking visible as they progress through the course, giving them feedback about their thinking, and providing opportunities to revise (and/or redo).” (Brandford, Derry,

Berliner and Hammerness, with Beckett, 2005, p. 68) Feedback should be an integral part of the learning process. When students are giving opportunities do revisions, make corrections or redo an assignment, based on feedback, teachers are providing them with opportunities to improve on what they know and are able to do, thus confirming

Thorndike’s conclusion “that practice does not make perfect unless it provides the opportunity for feedback” (cited in Brandford, Derry, Berliner and Hammerness, with

Beckett, 2005, p. 69). With regards to assessment and theories of transfer, Bransford and colleagues pointed out that,

One way to look at this issue is to view tests as attempt to predict students’

abilities to transfer from classroom settings to everyday setting. … Central to

traditional approaches to transfer is a “direct application” the theory and dominant

methodology that Bransford and Schwartz (1999) call “sequestered problem s

olving” (SPS)…. Accompanying the SPS paradigm is a theory that characterizes

transfer as the ability to directly apply one’s previous learning to a new setting.

What we call the direct application (DA) theory of learning. (pp. 69 – 70)

The Visual Arts teacher and integrated curriculum

Educators who will be engaging in an integrated curriculum that brings the arts

from the peRIMeter to the core of the curriculum and the school should be adequately

equipped with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments necessary to

effectively and efficiently provide and sustain superior quality educational opportunities to a diverse population of students. At the same time educators should be exposing and engaging students in Visual Arts activities and experiences that will assist them in developing mastery in skills that will be necessary to participate in the workforce of the

21st century. The teacher, a Visual Arts teacher/educator or a classroom teacher, who has been adequately prepared for the task of teaching in, with, through and about Visual Arts, should:

a. Have a solid foundation and deep understanding of the different areas of Visual Arts; develop pedagogical content knowledge that goes beyond the knowledge of Visual Arts and acquire the disposition and commitment for lifelong learning to continue learning within and beyond the subject area throughout their career.

b. Possess the knowledge and technical skills to be able to carefully select and use a broad range of Visual arts media, techniques, instructional strategies, and other resources and learning environments that will promote learning in, with, through and about Visual Arts at varying developmental levels, as well as positively impact academic achievement.

c. Acquire knowledge of how to access and understand the background and experiences of the students they work with to inform their decisions, and tailor curriculum and instruction so that their students will be engaged in meaningful artmaking activities.

d. Be appropriately sensitive to family, cultural and community values, norms, and experiences and use Visual Arts as a medium to help mediate the “boundary crossing” that many students must manage between home and school.

e. Employ a wide range of assessment strategies to demonstrate their awareness of the power as an effective/efficient evaluative tool for promoting and fostering/facilitating teaching and learning in, with, through and about Visual Arts.

f. Continuously display technical skills and expertise in selecting, designing and creating appropriate teaching/learning environments within and beyond the walls of the artroom and the school. These sites will not only be used as

spaces for creating and displaying artworks; they will provide the students with sights and insight that will enable students to develop and enhance their critical thinking skills.

An educator who is equipped to participate in a “best practice” arts integrated curriculum should have gained proficiency and competency in the subjects he/she teaches and expertise in imparting the content of the subjects while catering to the diverse population of students in his/her classroom. “Quality integration requires quality instruction in all content areas being integrated. Teachers who know content deeply and well are essential for the success of arts integration” (Burnaford, Aprill and Weiss, 2001, p.17). This educator would realize that he/she is a member of a learning community that extends beyond the walls of the school, because “arts integration encourages individuals and groups of school people to stretch out a hand to community resources, whatever they may be, and makes connections to the school curriculum” (Burnaford, Aprill and Weiss,

2001 p. 6). Teachers should have the knowledge of the other members of the teaching staff who possess ‘expertise’ in areas in which he/she might be lacking; teachers in other schools from whom he/she can gather information and resources, persons in other professions and disciplines whose expertise can play an integral part in the learning environment to provide authentic and novel learning experiences for the children.

According to Simpson (1998)

Art is a complex subject that has been defined and redefined time and again over

the course of history. The body of knowledge embedded in the visual arts is so

vast the learning about all of it is not possible. Despite the enormity of the task,

art teachers are still required to define what they think art is. Before we can teach

others, we have to know as much as we can about art ourselves. … Teaching

about art through making art is an exciting challenge. There are many ways of

working with school age children, many avenues to take to teach them the

processes and content of art. Often teachers are required to investigate

techniques, media, and methods they have not formally gravitated toward

studying. Many school art curricula include photography video filmmaking,

desktop publishing, and computer graphics for example. Prospective teachers

need to go beyond their favorite media. They need to investigate a broad range of

two- and three-dimensional materials and be ready to adapt what is learned in

studio coursed to school art materials. (p. 17 – 18).

Carroll’s (1998) advice to classroom teachers is “learn as much as you can about drawing, visual form, materials and visual ways of thinking as you’ll need to feel comfortable integrating them into your regular teaching routine and perhaps into your own life” (p. 10). Hamilton (1998) warned/stated that, “even art teachers are often apprehensive about demonstration drawing. They might have accepted the responsibility as the class artist in elementary school, but they recognize that the problem now is to communicate information clearly and quickly” (p. 247).

Most of the voices I have encountered to date have been very supportive, insightful and informative. It is encouraging to realize that an education system that utilizes curriculum integration as the pedagogical approach is both rewarding for the teacher and empowering for the learner. However, in order for curriculum integration to occur, teachers, through collaborative efforts will need to act as facilitators and rely on key concepts and essential questions to guide students to integrate what is learned in their

own understanding, thus enabling them to make sense of, and be active participants in the world of which they are an integral part. Teachers should be harnessed with a wealth of scholarly knowledge that forms the basis of entitlement to practice, including pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, content knowledge and professional knowledge as well as knowledge of how people learn. Based on the revelation by arts educators and arts advocate it is evident that the arts play a pivotal role in teaching and learning and Visual Arts is an anchor for and a vehicle to drive an integrated curriculum.

However, because teachers tend to teach the way they were taught, teacher preparation programs should provide teacher candidates with opportunities to have authentic experiences of what it looks and feels like to participate in teaching and learning that bring the arts to the core of the curriculum.

In this chapter I provided a brief review of the body of scholarly, philosophical, critical, theoretical, knowledge that is applicable and relevant to build the framework that guided my research and situated it in the sphere of academic discourse in Art Education, general education and teacher education. In chapter three I will highlight the research methodology and provide a description of the methods that were used for the data collection and analysis.

Chapter Three: Methodology “All the world is a stage and we are all actors on it. When the play is over we revert to what we really are.” (William Shakespeare)

In chapter two, I provided a brief review of the body of scholarly, philosophical,

critical, theoretical and pedagogical knowledge that is applicable and relevant to build the

framework that guided my research and situated it in the sphere of academic discourse in

Art Education. In this chapter I will highlight the research methodology and provide

descriptions of the methods and procedures that were used to collect and analyze the data

for the study. I will also provide a brief overview of the setting where the research was

conducted and basic information about the participants who provided relevant

information that generated the data. Additionally, I will discuss the situational questions

and concerns that are designed and/or positioned to interrogate, probe, investigate and

control the researcher as well as data collection methods, the findings and results of

qualitative research.

I view teaching and learning as staged and ‘unstaged’ performances and the

teachers and students are the actors and, when included, researchers as well. Before I

even gained entry into the learning environment, I investigated among the professors in

my department to ascertain the length of time I should spend and number of visits I

should make. One professor informed me that I will know when to stop; when there is

nothing new happening at the school. This recommendation is in keeping with Stark’s &

Torrance’s (2006) “advice to novice researchers is often to stay in the field until a

‘saturation point’ is reached and few new findings are being collected” (p. 37). Due to a time constraint, my academic/vocational time clock was ticking very fast. In Jamaica retirement age is sixty, so with less than five years to spare it was my ambition to graduate at the end of spring or at the latest summer quarter 2010. As a result, I knew I could only afford to spend between four and six months in the field, with not more than twenty visits to the site.

As the researcher and most times the only audience member, I did not position myself to view the participants (teacher and students) through the lenses of being subjects or objects. Neither did I look at them as performing for the pleasure of my looking. I was not in the setting for entertainment purposes but to collect the quality and quantity of data that will ensure the research is authentic and valid.

Methodology of the Study

This is the stage where I proceeded to ‘create the picture’. I had to gather relevant information that would enable me to have an understanding and perspective of “those mainly affected by or having an influence on the issue investigated” (Stringer, 2007, p.

65). I realized that if researchers want to find out whether something will influence or have effect on something else they need to conduct some form of intervention or investigative studies. This is so because “such study enables researchers to assess for example, the effectiveness of various teaching methods, curriculum models, classroom arrangement and other efforts that influence characteristics of individuals or groups”

(Fraenkel & Wallen, 1990, p. 12). As was stated before, the purpose of this

investigation/study was to identify best practices where the Visual Arts play a pivotal role

in the implementation of an integrated curriculum. It was guided by a phenomenological

inquiry approach because my aim was to understand and describe the structures and

experiences of the teachers and students in the learning environments under investigation.

The preferred methodology for this research was case study because “the case itself is at

center stage, not the variables” (Schwandt, 2007 p. 28).

According to Marshall and Rossman (2006), “studies focusing on society and culture in a group, a program, or an organization typically espouse some form of case study as a strategy” (p. 22). The research was conducted in an elementary school located in an upper middle class suburban community in central Ohio. The school was not the focus of the study but the Visual Arts teacher was the focus of my gaze, therefore I will not be providing a detailed description of the school community or the school district.

However, based on Marshall’s and Rossman’s statement above, I believe a school is one of the most practical environments to conduct a case study. I view a school as an organization with groups of people working together for the common good of its members and society as a whole. The school is the site where the Visual Arts teacher works. In addition, the definitions provided by the Oxford Pocket American Dictionary of Current English revealed that (a) the school is a society because it is an ordered community with firm laws/rules and its members are united by a common aim and

interest. (b) The way of life of the members in a school can also be viewed a ‘culture in a

group’ because the members show “improvement by mental or physical training”. (c)

The curriculum can be seen as a ‘program’ because it is a “course or series of studies,

lecturers, etc.; a syllabus”. Dr. Stuhr’s corrections Although Stake (2003) found that

“case study methodology [is] written largely by people who presume the research should

contribute to scientific generalization” (p. 140), he concluded that “the bulk of case study

work … is done by individuals who have intrinsic interest in the case and little interest in

the advance of science” (p. 140). It is common knowledge that my interest is in the

advancement of education in my country, Jamaica, and the world at large. I have

classified my research as an intrinsic case study, primarily due to Stake’s (2003) claim

that,

I call a study an intrinsic case study if it is undertaken because, first and last, the

researcher wants better understanding of this particular case. Here, it is not

undertaken primarily because the case represents other cases or because, it

illustrates a particular trait or problem, but because, in all its particularity and

ordinariness, this case is of interest. The researcher at least subordinates other

curiosities so that the stories of those “living the case” will be teased out. The

purpose is not to come to understand some abstract construct or generic

phenomenon … Study is undertaken because of an intrinsic interest in …

curriculum. (p. 136 - 137).

The phenomenological investigation was undertaken in order to study and understand how the Visual Arts teacher/educator performed her daily tasks facilitating authentic teaching/learning experiences in, with, through and about Visual Arts as well as to ascertain the role(s) she plays and the position of Visual Arts in an integrated curriculum. Thus, it is imperative that I aimed “the inquiry toward(s) understanding of what is important about the case within its own world” (Stake, 2003, p. 140).

Case Studies

Based on the research topic/question which is a qualitative inquiry, I employed

multiple data collection strategies. I conducted a case study at an elementary school in the

US. The case study included observation of and interviews with the Visual Arts teacher,

Dr. Sharon Buda, who was the chief participant and (co)creator of the data. Additional input via interviews were provided by the Music and Physical Education teachers, the

Media Specialist, a former Librarian, and a second grade and a fourth grade teacher who have worked collaboratively at the selected elementary school in the state of Ohio, USA.

All seven teachers are white/Caucasian females with 15 to 30 years teaching experience mostly in an elementary school setting. This methodology was chosen because “case studies are the preferred strategy, when “how” or “why” questions are being posed, when the investigator has little control over events and when focus is on contemporary phenomenon within some real-life context” (Yin, 2003, p. 1). The primary research question is, “How can the arts integrated curriculum strategies used at an exemplary elementary school in Ohio contribute as guidelines for the implementation of the integrated curriculum in the Jamaican primary education system?” In order to adequately generate the appropriate answers, this premise prompts the following sub- questions:

1. What are the characteristics of an integrated curriculum and how should it be implemented?

2. How relevant is an arts integration curriculum with regards to the preparation of students to be adaptive and worthwhile citizens in the ever changing complex world?

3. What is the scope of the arts integrated curriculum implemented in a selected elementary school in Ohio?

4. What are the functions of the Visual Arts and the Visual Arts educator in the integrated curriculum in the selected school?

5. How do the classroom teachers at the selected school facilitate the arts integrated curriculum in their classrooms on a daily basis?

6. What should teachers know and be able to do to implement an integrated curriculum to bring the arts to the core of the curriculum?

Education, schooling to be specific, can be categorized as one of, if not, the most complex activities that most human beings engage in for more than a decade of our lives as we prepare to take our place in the world as worthwhile, tolerant and adoptive adult citizens. It is common knowledge that the four main factors that are integral to formal

education are the learners (the children), the teacher (the person or medium that

facilitates learning), the learning task (the content of the curriculum) and the learning

environment (the site where learning takes place, not always a school). It has been

stated that the two indispensable factors of these four are the learners and the learning

task because without these two factors learning cannot take place. The chief reason for

conducting this research was to identify best practices where Visual Arts played a pivotal

role in the implementation of an integrated curriculum. It is evident that teacher(s) will

be integral - the facilitators of learning and the implementers of the curriculum. The

learning environments are also important because, as Stark & Torrance (2006) stated,

“case study seeks to engage with and report the complexity of social activity in order to

represent the meaning that individual social actors bring to those settings and

manufacture in them” (p. 3).

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I was conscious that the choice of one case study conducted at a single site would be viewed as marginal. It is a minute representation of the thousands of classroom and

Visual Arts teachers that are currently employed at the vast number of elementary school sites in the state of Ohio in particular and the United States in general. However, unlike some researchers, my intention was not to discover or prove which teacher is doing something better than another. There have been occasions when “researchers do not hypothesize an answer to the research question but seek to understand the nature of related events – how and why things happen the way they do” (Stringer, 2007, p. 65).

My goal was to spend quality time in learning environments where the elementary classroom teachers, an art educator and/or artist teacher, use Visual Arts “as media to communicate content and as methods of learning through such practices as careful observation, inquiry, practice, creation, representation, performance, critique and reflection” (Rabkin & Redmond, 2006, p. 64 ). I am aware that research is not useful if not analyzed, documented and made available for others to use, either as a resource for their research or as a guide to improve their practice. Therefore, I have provided a detailed account of what these teacher(s) have been doing on a daily basis; not only during the data collection period, but, also before I positioned myself in the environment as a researcher. Marshall & Rossman (2006) assured that “case studies take the reader into the setting with a vividness and detail not typically present in more analytic reporting formats” (p. 164).

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Data Collection Methods

I am aware of Stark & Torrance’s (2006) warning that “the weakness of case study is that it is not possible to generalize statistically from one or a small number of cases to the population as a whole” (p. 33). Therefore, in order to adequately produce data for this case study, I employed several data collection methods, because Marshall &

Rossman (2006) recommended that, “case study, the most complex strategy, may entail multiple methods – interviews, observations, document analysis, even surveys” (p. 56).

Also, “different ‘lenses’ or perspectives results from the use of different methods, often more than one method may be used within a project so the researcher can gain a more holistic view of the setting” (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994, p. 224). As a result, I have chosen triangulation for my data collection. “Data from different sources can be used to corroborate, elaborate and illuminate the research question” (Rossman &Wilson (1994) cited in Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 202), as well as it allows for multiple perspectives. Rossman & Wilson (1994) also assured us that, “one additional strategic choice can enhance a study’s generalizability: triangulating multiple sources of data.

Triangulation is the act of bringing more than one source of data to bear on a single point” (cited in Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 202).

I wanted to generate sufficient data for thick description, therefore the other strategies that were applicable to my investigation were observation, journaling, interviews, document and artifact analysis, and photography. Considering that the initial motive for conducting this study was to enhance teaching and learning in Jamaican elementary schools, it is enlightening to know that “designing a study in which …

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multiple informants and more than one data-gathering method is used can greatly strengthen the study’s usefulness in other settings” (Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 202).

Bearing in mind that the research was conducted in the United States education system, the result of which I envisage will be an invaluable source to be used to enhance teaching and the implementation of the integrated curriculum in the Jamaican elementary system, I would not be surprised if the issue of applicability is raised about this study. In the Jamaican education system, the elementary/primary school teachers teach from anthropology to zoology, all the “core” curricular subjects as well as the aesthetics/arts subjects. The situation in the United States is somewhat different as some elementary schools employ specialists to teach some “core” subjects as well as the arts.

Undoubtedly, I do not share the afore mentioned concern because Marshall & Rossman

(2006) informed us that, a study involving multiple informants or more than one data- gathering method can strengthen the study’s usefulness for other settings.

Oservation.

To look is one thing, To see what you look at is another, To understand what you see is the third, To learn from what you understand is something else, To act on what you learn is all that matters. (Anonymous)

Observation was my primary method of data collection because it is a fundamental and highly important method of qualitative inquiry. Classroom studies are one example of observation, and my research was focused in classroom settings in which

I documented and described actions and interactions that are complex and ever 103

changing (Marshall and Rossman (2006). They are transformative and transitory. Jones

& Somekh (2006) stated that

observation is one of the most important methods of data collection. It entails

being present in a situation and making a record of one’s impression of what takes

place. In observation the primary research instrument is the self, consciously

gathering sensory data through sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. (p. 138)

Dr. Buda teaches five or six classes each day. As a result, she engaged in

teaching at least one class from each grade level each day. After I learned the rhythmic

pattern of how the students are rotated for Visual Arts, each class is scheduled for Visual

Arts every four day, I spaced my visits to ensure that I got an opportunity to observe all

the classes in each of the five grade levels which are grades 1–5. Thus, I was able “to

build a picture of the life world of those being observed and an understanding of the way

they ordinarily go about their everyday activities” (Stringer, 2007, p. 75). The classes that were scheduled for art classes on Monday will again be scheduled for art classes on

Friday of the same week, and the classes that were scheduled for Tuesday of one week were scheduled for Monday of the following week. The bulk of the observation was

conducted in the artroom where I performed an ‘analytic camera gaze’. I focused my eyes to capture as many details as they allowed me to through the processes of observing, analyzing and interpreting. I hoped to create an illuminating picture of how this exemplary Visual Arts teacher displayed best practices in the implementation of an arts

integrated curriculum. Initially, I toyed with the idea of participant observation, whereby

I would have to seek permission to be immersed in the setting as a researcher and an

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assistant to the Visual Arts teacher. According to Jones & Somekh (2006), “through immersion, the researcher will become able to interpret the cultural meaning inherent in the verbal and non-verbal behaviour” (p. 139). However, being an outsider with an international student status, I was aware that there are several legal ramifications such as educational laws and policies and research protocols that might have barred me from participating in the capacity as a teacher. I thought this would not be a good idea to attempt to overstep my bounds and seek permission to participate fully in the teaching/learning experience.

Having convinced myself that I will not be able to be fully immersed in the setting, I resorted to structured and unstructured observation. In so doing I took the stance of a distant visible stranger while wearing the hat of ‘outside observer participant’ who was an ‘observant participant’. Although case studies are less intimidating than participant observation which fosters close relationships (Marshall & Rossman, 2006), I must say, based on the travel arrangements and the hours spent in the artroom each day I visited, Dr. Buda and I had a great deal of personal interaction over the six month period which may lead to a close relationship in the long run. This relationship afforded me some degree of comfort and sense of belonging so that I was able to effectively and efficiently “design good case studies and to collect, present, and analyze data fairly”

(Yin, p. 1). Based on the research questions posed for this study, I identified some independent variables for the observation. These were the pedagogical strategies Dr.

Buda employed as she engaged in teaching/learning in, through, with and about Visual

Arts: the teacher-to-student relationships she developed and demonstrated as she interacted with the students inside and outside the artroom or teaching/learning

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environments; the student-to-student relationship she encouraged among the student

inside and outside of the artroom; the relationship she developed, demonstrated and

sustained among the administrative, faculty and staff at the school; and the teacher-to-

parents relationships she demonstrated with parents around the school.

Oh, I wished I could be invisible because as Rifkin (2000) reminded,

According to the twentieth century German scientist Werner Heisenberg’s

indeterminacy principle, Bacon’s notion of detached and impartial observer

recording nature’s secrets in an objective fashion is an impossibility. The sheer

act of making observation brings the observer into direct participation with the

object of his or her inquiry, therefore biasing the results. …everything we do –

even our observations – effects outcomes … every human being is both player

and participant, always affecting and being affected by the world we attempt to

manipulate and influence. (p. 191)

During one of our informal conversations, in the earlier part of my visits, Dr. Buda informed me that one of the 1st Graders asked her, “Mrs. Buda, why was that lady sitting in the corner sleeping”? Were I invisible, the student(s) would not have seen that my nocturnal activities were taking a toll on me. I get between 4 and 5 hours sleep each night and on days I visited the school, I had to wake up at 5:30 AM to catch the bus to get to the pick up point(s) on time. Surprisingly, I missed the bus on one very cold winter morning and had to forgo my visit. As an act of courtesy, I called Dr. Buda and informed

her of the situation. Luckily that was not a day when we had scheduled any interviews.

Bearing in mind the fact that I was not in the setting to perform the task I was

accustomed to when I observed student teachers in Jamaica as a supervisor, my task was

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to produce a case that is unblemishd by preconceptions. I tried to record in my research journal/diary everything that happened during each observed teaching/learning experience. Then I hunted through stored records such as past unit/lesson plans and samples of students’ works to locate patterns to be used as themes for reporting the information (Thomas & Brubaker, 2000). I recognized that the opportunities I had to observe were based on how the teacher engaged the students, this meant the teacher and I were co-creators of the study I conducted. As a co-creator I sat in at few sessions where she met with other faculty member(s), staff(s), resource person(s) and/or artist(s) to plan for upcoming projects/lessons and/or to evaluate and reflect on previous projects/lessons in order to plan for future projects/lessons. These meetings were essential because “the function of team reflection is to consider multiple perspectives and glean insights that will drive future action” (Wald & Castleberry 2000, p.53). Co-creator status also allowed me to report the observations I document in my personal journal and to ask Dr. Buda questions to get her to analyze the causes and effects of her actions. “This analysis will deepen an understanding of the work that is being done and inform discussion for future practice” (Wald & Castleberry, 2000, p. 53).

Journaling.

As an observant participant, I was in the setting to hear, see and experience reality just as the participants, Dr. Buda and students, engaged in the daily activities of teaching and learning in, with, through and about Visual Arts. I got opportunities to learn directly from my experiences and, as a result, it was necessary for me to engage most if not all of

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my five visible senses plus the five invisible senses. What better way to account for my daily experiences than the use of a research journal/diary? I was made aware that “the act of journal writing is a rigorous documentary tool” (Janesick (1998b, 1999), cited in

Denzin & Lincoln 2003, p. 67). As the chief means of documentation, I was able “to record data from participant observation and from conversations with key informants”

(Altrichter & Holly, 2006, p. 24). My observation bore much interpretations, commentaries and reflections that enabled me to “perform ongoing analysis throughout data collection as well as it was used to push the research forward” (Altricher & Holly,

2006, p. 25). Having to perform the act of journaling as one method of recording the data, I came to the realization that it was a blessing not to have been “fully immersed” as a participant because when researchers are fully immersed the “disadvantages include that they may be distracted from their research purpose by tasks given to them by the group and note-taking becomes much more difficult and may have to be done after the event, ideally the same evening” (Jones & Somekh, 2006, p. 140). Having engaged all my senses during my daily experiences, most of what I observed while Dr. Buda engaged in teaching/learning with the students were quickly flowing practical activities, therefore

I was not able to write detailed descriptions of my observation on the spot. I was most times only able to record my observations as brief notes, jottings, or illustrations in the journal/diaries. However, each evening as I journeyed back home via the bus I would contemplate the day’s activities in my mind. At the end of each day before I retired to bed, I revisited my journal/diary entries in order to elaborate on my observations. The brief notations were used as stimuli to create memo writings that recalled my experiences in greater detail and accuracy. On my 11th visit Dr. Buda arranged for me to observe a

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classroom teacher. Because there was nothing integrative happening at that time, I spent only the morning session. After lunch I returned to the artroom where my heart was.

Interviews.

Although I was donning the hat of a novice researcher, I was conscious that the participant(s) should have input in what I wrote about my observation and they should be acknowledged as (co)creators. To that end I also conducted interviews with the Dr. Buda and some participants she recruited for the formal interviews. These additional interviews were done to ascertain the attitudes of other teachers regarding the implementation of an arts integrated curriculum in their school. As Stringer (2007) pointed out,

Interviews provide opportunities for participants to describe the situation in their

own terms. It is a reflective process that enables the interviewee to explore his or

her experience in detail and reveal the many features of that experience that have

an effect on the issue investigated. (Stringer, 2007, p. 69)

Also, I was conscious that,

The participant’s perspective on the phenomenon of interest should unfold as the

participant views it (the emic perspective), not as the researcher views it (the etic

perspective). The most important aspect of the interviewer’s approach is

conveying the attitude that the participant’s views are valuable and useful. An

interview yields data in quantity quickly. Combined with observation, interviews

allow the researcher to understand the meanings that everyday activities hold 109

for people” (Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 101).

I did not have to go through the protocol of seeking permission from gatekeepers

such as the school board, principal and parents/guardians to conduct interviews. The

only permission I needed was consent from the teachers themselves. This I procured by asking the teachers to sign a consent form before the interviews were conducted. (See

Appendix C and D) for copies of the recruitment letter and consent form. The teachers’ level of maturation, adulthood, their subject matter, pedagogical and professional knowledge and expertise allowed me to conduct the basic three categories of interviews: informal conversational interviews, general interviews by scripted questions and open- ended interviews. Dr. Buda was the only person who was subjected to all three categories of interviews. The other teachers whom she recruited were asked to participate in the formal interviews only. During the course of each day and mostly at the end of each day’s observation, I grasped any available opportunity to engage Dr. Buda in conversations about the day’s activities. These conversations were encouraged while I assisted her with preparing for a class or tidying up after a class. Some open-ended informal interviews were a part of the conversations I had with her during the ride each day as she transported me to and from my bus stop. During these conversations I did not engage in the act of writing. I did not want her to view these informal conversations as interviews which, based on her disposition, I do not think she would have minded. As soon as possible after the conversations, I made jottings of the conversations and cross- checked with the observation notes written for that day to build on my daily records. I learned so much from these informal interviews/conversations as each offered “an insight

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into the respondents’ memories and explanations of why things have come to be the way they are” (Stark & Torrance, 2006, p. 35).

It is common knowledge that teachers, especially at the elementary level, have little or no non- contact time throughout the course of the school day. Therefore, I wanted to schedule the formal interviews outside of the school setting at a time most convenient for the teacher(s). However, being aware of the challenges I faced with regards to transportation, I came to the decision this might not be the best idea. In order to make the recruitment less challenging for me, Dr. Buda selected and asked a few of her colleagues who have been collaborating with her on the many and varying integrative

Visual Arts projects, to participate in the formal interview section of the data collection.

The selection included the Music and Physical Education teachers, the Media (IT)

Specialist, a former Librarian at the school and one second and a fourth grade teachers, all of whom were white/Caucasian females. As a matter of fact, there were no black or

African American teachers employed at the school at the time of the data collection.

Prior arrangements were made by Dr. Buda and the first set of four interviews was conducted on Wednesday, March 10, 2010. These were accomplished during the school day because “an interview yields data in quantity quickly” (Janesick, 1998b, 1999 in Denzin & Lincoln 2003, p. 67), so I would not be taking much of the teachers’ non- contact time. This was the fifth month after I started visiting the site. It was also my

17th day/visit to the school, so by now I had become a familiar face and name among some of the teachers. The first two interviews were conducted between 9:00 AM and

10:00 AM, with the Music teacher first and the Physical Education teacher second, both in the Visual Arts room. Although the regular school day commenced at 8:30 AM these

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teachers were not scheduled to start teaching until 10:10 each day. However, once their

daily activities start, they do not have any unscheduled time but only the lunch break,

which from my observation, Dr. Buda seldom took.

The fourth grade teacher’s interview was conducted at about 11:15 in her

classroom while her students were in the Visual Arts room and the second grade teacher’s

interview was conducted at about 2:20 in her classroom, when her students were

scheduled for the Library. I did not view the interview as an examination, testing to

ascertain how much the teachers can recall and/or remember. I envisaged that if they are

familiar with the questions they will be answering, this would reduce the time we would

be taking from their busy schedule and allow for fluency and coherency in the answering

of the questions. However, I managed to give two of the interviewees the consent form

and each a copy of the scripted interview questions before the date/time of the interviews.

I had previously envisaged each interview running one and a half to two hours, that is, if I

were not permitted to use an audio recorder. This meant I would be reading/asking the questions and writing the responses. However, the actual interviews lasted between 10 to

40 minutes. The reduction in time can be attributed to the fact that the teachers were

familiar with the questions and so they were able to think about and prepare the answers

beforehand. I am cognizant that “researchers need to be guided by principles of respect

for persons and obtaining informed consent” (Somekh, Burman, Delmont, Meyer, Payne

& Thorpe, 2006, p. 3).

My proof of access (see Appendix A), the letter from the school signed by Dr.

Buda, indicated that the principal had consented for me to conduct my investigation at the

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school. It also stated that I would like to audio tape the interviews, the teachers were officially asked for permission verbally just before the interviews commenced. No teacher objected and they all consented verbally at the time of the interviews. This could be because “a reasonable degree of rapport has been established before introducing the possibility of using a tape recorder” (Stringer, 2007, p. 74). I allowed the interviewees to read the questions. This enabled them to produce their responses with little or no interruption or disturbance from me. I only intervened when they asked questions and/or when I clarified a question. As a result I assumed the position of a keen listener for the four interviews that were conducted March 10 and the one that was done on May 25,

2010. This is in keeping with Barbour & Schostak’s (2006) advice that, “The interviewer should adopt the pose of the listener in a way that parallels the language and manners of the interviewee and does not impose or objectivize the person who is invited to speak”

(p. 43).

There were two exceptions in the interview process. Dr. Buda, by choice conducted her interview while driving me to my bus-stop one afternoon after school.

Only the first nine questions were answered during the ride. The others were answered in her car in the car park of the mall. This meant I had to read the questions while she drove so my voice was an integral component in this interview session. It was like a conversation between us. Although there were a few variations in the conditions under which the interviews were conducted, all the participants were asked to respond to the same twenty questions which can be found in Appendix E.

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I was allowed to record the interviews using a brand new digital tape recorder

which I purchased for this purpose; therefore, I did not do any note taking. “The use of a

tape recorder has the advantage of allowing the researcher to record accounts that are

both detailed and accurate” (Stringer, 2007). I informed the teachers that I would not

include their real name in the research; therefore, I would give each a chance to choose a

pseudonym. The teachers gave me the privilege to choose each pseudonym. I informed

them that in the “spirit of spring” I would choose the name of a flowering plant. The

Music teacher was Daffodil, the Physical Education teacher was Lilly, the 2nd grade

teacher was Rose, the 4th grade teacher was Tulip, the Media Specialist was Gardenia and

the Librarian was Jasmine. After the interviews were conducted, I bore in mind Jones &

Somekh’s (2006) warning that, “in order to analyse the data, the tape has to be transcribed: either full transcription of every utterance or partial transcription of selected passages” (p. 140). Although it was time consuming and some of the teachers spoke fast, one teacher even apologized, stating that “it is because I am from New York,” I had little or no problem transcribing the tape recordings. Their voices were very clear and audible throughout the interviews. I transcribed each interview word for word because I wanted to “apply the verbatim principle, using terms and concepts drawn from words of the participants themselves” (Stringer, 2007, p. 98). This helped to minimize the possibility of the interpretation been woven solely through my interpretative lenses, and reduce the

chance of me, a ‘Jamaican’, “making cultural misapprehensions in interpreting the

findings” (Goldbart & Hustler, 2006, p. 20).

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Transcribing the interviews.

The transcriptions for the first four interviews were hand written and then I

dictated the rough messy hand written information and my Korean friend typed them up.

Her typing skills were more developed than mine and she had offered to assist with the

typing. I accepted her offer. At one point she even asked, “Verona, how can you read

that writing?” I informed her that it is my hand writing, I am familiar with the content and

so I am able to read it. I was happy when she stated that if I met with her and read the

information, she should be able finish in a shorter time. This saved me the time of

rewriting the rough messy draft in a hand writing that would be most legible for her to

read. For the other taped interviews, we both listened to the recording and she typed

what she heard. I dictated what was actually spoken and she typed, inserting missed

words and made corrections where necessary. My friend typed all the interviews and

saved them as one document, therefore, when she emailed the data to me, I separated

them and labeled each with the pre-assigned pseudonym which they had permitted me to choose. Since, there were six interviews, except that of Dr. Buda the co-creator, so I used the primary and secondary color markers to write the pseudonym on the consent form and on each of the page of the typed interview for each interviewee, for easy identification.

They were then placed in labeled file jackets one for each participant, with her pseudonym written on the corresponding sticker on the cover. For example, the consent form, pages of the interview and jacket for Rose were identifiable by the color red.

Before I analyzed the data generated from these interviews, I wanted each interviewee to exercise her franchise to perform a “member check” so I emailed the typed transcript to

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the respective interviewee for her to review and to ascertain that what had been written is

accurate and what she intended to be recorded. The participants were also informed that

they had the right to request the elimination and /or modification of any information or

statements they wished to be exclude from the research data.

The artifacts/documents.

I was aware that exemplary teachers who participate in state-of-the-art teaching/learning are not magicians who go about spinning a magic wand to make things happen on special occasions. Their abilities to “practice arts integration and instruction that brings the arts (visual arts in particular) into the core of the school day and connects the arts across curriculum” (Rabkin & Redmond, 2006, p. 60) comes with practice and experience. According to Stringer (2007),

[The] researcher can obtain a great deal of significant information by reviewing

documents and records. Documents and records may include memos, minutes,

records, policy statements, procedure statements, and newsletters. Organizational

literature from schools … may include client records, policies, plans, strategies,

evaluations, reports, procedural manuals, curricula, public relations literature,

informational literature, and so on. (p. 77 – 78)

From the first day of my visit, Dr. Buda introduced me to the collection of folders containing some of the documents and artifacts such as her masters thesis and doctoral dissertation which are based on art integrated curriculum, unit/lesson plans, rubric and evaluation instruments, grant applications, class activities, photographs and/or samples of

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students work, photographs and/or diagrams of the classroom settings. According to

Marshall and Rossman (2006), “probably the greatest strength of content analysis is that it is unobstrusive and nonreactive: It can be conducted without disturbing the setting in any way” (p. 108). Although it was my intention to make photocopies of a few of these documents I spent between 7 and 8 hours each visit so I was able to use the documents and artifacts on site during the times when no classes were in the artroom. As I rummaged through the documents and artifacts, I was mindful of Marshall and Rossman

(2006) warning that, “documents must be viewed with skepticism that historians apply as they search for truth in old texts” (p. 108). The information gathered has helped me to gain more in-depth information and I became a more knowledgeable and understanding informant. This has allowed me to more accurately report on what the teacher has been doing, how she has been doing it and the results she had achieved over a period of time.

Also, when and where necessary, I asked Dr. Buda for explanations about some of the documents and artifacts that will be included in the data. This helped to minimize false interpretation of the documents. I was given permission to take photographs of samples of group projects and students’ finished work as well as unfinished works at different stages of the production process and the environments in which they are displayed and how they are displayed. I also took pictures of some of the environments outside of the regular artroom where teaching/learning occurred. For example, the pond where the

P.O.N.D. project was initiated and the tunnel, with the thirty two 4 x 8 foot mural before and after the mosaic work was included and the other artworks displayed all around the school. To maintain the privacy of the school, teachers and students, these pictures have not been included in the finished document. They have been used as sources for

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description and reflection and sources of physical evidence and reference.

Data analysis.

I am conscious that data are of no use unless they are analyzed. “Analysis may be envisaged as a process of reflection and interpretation, providing participants and other stakeholding audiences with new ways of thinking about the issues and events investigated” (Stringer, 2007, p. 95). My task at this stage is to “interpret and render understandable the (un)problematic experiences being considered” (Stringer, 2007, p. 95). In preparation for this activity I “must be knowledgeable and informed about my research area,” (Walker, 2006, p. 2), therefore, for over three years I had been conducting archaeological digs and archival searches in order to be well informed about my topic.

From reading the literature and listening to doctoral candidates who have reached the stage where they are analyzing the data, I realize that “in piecing together patterns, defining categories for data analysis, planning further data collection, and especially writing the final product of the research, color coding is a useful tool” (Marshall, &

Rossman, 2006, p. 152). As a result, I developed a data coding system, using color coding, before and while the data were being collected. There were times when I had to modify the coding system throughout the process of investigation. This helped me to ensure that all the necessary questions were asked and enabled me to categorize the data as soon as possible after they were collected. It might be asked, how could I develop a

data coding system before the data were collected? This was possible because “theory

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and research from related literature can help to develop coding categories outside of the data” (Walker, 2006, p. 2).

Analysis of the observations.

As was mentioned before, I spent six months observing Dr. Buda, the Visual Arts teacher, in the artroom and other environments where she engaged in teaching and learning in, with, through and about Visual Arts. At the end of each day I read over my field notes, created a mental inventory of the day’s experience, elaborated where necessary, and then I transcribed the notes to create a new document that was typed and saved on my computer, on a flash drive and emailed a copy to both of my e-mail addresses. I printed hard copies of each day’s observation, I placed each copy in a file jacket labeled with the day and date of the visit and then I stored each file jacket in different places, one of which was in my filing cabinet. At the end of week one I had made two visits. I did not want to wait until the end of the field experience to start analyzing the data collected from my observations and I proceeded by using “constant comparative method of data analysis” (Patton, 1990 cited in Calabrese, 2006, p. 54).

I reread each day’s transcribed notes and compared and contrasted how the Visual

Art teacher engaged in the teaching and learning in, with, through Visual Arts at the different grade levels. This helped me to identify relationships and patterns which I later put into categories. As I went through the transcribed data, I searched for similarities and differences in the content matter, media, techniques and pedagogical strategies the teacher employed as she engaged in the teaching/learning experience on a daily basis

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among the students in the same grade levels as well as at different grade levels. When it was time for the December holiday break, on December 14, 2009 I had made eight visits, spanning four weeks. With almost 50% of the planned visits covered, I managed to observe each class at all grade levels at least once over the four week period. Exactly one month later, on January 14, 2010, I resumed the visits, and by then there was someone else sharing the space, Dr. Buda had acquired an addition role. She was wearing the hat of a cooperating teacher for a Visual Arts student teacher who from the Ohio State

University. I included in my observation notes how Dr. Buda interacted with the student teacher. For the rest of my visits, I recorded my observations and continued the data analysis procedure on a continuous basis, in anticipation of and in preparation for data interpretation and reporting.

Analysis of the interviews.

As was stated before, I was allowed to use a digital audio tape recorder for five of the interviews so, the analysis started with the verbatim transcriptions. Using the format proposed by Carper (2002) cited in Calabrese (2006), I made analytic memos as the transcription proceeded. After the interviewees had completed the ‘member check’ and had given their approval that the information was accurate I proceeded with the data analysis. I kept original copies of each transcription preserved in a safe place. Then I started reading through and coding the data for all the interviews, looking for relationships and patterns which I tried to fit into categories using color highlighter to

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differentiate each identified category. I reread the transcriptions comparing the responses

to identify similarities and differences in key words and phrases as well as tonal and

guttural sounds. I analyzed concepts to ascertain how the teachers (a) define integrated

curriculum; (b) their views as to whether elementary school curricula should be taught

using integrative pedagogical strategies or disciplined based strategies; (c) the role(s) the

arts should play in the school curricula; (d) the role the Visual Arts teacher plays in an

integrative curriculum at the school; and (e) their roles when participating in an

integrated curriculum that is Visual Arts driven. As soon as new concepts emerged, I had

to recode and re-categorize. It was a very time consuming and laborious activity so to

make the task more manageable, I conducted the coding and recoding by cutting and

pasting responses to each question together according to the identified categories.

Aanalysis of the documents/artifacts.

Along with my observations of the Visual Arts teacher during my visits to the site and my daily experiences in the school, I have included documented information that bears evidence of the 5 “Ws” - why, when, where, who, what – as well as how the Visual

Arts teacher engaged in arts integrated curriculum. This included the examination of past unit/lesson plans, samples of students’ work, national and state curricula and standards, grant applications that link to the implementation of the arts integrated curriculum that was being practiced at the school as well as the scholarly, theoretical and philosophical writings that are presented and represented in Dr. Buda’s masters thesis and doctoral

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dissertation that are based on arts integrated curricula. Being cognizant of Marshall and

Rossman’s (2006) warning that,

A potential weakness, however, is the span of inferential reasoning. That is, the

analysis of the content of written materials or film, for example, entails

interpretation by the researcher … Care should be taken, therefore, in displaying

the logic of interpretation used in inferring meaning from artifacts. (p. 108)

I read through and scrutinized the documents and artifacts to identify patterns and relationships within and across the items reviewed. This activity helped me to obtain details on the chronology of the teaching/learning activities over a period of time before I entered into the lives of the participants. I looked for consistency regarding the stories that I had been hearing over the past three years since I participated in the Art and

Integrated Curriculum: Theory and Practice course in fall quarter 2007. Like the other data collected, I continued to code and categorize in preparation for the interpretation phase. Along with the photographs that I took of the students’ individual and group work that were displayed throughout the school’s indoors and outdoors environments, I stored the data which were transcribed texts and/or descriptions electronically (on my two email addresses) on my computer and on flash drives and I stored hard copies of the transcribed texts and descriptions in labeled file jackets in the same locations I had stored the other data, inside a cabinet. At a later date I analyzed all the data to make sense of the coded items before I proceeded to interpret the results and report the findings.

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Interpreting and Reporting the Data

Having analyzed all the data, I made sense of the coded items before I attempted to record the results. According to Denzin and Lincoln (2003) “All research is interpretative; it is guided by a set of beliefs and feelings about the world and how it should be understood and studied” (p. 33). In interpreting the data I looked for patterns, repetitions, contrasts, hierarchy and conflicts that are related to issues of my research questions. As Marshall & Rossman (2006) claimed, “interpretation brings meaning and coherence to themes, patterns, categories, developing linkage and a story line that makes sense and is engaging to read” (p. 161 – 162). Following this process I moved to the final stage and that is reporting the results. For this stage I elected to use “thick description” which allowed me to use one of my natural abilities, of being a narrator, which in essence is story telling. I am aware that there is a difference between stories and narratives.

Altrichter and Holly (2003) pointed out that,

The distinction between story and narrative as described by Clandnin and

Connelly’s (1998: 155), is useful to consider in relation to research diaries: ‘…

people by nature lead storied lives and tell stories of those lives, whereas narrative

researchers describe such lives, collect and tell stories of them and write

narratives of experience. (p. 29)

Instead of engaging in my customary practice of attracting an audience through verbalization, my narration took a “turn” for the better I hope. My stories are more concretized; they are visibly represented in “black and white.” Instead of using “sounds”

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to communicate, which might be meaningless to my audience, because spoken words

sometimes enter one ear of a listener and exit through the other ear without causing any

meaningful effects, I went through the painstaking process of creating a manuscript of my

observations, journal notes, artifacts and document analysis and interviews. Thus, my

narrative(s) can be classified as “text” which according to Barthes (1977) “is experienced

only in an activity of production” (p. 157). As a text it will be (re)searchable. As

Janesick (2003) pointed out, “Following the fieldwork, the researcher needs to present the data in a narrative form supported by evidence from the statements and behaviors recorded in field notes, critical reflection journals, and interviews” (p. 62). Although I am a novice researcher, I have over half a century of lived and educational experiences and over three decades experience in the teaching profession in my country Jamaica.

Therefore, I had to be conscious and cautious of how I situated myself when I

(re)presented the data during the writing process, because Janesick (2003) warned that,

The researcher must describe and explain his or her social, philosophical, and

physical location in the study. The qualitative researcher must honestly probe his

or her own biases at the onset of the study, during the study, and at the end by

clearly describing and explaining the role of the researcher in the study. (p. 62)

From a physical and social perspective, I position myself in the learning

environment(s) as an educator who is also a learner on a quest for knowledge. Therefore,

my narratives reflect the thought process of an eager learner describing the phenomena, a

series of actions and events, that I had witnessed and have read and/or heard about.

Through the process of metacognition, whereby I critically reflected on my thoughts, I

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explain how the information gathered can be used to bring about positive changes in the

field of education especially with regards to Visual Arts education, elementary education

and teacher education. From a philosophical perspective, I realize that my interpretations

of the phenomena I experienced are not novel and complete ideas, because there are

multiple realities. Therefore, instead of (re)presenting my findings and construct

meanings in isolation, I garnered support by referencing and cross-referencing some of the ontological, epistemological, and methodological paradigms that focus on how knowledge is formed and can be interpreted using literature from the fields of education, arts education and teacher education.

Situational obligations and concerns.

I am cognizant that being a novice researcher with an international student status, entering a school in the United States to investigate the daily lived experience of the members of this learning community and building the finding that will later be used for preparing teachers for the implementation of an integrated curriculum in Jamaica, might be cause for concern. As a result needed to address situational obligations and concerns that are designed and/or positioned to interrogate, probe, investigate and control the researcher as well as data collection methods and the findings and results of qualitative research. “Most often, questions addressed to qualitative researchers are constructed from the psychometric paradigm and revolve around trinity of validity, reliability, and generalizability, as if there were no other linguistic representation for question”

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(Janesick, 2003, pp. 68 - 69). “The researcher should anticipate questions of credibility and trustworthiness of the findings” and “building trusting relations must proceed in conjunction with gathering good data” (Marshall and Rossman, 2006, p. 63 & 73).

Trustworthiness.

Regarding trustworthiness as an outsider in the school, according to Marshall and

Rossman, (2006), “In our view, this is difficult for novice researchers” (p. 73). I had developed a peer relationship with Dr. Buda over a three year period, beginning fall quarter 2007 when we were both enrolled in the Art and Integrated Curriculum: Theory and Practice course, a section of which she facilitated at her school. One may wonder why I registered for an independent study with one of the professors who co-taught the course and participated fully when the course was offered fall quarter the following year.

This provided “the potential to build trusting relationship” (Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 62). During the visits to the school, other members of the school’s faculty participated and collaborated with Dr. Buda as facilitators so, I although I was an outsider, I had become a familiar face and name at the school. The mere fact that data were collected and analyzed using triangulation procedures bears witness to its trustworthiness. I employed several methods of data collection and analysis to bear on the one case. I spent approximately 150 hours at the site observing the participant and the pedagogical strategies she employed as she conducts her daily routines of engaging with students in teaching and learning with, in, through and about Visual Arts within and beyond the

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walls of the artroom. I interviewed colleagues who had worked with her cooperatively and collaboratively on projects that brought Visual Arts to the core of the curriculum and the school. I conducted archival searches and archaeological digs through documents and artifacts such as unit/lesson plans, rubric and evaluation instruments, grant applications, class activities, photographs and/or samples of students work, photographs and/or diagrams of the classroom settings to ascertain and verify how she has been engaged in arts integrated curriculum that goes beyond the walls of the artroom and the perimeter of the school. My work reflects that my aim was to conduct a research that has the “quality of an investigation (and its findings) that made it noteworthy to audiences” (Schwandt,

2007, p. 299).

Credibility.

The credibility and usefulness of a research weighed heavily on the rationale that is presented for the choice of methodology. Unlike some (re)search(ers), this research was not intended to prove a hypothesis and/or search for and discover truth, because, if

“we are to drop the idea of truth as out there waiting to be discovered is not to say that we have discovered that, out there, there is no truth. It is to say that our purpose would be served best by ceasing to see truth as a deep matter” (Rorty, 1989, p. 8). I have an intrinsic interest in the advancement of education, therefore my purpose as a researcher was served best if I devoted the investigation to getting an understanding and perspective of those mainly affected by or having an influence on the issue investigated, the role of

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Visual Arts and the role the Visual Arts teacher plays in the implementation of an

integrated curriculum. The case study methodology provided me an opportunity to enter

the space and spend time in the everyday world of the teacher, where I observed,

documented, described, gave meaning to and reported on my findings of my experience of a “contemporary phenomenon within some real-life context” (Yin, 2003, p. 1) that

reflects “best practices” where Visual Arts plays a pivotal role in the implementation of

an integrated curriculum. Marshall and Rossman’s (2006) position regarding credibility

is that, “The goal is to demonstrate that the inquiry was conducted in such a manner that

the subject was appropriately identified and described” (p. 201). Using Schwandt’s

(2007) definition as a guide, I was able to allow the participant(s) to do “member check”

of the transcription of her interview and reported the observations I documented in my

journal. My actions ensured credibility that “addressed the issue of the inquirer providing

the assurances of the fit between respondents’ views of their life and the inquirer’s

reconstruction and representation of the same” (p. 299). Dr. Buda, the teacher who was

the implementer and facilitator of the curriculum, was the focus of “the gaze” because

she was the (co)creator of the data that I collected. The documents and artifacts that were

available for analysis were evidence that the teacher was not just “putting on a show for

my viewing.” She is equipped with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments

necessary to bring Visual Arts to the core of an integrated curriculum.

Generalizability.

“Generalization is an act of reasoning from the observed to the unobserved”

Schandt (2007, p. 126). There is little doubt that the data generated from the minute

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sampling selected for this case study, one person and one learning environment will not afford the findings of the research to be generalizable universally. However, Schandt

(2007) pointed out that

analytic generalization also called theoretical elaboration is a type of

generalization in which the inquirer attempts to link the findings from a particular

case to a theory … A study of some phenomenon in a particular set of

circumstances (i.e., a case) is used as evidence to support, contest, refine, or

elaborate a theory, model, or concept. (p. 4).

Although my investigation was focused on a single case which provides guidelines for curriculum implementation, I believe the findings can be used to support and elaborate theories relevant to teaching and learning of which integration is a recurring concept.

Transferability.

Jamaica, brace for impact! I am returning with a new attitude and a new pedagogy. As an art teacher/educator, this experience has built my confidence and competence to return to my country Jamaica and prepare early childhood and primary school teachers with the pedagogical strategies that will enable them to use Visual Arts as an anchor for and a powerful engine to drive an integrated curriculum (Daniel 2003;

Freedman and Stuhr (2004). The questions might be asked, and rightfully so, Why conduct a case study in the US education system when my goal is the advancement of the education system in Jamaica? Are the pedagogical strategies employed by Dr. Buda for

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the implementation of an arts integrated curriculum transferable? Can they be exported

from the US and be imported into the education system in Jamaica?

There is evidence that over the past 50 years the world has witnessed a

remarkable increase in the migratory patterns of people from one country to another,

especially from so called “developing countries” to the so-called “developed countries.”

Since one of the chief aims of education is to prepare future generations of adults to be

tolerant, adoptive and productive citizens in a democratic society, it is imperative that the

advancement of education should be a global concern. As a result, the findings of an

education research that focuses on pedagogical strategies should be viewed as

transferable, especially in situations where the countries speak the same language and

there is constant travel to and fro for educational, financial, recreational and/or

government/diplomatic purposes. Since 1999, the common curriculum that is being

implemented in the Jamaican primary school is an integrated curriculum. Visual Arts in

any language is about creating two and three dimensional works that (re)present people,

places, things and experiences, using media and techniques that are applicable,

accessible, appropriate and suitable for participants. It is evident that the pedagogical

strategies employed by Dr. Buda for the implementation of an arts integrated curriculum

can be imported and be tailored to fit in the Jamaican education system. Bearing the

foregone statements in mind, as the researcher it is my responsibility to “argue that this

[the] findings will be useful in other similar situations, with similar research questions or

questions of practice” (Marshall and Rossman, 2006, p. 201) and it should not be too

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burdensome for other researchers to demonstrate that the findings can be applied to another context if s/he would like to make that transfer.

Validity.

I am aware that I should ensure the research “meets the rigorous standards of validity” (Calabrese, 2006), which in essence has to do with accuracy and truthfulness.

Strandt (2007) stated that, “in ordinary usage, validity is a property of a statement, argument, or procedure. To call one of those things valid is to indicate that it is sound, coherent, well grounded, justifiable, or logically correct” (p. 309). I attempted to address the various types of validity which according to Trochin (2001), “there are four types of validity: conclusion validity, internal validity, construct validity, and external validity”

(cited in Calabrese, 2001). In order to guarantee that the procedure I used for this research is sound, well grounded, justifiable, coherent and logically correct, I provided a brief overview of the three methods that were included in the triangulation for the data collection and analysis and a detailed description of how each method was utilized in the data collection and analysis processes. The mere fact that I positioned myself in the learning environment over a six month period, making approximately 20 visits with each exceeding over 7 hours and the act of repeated observation and questioning of Dr. Buda about my observations reflects that I aimed to (re)present the data with accuracy and truthfulness using sound, coherent and logically correct statements. Although I was not fully immersed as a participant engaging with the learners, I attempted to show some degree of collaboration whenever and wherever possible. I offered my assistance by helping Dr. Buda with some tasks that did not involve the students being present. These

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included the hanging and taking down of students’ artworks, transporting resources to teaching/learning environments outside the artroom, and preparing, arranging and storing materials, tools, equipment and students work before and after class. Doing member checking for the transcribed interviews and peer scrutiny of the data show that I wanted to validate accuracy and truthfulness of the information (re)presented as well as use statements that are sound, coherent and logically correct.

In this chapter I provided highlights about the methodology that was chosen for the research and explained in details the methods that were used to generate and analyze the data. In the next chapter I will use the data to create a narrative that is “thick description” of the findings of the investigation.

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Chapter 4: Results, Analysis and Interpretations

Why divorce the arts, Visual Arts in particular from the so called core subjects in the curriculum? It is time we realize and recognize that they “have proved capable of peaceful coexistence” (Rorty, 1989, 12). Don’t we know they make good bedfellows?

In Chapter three, I provided a brief overview of case study, the methodology that

was chosen to conduct this phenomenological investigation, a detailed explanation of the

methods, why they were chosen and how they were employed to generate the data for the

research. I also included brief explanations of the situational obligations and concerns

that are designed and/or positioned to interrogate, probe, investigate and control the

researcher as well as data collection methods, and the findings and results of qualitative

research. In this chapter I will provide the data, which is a detailed report of information resulting from the actual data collection processes and procedures that were guided by the initial research questions.

The first section should be a narrative of the data collected from my observation over the six month period I spent at the school site, however, because I was not able to witness an arts integrated curriculum in action I have provided a detailed explanation of what I expected to research at the site and what happened as the research proceeded. This section is titled – The Anticipated (Art) Integrated Curriculum

The second section titled - Artifacts and Documents Data is the (re)presentation of art integrated curriculum in practice that spanned a five year period prior to my actual visit to the school as a researcher. Although, I did not have the “live and direct” experience of observing this curriculum in action, I use the artifacts, documented information and interviews as authentic and credible testimony. The artifacts include five

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murals on the walls of the ground floor of the building they are discussed under the sub-

title – Mural Site #1 – Indoor Murals. Next I represent a set of murals on the walls of the

gymnasium using the subtitle – Mural Site # 2 – The Gymnasium a Space for Real Art

Work. Next I discussed the thirty two 4’ x 8’ panel murals in the pedestrian tunnel which

are (re)presentations of historical and cultural information about the communities and

state in which the school is located. The next sub-title is the P.O.N.D. Project which is a

natural source and resource in the “backyard” of the school. It had been the spring board

for the implementation of a school wide art integrated curriculum. The artifacts that are

related to the P.O.N.D. project are represented under the subtitles – Stepping Stone Path,

which is a wheelchair access tiled pathway leading to the pond, Stained Glass Window,

they are installed in the library and The Journey, the sixty eight foot mixed media journey cloth that provoked and evoked the wow, when I entered the school building on day one.

Included in this section are two experiences that are not artifacts, they are titled

Professional Development for Teachers and the P.O.N.D. Day. The documented information was gathered from Dr. Buda’s master’s thesis and a doctoral dissertation, as well as photographs of different teaching and learning processes and procedures.

The third section is titled Data from the Interviews, they are (re)presented as essence descriptions of interviews which were conducted among teachers who collaborated and contributed to the successful implementation of the art integrated curriculum. They are contained under the subtitles – Content and Professional

Knowledge, Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Professional Knowledge, Dispositions and Commitments. The information gartered from the interviews are used to support data from the artifacts and written documentations, as well as contributed to the

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recommendations in the next chapter, which is Chapter five. This section also helps to

provide substantial evidence of the multifarious learning community Dr. Buda built, as

she reached out within and beyond the boundaries of the school, in order to afford the

learners opportunities to utilize as many as possible, of their intelligences (or instincts);

thus, maximizing their full potential artistically and holistically.

The final section in this chapter is titled Interpretation of the Data. This section

is divided into two subtitles; The Teaching/Learning Environment and Who is this

Exemplary Teacher. Under these two subtitles I provide detailed explanations of the

meanings I give to different aspects of the data described. I also provide statements from

well known and not so well known theorists, scholars, philosophers and educators within

and beyond the field of art education to support the interpretations I had put forward.

Information from the data report and interpretation is used in chapter five where I put

forward my conclusions/findings and recommendations.

The Anticipated (Art) Integrated Curriculum

As was stated in chapter one, the primary question guiding this study is: How can

the arts integration curriculum used in an exemplary public elementary school in the

state of Ohio, in the United States, be used as a guide for the implementation of the

integrated curriculum in the Jamaican primary education system?

In order to adequately generate the appropriate answers this premise prompts the following sub-questions:

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1. What are the characteristics of an integrated curriculum and how should it be implemented?

2. How relevant is an arts integrated curriculum with regards to the preparation of students to be adaptive and worthwhile citizens in the ever changing complex world?

3. What is the scope of the arts integrated curriculum implemented in a selected elementary school in Ohio?

4. What are the functions of the Visual Arts and the Visual Arts educator in the integrated curriculum in the selected school?

5. How do the classroom teachers at the selected school facilitate the arts integrated curriculum in their classrooms on a daily basis?

6. What should teachers know and be able to do to implement an integrated curriculum that brings the arts to the core of the curriculum?

I indicated in the methodology chapter that I used multiple method of data collection that included observation, journaling, interviews, artifacts and document analysis, the results of which I intended to report as a thick description in a narrative form. As was warranted, I spent six months at the site, making a total of twenty one visits, most times observing Dr. Buda, an exemplary Visual Arts educator/teacher who had engaged in and coordinated a school-wide integrated curriculum that was anchored and driven by Visual Arts. Unfortunately, at the time of my research, I was not afforded an opportunity to witness an integrated curriculum in action. The following is an overview of some of the reasons the site and participant(s) were selected and an explanation by Dr. Buda, providing information regarding some of the reasons I she was not engaged in the implementation of an integrated curriculum during the period I was at the site.

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The journey to the site

My initial formal introduction to the Dr. Buda’s exemplary arts integrated

curriculum practices was made when I took the Art Education 807 – Art and Integrated

Curriculum: Practice and Theory course in the fall quarter 2007. Her engagement in this

course was twofold; she was a student pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Art

Education as well as, she was involved as one of the facilitators for the off campus

section for site visits. From the initial visit to the school, I recognized that it was a Visual

Arts rich school; the walls of the common area had the look and feel of an art gallery.

Students’ finished artworks were professionally mounted and displayed on every possible

available space; it took my breadth away and caused me to wonder and ponder; were at a

middle or high school or were I really viewing works that were created by Grades 1-5 students whose ages ranged from 6-1years? The aesthetic pleasantry of the atmosphere, the camaraderie and dispositions displayed by the faculty who participated in the

(re)presentation of what an arts integrated curriculum at that school looked and felt like, whetted my appetite and left me craving for the “live and direct” experience. I left the school all hyped up, envisaging that, Dr. Buda would be playing a pivotal role in my research. Being non-native and a “woman of color” with little to no prior knowledge and/or experience regarding the US education system; I was some what apprehensive, and wondered if I would be able to gain entry into this school as a novice researcher. Do not get me wrong! Dr. Buda was the least intimidating; her effervescent, radiant smile and humility as she represented the curriculum being implemented at her school, pervaded her actions with the aroma of authenticity and genuine love for what she has

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been and continues to do. My fears and concerns were political and media driven; based

on the representations of the policies, laws and regulations of the US education system.

On realizing that my future as a researcher would rely heavily on Dr. Buda’s input and output as well; I decided to don an invisible mask to conceal the fear and anxiety; over the next two years, I made every effort to establish a collegial relationship with her.

It worked; Dr. Buda consented to facilitate me at the school to conduce the research. I

was very enthused because I envisaged that opportunity would allow me to generate

sufficient data for a thick description of what an exemplary (art) integrated curriculum

looked like. She was the key that unlocked the doors for my entry into the school, the

pathway that enabled me to move around the school without being questioned and the

gatekeeper to a wide variety of resources that were necessary for the triangulation of

methods that were necessary for the data collection process for this case study. As a

matter of fact, her legitimate title is (co) creator; it was her knowledge, skills, dispositions

and commitments to engage in curricular and pedagogical practices that bring Visual Arts

from the peRIMeter of the curriculum to the core of the school that provided the data.

Although this research might not have fulfilled the prescribed dictates of an “action

research,” for me, the experience was not farfetched. Dr. Buda performed the actions

and I engaged in the data recording processes of the research. Without here input and

output, I would not have been able to gather the quality and quantity data I am about to

(re)present in this chapter.

Although, the learner is the most essential factor/component of formal education;

without the learner there is no need for the teacher, the learning task and the learning

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environment; they will be given the backseat in this research. The investigation was

intended to ascertain how an exemplary Visual Arts teacher/educator creates state-of-the-

art learning environments that reflect best practices in implementing an arts integrated

curriculum; how the teacher has been using Visual Arts as an anchor for and an engine to

drive an integrated curriculum.

What did I expect to Research?

Were I afforded an opportunity to observe an (art) integrated curriculum in action, that was anchored by Visual Arts, I expected one or more classroom teacher(s) and the

Visual Arts teacher to be collaborating, planning and implementing lessons that make

corrections based on a “big idea” or a “theme” that is driven by essential questions. I

expected to enter learning environments where the students are engaged in using most if

not all of the multiple intelligences that are stated in Gardner’s (1983) Theory of Multiple

Intelligence. Evidence of students using the spatial, musical and body-kinesthetic

intelligences would not only be witnessed in the “special areas” (arts) learning

environments but in the regular classrooms as well, where it had been customary for

teachers to engage in learning using mostly the linguistic and logical-mathematical

intelligences. The teachers would be engaging the children in learning activities that

reflect combination of subjects that enable the students to make connections and see

relationships among the concept(s) being investigated. (The teachers would realize that

sometimes they will not be able to facilitate students in making connections and/or see

relationships in all the subject areas in the curriculum; therefore, they would not attempt

to force to make the connection because integration should flow naturally.) I expected to

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see the students working on individual and/or group projects in their classroom(s) and in

the artroom that reflected what they have been learning in two or more subject areas. For

example they could be working on three-dimensional model(s) of historic or scientific invention(s) for which they would need to use measurements, research and write up historical and/or biographical information that reflect what they learned and understood while exploring the essential questions the enabled them to investigated deeply the “big idea” or “theme.” In this case, they would be making connections with Visual Arts,

Science, Social Studies, Mathematics and Language Arts. I expected to witness both the classroom teachers and the Visual Arts teachers employing sources and resources that go beyond textbooks, in order to provide the students with state-of-the-art learning experiences. For example, the teachers would invite persons within and outside the school campus, who are not educators, who have the knowledge base, material(s) and technological devices and expertise to facilitate students learning about concepts and facts that the teachers might find themselves to be inadequate. The person could be the custodian, the school nurse, a science teacher from a neighborhood school, a parent, the zookeeper, the sports or weather of sports caster. On these occasions the teachers would make sure the meet with the persons and plan how best to (re)present appropriate and relevant information to the students. In these situations the teachers would be using flexible scheduling and flexible student grouping to facilitate the availability of the resource person(s) and the diversity of the student population.

Also, I expected the teachers to participate in regular scheduled meetings where they would discuss and evaluate previous lessons, theirs and the students’ progress and plan for future lessons. I expected to see evidence of ongoing assessments, where the

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students and teachers would evaluate what is being taught to ascertain how much learning

is occurring, and where and when necessary to re-teach and or allow for students to redo or revise their work.

As stated in the literature, and confirmed by Dr. Buda, integrated curriculum is a cycle. It goes through a series of sequential stages. The teacher(s) get started with an arts integrated curriculum by finding an elegant fit (Burnaford, Aprill and Weiss 2001) whereby they examine their curriculum to identify themes which are also referred to as

“big ideas” or “key concepts” to investigate, things that are of interest or relevance to the learners, and most times can generate teaching and learning opportunities throughout the entire school/building, that span across many of the subjects in the curricula and include all or many grade levels. According to Parsons (2004) these themes, ideas or concepts can be related to the community or an environmental issue. Next the teacher(s) recruit(s) other teachers and to human resources to form a team, and do what Wald and Castleberry

(2000) refer to as build a learning community. This is the stage where the members of the learning community get to know each other, and about their varying disciplines, listen to and hear about the language and importance that each disciple and subject matter plays in the process of educating the learner(s).

Having built a team, which does not have to be the entire school/building, because not all the teachers may show interest in the beginning, the members of the learning community meet on a regular basis to brainstorm and develop their integrated curriculum action plan, which is what Jacobs (1997) refers to as mapping the big picture. At this stage the teachers literally create a map, which is like a web of the why, when, where, who, what and how the integration will work. The teachers work together, like spiders,

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forging links and show connections in multiple ways. Some connections would be vertical, some would be horizontal, some would be diagonal and some would be spiral.

This stage of the process can be long and tedious, it involved a great deal of navigation and negotiation among the members of the learning community and even those persons who initially would not have been involved in the teaching/learning experience as facilitators and/or learners. At this stage they would conduct needs assessments to ascertain the sources and resources that will be necessary for the successful implementation of the (arts) integrated curriculum. They would identify those sources and resources that are available within the school and/or classrooms and those outside the school they would need to be brought into the school or as well as those that will necessitate that learning experience be beyond the walls of the classroom or the boundaries of the school. These sources and resources would be in the form of books, traditional and non traditional educational materials, tools and equipment, technological devices, built and natural environments (the ecosystem) human and financial resources.

With regards to financial resources, this is where, there would be need for writing grants seeking funding in kind or coin (monetary or materials or tools or equipment).

Having established what the (arts) integrated curriculum should look like, the members of the learning community would be ready for the implementation. From the planning stage the members of the learning community would have determined the duration of this implementation of the unit they were planning, they should have also planned, bearing in mind that there might be disruption(s) that might require additional planning and or extension on the time anticipated. As the integrated curriculum is being implemented the teachers and resource persons would be creating learning environments

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and facilitate the learners to make connection with what is being taught in the different subject areas and their out of school lived experiences, so that, they would be able to actively constructing meaning of what they are learning, because it is not the teachers and or facilitators that integrate what is learned, it is the students (Parsons, 2004). During the implementation of this planned (art) integrated curriculum, the teachers and other facilitators would be meeting regularly, both at scheduled and unscheduled time to evaluate the progress of the curriculum, make recommendations and changes when and where necessary.

As the integrated curriculum progressed the teachers and other facilitators would employ different ongoing assessment strategies that would enable the students and other members of the learning community to have an idea of what and how the students were learning. The teachers and other facilitators, along with the students would work together to create rubrics that would guide the learners about what will be assessed and how their work will be assessed. These assessments would not only be paper and pen/pencil related; sometimes they would take the form of self assessments, peer assessments and performance assessments. These ongoing assessments help the students and teachers to realize what the children are learning and how they are learning. This would be an arts integrated curriculum; therefore students will work on individual and collaborative projects that enable them to utilize many of the intelligences in creative, innovative and imaginative ways. Parents would form an active role in the planning and implementation of the arts integrated curriculum, and so they will have background knowledge of what their children are learning and how they are learning.

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Where were they in the integrated curriculum cycle at the school?

After spending six months at the site (school) and a total of twenty one visits, it

was unfortunate that I choose the “wrong time” in the integrated curriculum cycle to conduct the investigation, and so my observations did not generate the data that would adequately provide the answers to some of the initial research questions. The following information, which was a kind of apology from Dr. Buda, provides an overview of some of the reasons I was not able to observe an integrated curriculum in action.

Friday January 15, 2010, my tenth visit to the school was designated teachers’ work day and so no students were in attendance at the school. All the teachers were expected to be present at the school, attending grade level or subject matter based meetings, or working in their classrooms, therefore, I would not be engaged in observing formal teaching/learning in the artroom. This was an early pick up day because Dr. Buda had a meeting scheduled to discuss creating artworks for a tunnel in another community.

After the usual greeting and inquiries about each others progress during the period we have been apart, Dr. Buda segued into a conversation where she apologized that the type of curriculum integration I anticipated was not in action. She explained that several new things were happening at the school as well as the school district. She informed me that a new math program was introduced a year ago, and before the teachers got familiar with it, another change has been instituted. The science curriculum had also been recently changed; however, because it is being used for a while without any further changes, the teachers had gotten more familiar with it. She explained that the changes were overwhelming and the teachers needed to get grounded in what they are expected to do with the changes which are geared towards preparing the students for the standardized

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national tests. She stated that these changes are driven by the statistics of the results of previous standardized tests scores, which are used as the measuring stick to indicate the rating of the school. Like most other education systems, students test score results are assumed to be reflections of the teachers’ capabilities, efficiencies versus inefficiencies.

As a result of these changes the teachers might not want to engage in additional/extra activities. For example, planning sessions for integrated curriculum while they are grappling (grape + apple + ing), can you imagine instead of eating grape + apple the teachers have been (fight)ing with them, to master the new methodology and techniques that they are expected to implement.

At this moment the teachers are not encouraged or supported to participate in

Professional Development (PDs) exercises unless they can show or explain how it

will prepare them to improve some of the deficiencies that are shown in the

statistics of the test scores. Integrated curriculum can be viewed as a cycle – after

teachers and students have exhausted a “big idea” (theme) they need to plan and

prepare for another phase and/or a new topic. On an economic basis, an

integrated curriculum requires funding. The chief and largest grant agency might

not be willing to fund another phase if there is no proof of advancement of new

“ideas.” They would not want to fund the same project for another cycle, plus

teachers believe the students need to experience new concepts. With all the

changes, teachers believe it is worth waiting for the next grant application

deadline which will be in June when schools are out. They believe that the

January deadline would not work. (S. Buda, personal communication, January

15, 2010)

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At the time of my visit, Dr. Buda had just finished writing up her PhD

dissertation, which was a documentation of the processes, procedures and outcomes of

the two and a half years arts integrated curriculum that was inspired by P.O.N.D. project.

This provided evidence that she did not only use the project to provide state-of-the-art teaching and learning for members of the learning community, but as an opportunity to conducting research. The process of gathering, analyzing and presenting data while engaged in teaching and learning should be an integral part of the professional development of educators, which is most times neglected due to time constraint. As

Fraenkel and Wallen (1990) so aptly put it,

We observe, we analyze, we question, we hypothesize, we evaluate. But rarely do

we do these things systematically. Rarely do we observe under controlled

condition. Rarely are our instruments as accurate and reliable as they might be.

(p.7)

The research Dr. Buda conducted, which can be viewed as an integral aspect of the arts integration cycle, has resulted in a body of scholarly knowledge, thus enabling her to make an invaluable contribute to the fields of art education and general education. The next step for Dr. Buda is to start a new cycle, which means she will need to identify an new “big idea” which will be of interest and relevance to the students and for which she will be able to garner the funding and the support of the members of the learning community.

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privileged to peruse - bore concrete proof and textual evidence and testimonies to the magnanimity of the integrated curriculum that was fostered and facilitated by Dr. Buda using Visual Arts as the anchor and/or the driving force. In order for my observation not to seem futile and useless, the narrative, which is a thick description of how Dr. Buda engaged the students in the processes of creating two and three dimensional works of art using many and varying media and techniques has been placed in the Appendices section of the study. The information provided can be beneficial to art teacher and classroom teachers who will be engaging the different levels of elementary school children in artmaking processes whether for purposes of teaching Visual Arts as a single discipline or in preparation for using it as a vehicle to drive an integrated curriculum. I will most certainly use the information as a guide to prepare the early childhood and primary schools teacher candidates how to teach in and about Visual Arts.

At the time of my visit Dr. Buda was not actively engaged in the implementation of an arts integrated curriculum, as a result I had to change the focus of the proposed primary data collection method of the research. Instead, I observed Dr. Buda as she implemented a non-integrated curriculum that focused on Visual Arts as a discrete discipline. As a result, Dr. Buda focused on providing the elementary levels students, grades 1-5, with opportunities to experiment with and explore many and varying traditional and non traditional art media, tools and techniques to create two and three dimensional works of art that reflected imagination and innovation. The description of the data of the observation can be found in Appendix F.

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Reporting the data

After over three years of engagement at the student level, indulging in scholarly

activities conducting archival searches and architectural digs, with the last six months

performing the tasks of a researcher, engaging in field work observing, journaling,

interviewing and digging among Dr. Buda’s archived documents, I am now robustly

pregnant with an overwhelming amount of data. It is delivery time! In this chapter I

“interpret and render understandable the (un)problematic experiences being considered”

(Stringer, 2007, p. 96). As I pondered how best to (re)present the findings of this

research, I have borne in mind Richardson’s (2000a) reminder to “keep in mind Barbara

Tuchman’s warning: The writer’s objective is – should be – to hold the reader’s attention

… you want the reader to turn the page and keep on turning to the end of the end” (from

New York Times, February 2, 1989, cited in Richardson, 2000a). I am conscious that

some of my colleagues in arts education in the Caribbean are professional teachers: either

arts educators or artist teachers, some of whom have not attained the level of academic

orientation that I have reached. If I want fellow educators in the Caribbean to be able to

make sense and use of the findings of this inquiry, I need to contextualize it in a fashion

that will be comprehendible to them. I am cautious not to allow my engagement in the

academic arena, while pursuing doctoral studies to cause me to yield to the temptation to

present the reporting of this inquiry as a “passing theory” in order to participate in the

language game. I have not romanticized the findings and/or written metaphorically.

Neither will I use this space to “attempt to stir up a factitious theoretical quarrel between vocabularies [which to some] have proved capable of peaceful coexistence” (Rorty, 1989,

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p. 12). One characteristic Caribbean people have in common, as descendants of the

Motherland – Africa, is that of being great story tellers and interpreters. Therefore, I am

(re)presenting the data in narrative forms.

Yes, my intent is to introduce my colleagues to new ways of discussing, verbally

and in writing, their experiences in arts education. However I do not want to make it

seem as if I am arguing against the vocabulary I want to replace. All I have done is to use

familiar words in unfamiliar ways, to create a linguistic turn that will look attractive for

my Caribbean colleagues to be encouraged to use it to describe a variety of art education

topics (Rorty, 1989). Hopefully, they will be motivated and develop enough confidence

to start conducting classroom research to document their engagement in education in,

with, through and about the arts. This is one way Caribbean arts educators will show that

they are responding to the recommendations of the UNESCO World conference on Arts

Education: Building Creative Competencies for the 21st Century. They will be stepping

up to the expectations of the Position Paper on the way Forward for Framing Arts

Education in the Caribbean – Beyond Lisbon 2006; thus situating the region’s arts

educators as participants in the discourse of arts education in the global arena. I have adopted the words of H. L. Goodall (2000) as scaffolding, because, I want to improve what I know and how know it, as well as for whom I know it and why I know it. I want to be able to make an intellectual evolution in our field. I do not want to sponsor knowledge for its own sake, but to sponsor knowledge for the sake of mankind. I want to use what I write, and what I write about, to make differences, positive, productive differences in the lives of people.

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As an artist/teacher and an art educator of teachers in my country Jamaica, an

environment where participants engage in teaching and learning is not an unfamiliar site.

What is unfamiliar is, an art education specialist engaging elementary level students in

learning with, in, through and about Visual Arts; an arts integrated curriculum in action at

the elementary level. In an effort to make better sense of my experience, I use

“experience-near concepts – terms people use to describe events in their day-to-day lives

(rather than, e.g., theoretical concepts from the behavioral sciences)–to clarify and untangle meanings and to help the individuals illuminate and organize their experiences”

(Stringer, 2007, p. 96). The terms selected are in accordance teacher education, Visual

Arts education and elementary and early childhood education, which are as much a part of Dr. Buda’s and my orientation. Selected terms that will be used recurrently throughout the analysis are: content or subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge strategies, professional knowledge, teaching and learning environments or artroom, teaching and learning tasks, media, tools, equipment and techniques, two and three dimensional works, learning community and community of learners, portfolio, art studio, professional artist, artifacts and documents. These terms have been defined in the Chapter one. Although these terms might be limited to orientations in education, arts education, Visual Arts and teacher education, the explanations and interpretations produced are framed in terms that participant(s) use in their everyday lives and they are terms from the academic disciplines and professional practices. Also, although this research is not intended to cast judgment or criticism, there is a marginal chance that the research will lead to stereotyping of participants or simplistic interpretations of the situation. (Stringer, 2007)

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Following the data report, I provide an illuminating interpretation of the research.

These interpretations are based on the literature review, professional standards for teacher education and the teaching profession, and wisdom of practice that logically justify that the inquiry was worthy of being conducted. From the list of terms above I have selected the following to use as the headings for the data interpretation: teaching/learning environment, content/subject matter knowledge and skills, pedagogical knowledge and skills, professional knowledge and dispositions, learning community and community of learners. Due to the voluminousness of the data, some of the headings are further divided into subheadings. The list was chosen based on my orientation in courses taken in teacher education and professional standards such as NCATE (National Council for

Accreditation of Teacher Education), TEAC (Teacher education Accreditation Council),

INTASC (Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support consortium) and OSTP (Ohio

Standards for the Teaching Profession). They provide the conceptual frameworks of what teachers should know and be able to do to effectively and efficiently engage in teaching activities that enable diverse populations of learners to maximize their full potential. Following the interpretation, I offer concluding statements and recommendations which are based on the findings. Although aspects of the recommendations are generalizable, most are specifically geared for preparing early childhood and primary school teachers in Jamaica to implement an integrated curriculum that brings Visual Arts to the core curriculum and the improvement of the general education system.

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Data collected from artifacts and documents

As was stated before, exemplary teachers do not spin magic wands in order to implement state-of-the-art curriculum. Therefore, it is imperative that I provide synopsis

of some of the artistic creations and archival information I discovered as I explored the

learning environment(s) and the different resources that were made available for my

interaction and perusal. As was previously noted, as you enter the school you will realize

that this an exemplary school where Visual Arts plays an integral role not only in the

artroom but also at center stage of the school. There are four entrances into the school,

all leading into a large common area that spanned the width of the school. Over the past

three years that I have been visiting the school, each fall quarter there was always at least

one new major art project that is added to the permanent fixture of the school.

Although the artworks were living testimonies and permanent records of what Dr.

Buda had been doing to ensure Visual Arts is an integral component of the education of

the students and the learning community as a whole, I do not deem myself equipped with

the knowledge and expertise to provide an accurate and authentic analysis of these

magnificent artworks. A mere description of the pieces would be a discredit to the artists,

and negligence on my part. I would not have bestowed on the community of learners the

honor and accolade they deserve collectively and individually. I like to tell people, in

artmaking, it is the process that matters; the product is just a record of the artist’s thought

process as s/he engages all five plus senses while interacting with and manipulating the

media, tools and employing the techniques that the creative act necessitates. I would not

take on myself the authority and autonomy to explain these works from merely looking at

them; that is beyond meager minds like mine. As a result, I will be “drawing” authentic

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information related to the what, who, why, when, where, why and how of the works I will

discuss, by referencing cites and insights from documents reviewed, such as unit/lesson

plans, news letters, news paper articles and Dr. Buda’s invaluable and knowledge filled

research documentations in her Master of Arts thesis in 2005 and her Doctor of

Philosophy dissertation in 2009 and verbal communication with Dr. Buda and other

faculty members. These will provide the contextual, historical and pedagogical

information necessary to validate why the artworks are worthy of time and space in my

dissertation.

Murals: site #1 - Grades 1-5 artists.

On my first visit in the fall of 2007, while I was enrolled as a student in the art

and Integrated Curriculum: Theory and Practice class, we were taken on a grand tour of

school, to view the many and varying art products that are permanent or semi-permanent fixtures of the school. Installed on different walls of the first floor, were five Diversity and Character Education Family Murals painted on 6 x 8 feet masonite panels. These murals were done in 2005 when the students worked along with an invited female mural artist. Each mural was a collaborative piece by the students in one of the five grade levels. These murals were inspired by “William Wegram’s (2002) Titled Chair that was

on display at the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA); like Wegman’s work, the murals

were guided by photographs. The photographs were taken by the members of the

families at the school; each family was given a disposable camera, with twenty four

exposures and guidelines of how to use photography to document “good characters” in

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the communities where they lived. The attributes used to identify “good character” were, respect, citizenship, responsibility, perseverance, cooperation (sportsmanship), self- discipline, honesty/trustworthiness, diversity, acceptance, patience, courage, fairness, giving/caring. The photographs could be taken of historic sites, artworks, buildings, parks, farms, gardens, nature preserves, green spaces, a person or a group or an organization doing charitable work and family member(s) or group activities doing deeds that benefit the community. The two murals installed in the common area were bordered by the family tiles that were done by families, who have had children attending the school since May, 2004; the tiles are referred to as Family Diversity Tiles. The initial idea for the family tiles came about when, Dr. Buda was a member of the school’s district multicultural committee; it was her duty to keep the teachers in her building (school) informed about multicultural issues. Since then, on the evenings of the art show, each new family was given an opportunity to create a design and paint a tile, which is fired during the summer break and installed to create a border around an area where murals are permanently displayed. This activity was discussed in the section tilted arts show.

Murals: site #2 - The gymnasium a space for authentic artworks

It is not uncommon to see pictures of games or sporting activities on the walls of gyms, most of which are posters and/or photographs that have been mechanically

(re)produced. However, it is uncommon to find exhibited on the walls of a gym, real paintings done by artists who are/were the sole members of the gym. Displayed on the walls of the gymnasium, is a set of about ten murals depicting games/sports that people

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play in the community; they are painted on 8 x 4 feet on masonite board. Each mural re-

presents the life size pose, in black silhouette, of a child demonstrating an aspect of a

game or sporting activities. Some examples are – a side view of a child as s/he cranked

the pedals of a bicycle; a pose of a child about to hit the ball with a hockey stick; a side

view of a child posed to shoot the ball in a basketball hoop; a child in hand stand position

with legs outspread to form a V. Each silhouette was painted on a background color that

was one of the intermediate colors on the color wheel; which is either yellow orange or

yellow green or red orange or red purple or blue green or blue purple.

On the center of the floor of the gymnasium is painted, in the school’s colors, a

picture of a soaring eagle which is the school’s mascot. Speaking of the school’s mascot,

there is also “soft sculpture” of the soaring eagle suspended from the ceiling on the

northerly side of the common area.

The story behind this eagle on the floor can be likened to a relay race. The

custodian (first leg runner) thought the floor was too bare and made the suggestion that a

picture of the eagle (the baton) would be a welcome sight. The Physical Education

teachers (second leg runner) “passed” the idea on to Dr. Buda (third leg runner). Dr.

Buda ran to the penultimate point (artroom), she passed it on to the students for the fourth

and final leg, they ran to the gymnasium (the finishing line) where the idea (relay) started

and the custodian and all the members of the team received the prize. The idea materialized with a picture of a soaring eagle painted on the floor of the gymnasium.

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Murals: Site #3 – The pedestrian tunnel

The .3 mile journey to the pedestrian tunnel that spans a major street in the community was an awesome sight. The tunnel enables pedestrian and pedal cycle traffic to and from the community and the public park that surrounds the school to view and enjoy artworks that reflected the history and culture of the community and state of Ohio.

Installed along the full length of the sides and roof of the tunnel are a total of thirty two murals painted on 4 x 8 foot masonite board. There are 8 panels on each side of the tunnel totaling 16 panels and the other 16 panels are installed in the roof to give a “half- drop” or brick pattern effect, however, all the spaces in the roof were not covered with a panel. At that time they looked like an incomplete jigsaw puzzle waiting for the missing pieces to be installed. The thirty two murals were created in 2006 by the third, fourth and fifth grade students who worked with the same mural artist who facilitated the creation of the other five murals I spoke about earlier. The idea for these murals was activated when

Dr. Buda learned that the city was constructing the tunnel on a particular street that ran behind the school. She took her idea of having the students paint murals on the facades of the tunnel to city’s engineering department. Her idea was met with an outright no.

The reason was that all the new tunnels in the community would have surfaces covered with limestone, however, she was assured that they could install the murals on the inside walls of this tunnel. This idea excited Dr. Buda, so she decided that instead of placing additional murals on the inside of the school, she would take the idea and create panels to be installed in the interior walls of the tunnel. This would have been a more costly venture so Dr. Buda had to get additional funding. Initially, the funding for the artist-in- residence for the indoor murals would have come from the EPA grant, but with the size

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of the tunnel project, Dr. Buda realized that there would be a need for more financial

funding than she had earmarked for the initial murals for inside the school building.

Before engaging the students in the art making process, Dr. Buda informed them about

the tunnel project. Buda (2009) reported some of their responses,

My students expressed concern about the tunnel and negative feeling and fear as

soon as they learned that it was being installed. “They are scary and you don’t

know what is in there,” said one of the third grade students (in class response

from students). Another added, “They are dark and ugly” (in-class response from

students) and this seemed to be the impression most of the students who had never

been in tunnels expressed about the forthcoming tunnel installation. I wanted to

wait until the tunnel was open before too much planning was done. (p. 155)

This activity titled: Learning Community Focus 4: Intergenerational Bridge to the

Community: 3rd Grade History of Nilbud and 4th Grade History of Ohio Murals

The authentic product/products that provided learning: 4–6 foot mural panels produced by third grade classes (two side by side 4’ x 8’ panels makes each class mural; each class made their own 16 foot mural separate from the next class, all based on the history of Nilbud, each with a different focus. As stated in Buda (2009), “Each class used the democratic process selecting a different focus for their scene of the play, while also providing a different focus to view the history of Nilbud for their class mural”

(p. 161).

- Class 1 Focus on Cooking

- Class 2 Focus on Fuel/heating

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- Class 3 Focus on School

- Class 4 Focus on Games and pastimes

Four 16 foot murals by fourth grade classes (two side by side 4’ x 8’ panels makes each class’s mural); each class made their own 16 foot long mural separate from the next, all based on the history of Ohio.

The collaborators in the learning community/communities were: 196 third and fourth grade students working in eight separate classes, eight classroom teachers, the art teacher, music teacher, Physical Education Teacher, librarian, two special education teachers, a playwright, Phoenix Children’s Theater actors, parents of the third and fourth grade students, parents who volunteered to work on the murals, P.T.O. members, the mural

artist, City Council members, city employees and grounds crew, Representative Nilbud

from the Parks and Recreational Department, a City of Nilbud Engineer, two building

custodians, senior citizens who had lived in Ohio the majority of their lives seniors who

have lived in Nilbud all their lives, clerks of Lowe’s store.

The essential question(s) guiding the learning was:

• How did the development of Ohio/Nilbud and choices made by people in those

communities affect the environment?

On recognizing that this was going to be a more robust project than Dr. Buda had

initially envisaged, she had revised and restructured the plans she had for both the murals

for inside the school building and the artwork for the facades of the tunnel. Since she

was going to use funds from the EPA grant,

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It became necessary to explore innovative approaches to link the POND grant and

goals to the pedestrian tunnel project. … I explained the need for this project to be

student driven and would be unable to confirm specific details until the tunnel

was open and I had a chance to take the kids there. When I first took the students

to the tunnel exploring and brainstorming ideas, most were amazed at just how

large it was. Students from each class volunteered to take charge of taking

measurements of the tunnel, while others started drawing and listing ideas they

envisioned for the space. They were to keep in mind that we need to use

P.O.N.D. grant funds for the project, the project must relate to the grant goals.

The project should combine knowledge they had already acquired with

knowledge readily available throughout the school year, thus avoiding the need to

classmates after the initial tunnel visit. Students were eager to connect their social

studies unit, as the third grades were focusing on the history of Nibud and fourth

grade on the history of Ohio. (Buda, 2009, pp. 155 – 156)

Having decided that the mural projects would connect with the social studies for both grades, Dr. Buda was now better able to plan any preliminary work this robust project would require. The essential question(s) that guided this project for the grades 3 and 4 was “How did the development of Ohio/Nilbud and the choices made by the people in the community affect the environment?” (Buda, 2009, p. 152). Her engagement with the Lifelong Learning Caucus, while attending a National Arts Education Association

Convention, prompted her to research the idea of service-learning projects that involved intergenerational learning. This led to the thought of incorporating older adults in the

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community to contribute to the students’ learning. Based on the fascinating stories she had heard from some of the senior citizens about the history of the community, she recruited, planned and organized a day for some senior citizens to meet with the students at the school and share their stories about the community with them on January 31, 2006.

A total of twenty-nine senior citizens who have lived throughout Ohio the majority of their life visited the to the school specifically to share their stories of in Ohio with the fourth grade students. Another twenty two senior citizens who lived in Dublin the majority of their lives shared their stories of living in Dublin with the third grade students.

In preparation for this activity, the class teachers provide guidance in the writing of interview questions and discussed manners and etiquette. On this day the students were divided into small groups and the “special areas” teachers supervised the students and assisted the guests during the interviewing session. The seniors who were using canes, walkers or wheelchairs were placed in areas close to the main lobby area. The students created brown paper bag journals to record the stories of the seniors. Two students asked and were allowed to interview their own grandmothers who attended the session that day. After the interviews the students and their partners had refreshments.

The parents participated by providing baked goodies and the principal provided punch, coffee and paper products. Next the senior citizens were provided with art supplies to paint, draw or write something in the students’ journals.

The artist-in-residence was also present on that day the senior citizens engaged with the students and she got a chance to communicate with some of them. Using the information the students recorded in their journals, the artist extended the students

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thinking and prompted them to pull from their experience ideas that they wish to put in the murals. The class teacher used the opportunity to engage the students in writing thank you letters. These letters were sent to the senior citizens a week after the event.

After the murals were completed, the seniors where invited back to the school to see how the students used their great stories as inspiration to create fascinating visual forms that reflect the history of their community. It should be noted that the students also incorporated other experiences in these mural pieces. Earlier in the academic year the fourth graders toured historic sites in the community as part of the social studies curriculum, hence representations of these sites were included in the murals. At the time the third graders were working on the mural project, they were also working with a playwright to create scenes for a play that demonstrated concepts of past and present history in the community. Dr. Buda met with the playwright, the classroom teachers and the music teacher to get a deeper understanding of what the students were learning so she could help to build the skills the students needed to translate their learning into images for the murals. The music teacher taught the third grade students different songs throughout the history while referencing the political, social and cultural changes that took place in that community over the years. Each third grade class used their mural as a backdrop for the performance of a play and choir presentation for the parents.

This was a large scale project that required a large sum of financial and community support. Dr. Buda was able to amass the financial support through the donations of $1,000.00 from the P.T.O. artist in school committee, the principal covered the cost of the masonite panels, and $4,000.00 came from the EPA grant that was approved in November, 2005. The custodian donated leftover paints from the last time

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school was painted. These paints were enough to cover the masonite panels with the base coat to get the project started. Dr. Buda also sent out letters requesting donations of leftover paints from home remodeling projects.

Before the students engaged in the actual painting, they were placed in groups to design their idea of what should be represented on the mural. Some of the themes reflected were transportation, clothing style, architecture, housing, farming, sports cooking, hunting, bridges, open spaces and pastimes. The students conducted research to get additional information and pictures from the internet and books. One student insisted that a picture of the original water pump at the town square should be included in the mural. Fortunately, one of the senior citizens who participated in the interviews was a member of the city’s historical society and had a picture of the pump on a disc. During the preliminary planning stage, Dr. Buda brought the mobile computer lab to the artroom so the students could have internet access to ascertain information and ideas they needed for research. They combined their ideas with the stories of the citizens and, after many decisions, collaborations and negotiations about what to or not to include, the artist created a large partial sketch to represent how she envisaged their ideas were coming together to create a continuous whole. After all were satisfied with the draft, the outlines were transferred to the masonites that were already painted with a base coat. Each class mural comprised two panels, hence a total of 8 panels were produced by the four third grade classes and 8 panels by the four fourth grade classes.

In the third grade, Class 1 focused on “Cooking,” Class 2 focused on

“Fuel/Heating,” Class 3 focused on “School” and Class 4 focused on “Games and

Pastimes.” Although not all the members of the class painted at the same time, each

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student got an opportunity to actively engage in the painting after every two or three lessons. The students who were not engaged in the painting process worked on their journals using ideas that reflected the history of the community. At the end of each lesson the students engaged in discussion, reflecting on what was most successful that day, the progress of both the murals and their individual journals. A review of some of the photographs of the daily progress of the mural painting activities showed that the artroom took on the face of an artist’s studio, with the young artists working together cooperatively and collaboratively among themselves and also with the adults with whom they had to interact each time they were in the artroom. There were also pictorial documentations that showed evidence of the classroom teachers visiting the artroom and taking seats to observe as the students worked on these robust projects that were making connections with and incorporated aspects of the social studies units as well as other subject disciplines.

5th Grade project

The fifth grade students were not left out of the happenings. They were not to have been outdone by their juniors, so Dr. Buda negotiated additional funding for the senior students of the school to paint sixteen 4 x 8 foot panels reflecting the

Representation of the Scioto River from the Native American perspective.

This activity titled: Learning Community Focus 5: Intergenerational Bridge to the

Community: Fifth Grade Interpreted the Scioto River from Native American Perspective

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The authentic product/products that provided learning: 16–8 foot mural panels produced by four fifth grade classes that represented what they viewed as Native

American perspective of the Scioto River

The collaborators in the learning community/communities were: 97 fifth grade students, 4 classroom teachers, the art teacher, the librarian, two special education teachers, a representative from the Native American Center of Central Ohio (NACC), parent volunteers, P.T.O., the mural artist, city council members, city employees and ground crews, a representative from City of Nilbud Parks and Recreation Department, a

City of Nilbud Engineer, the principal, custodians and the latchkey students, parents and employees.

The essential questions guiding the grade 5 project were:

• Why do you think the Native Americans settled along the Scioto River?

• How do you think the Native Americans who lived in this area valued the Scioto

River?

• What could we show about everyday life of Native American Community?

• What can be shown about their culture, tradition, legends, and beliefs based on

what we learn from the presenter and the reading we have done?

• What legends were important to Native American community and demonstrate

their beliefs and ways of thinking?

Dr. Buda asked the principal to show his support for the project by attending her presentation of the project to the community funding agency that disburses funds for city groups and organizations. Dr. Buda managed to access a $4,000.00 grant from

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the agency. In order to minimize misconceptions and misrepresentations of the first nations of the US, Dr. Buda got a presenter from the Native American Center of Central

Ohio (NACC) to provide the students with authentic information on their history and culture. The principal paid the fee for the NACC presenters and Dr. Buda garnered the support and assistance of some of her colleagues to make this project happen. The librarian changed her curriculum in order to support the students’ learning about the legends of the tribes of the area in which the school is located. The special area teachers agreed to take their students to hear the presentation by the member of NACC, and the fifth grade teachers volunteered and gave up a portion of their planning session to hear the presenters.

After the presentation the students were better able to design and paint authentic representations of the Native American perspective of the Scioto River. During the planning and negotiation process one student wanted to represent nighttime skies and others wanted daytime skies. They agreed on representing the river to reflect both aspects. They also painted the four seasons, beginning with spring and progressed to winter as you viewed the mural from the entrance closer to the school. According to Buda

(2009),

To the students this order was the best choice, because spring represented new

growth and as they came to our school in kindergarten ready to learn and be

shaped as fifth grade students they are leaving with great experiences to prepare

them to be active in their community just as would be needed to survive old man

winter in the natural environment one must also be prepared. (p. 181)

What this meant is that the artist’s residency was extended, weather had warmed

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up and so sometimes the painting of these pieces was done outdoors. Dr. Buda got the assistance of the parents, employees and students of the latchkey program to transport the panels to and from outside during the periods before and after the regular school hours.

Parents not only helped with the removal of the panels, they also assisted with getting supplies such as paints, brushes and paper towels. Dr. Buda stated that the students developed the ideas beyond her imagination. (Buda, 2009) When all the murals were completed, Dr. Buda took photographs of them and sent copies to the city so they could see what the finished products looked like before they were installed.

The city representatives I was working with were so impressed with the finished

murals the asked me to come to a city meeting and do a short presentation on the

murals. City council voted to approve $7,000.00 in materials plus labor at the

city’s expense to hang all thirty-two with stainless steel brackets and cover them

with Plexi-glass. (Buda, 2009, p, 182)

Just as Dr. Buda was planning to use funds from the grant to pay the school’s custodian to install the mural panels, by offering to pay, their support demonstrated to the school community that the city council valued the murals and the work that the students were doing. Dr. Buda indicated that she, “always discussed meetings with the students because as collaborators in this curriculum it was important for them to understand the broad base of details involved in this type of project” (p. 182). Each panel is covered with a piece of plexiglass the same dimension as the panel with a metal strip encasing it to reduce the chance of water damage to the artwork. These protective devices were done complements of the Nilbud city’s personnel that built the tunnel. The tunnel mural project

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had been a work in progress and with the recent mosaic mural work started in May, 2010,

in the future the empty spaces will be tessellated with mosaic tiles creating the effect of

the Sistine Chapel using multiple media and techniques. I believe the young artists might

have had similar experiences as Michelangelo did when he painted the Sistine Chapel in

Rome.

The P.O.N.D. project

On the way to and from the tunnel, you encounter the pond which is an integral component of the ecosystem. Initially, I was not sure if it was a part of the build or a natural environment; however, with the aid of professional sources and resources beyond the boundaries of the school and through the instrumentality of Dr. Buda, they were able to trace the pond’s journey and discovered that it travels to the Gulf of Mexico. This pond has been the chief source of inspiration for several other individual and collaborative art projects that have been created by the “learning community” at this school, including the stained glass window artwork. On my first visit to the school in fall

2007, to get close to the pond, we had to veer from the paved pedestrian/cycle path onto a grass area. On my visit in fall 2008, there was a tiled path from the paved pathway to the pond that made it wheelchair accessible. This was made possible by the suggestion of a student who voiced his/her observation that a child in a wheelchair would not be able to get a close-up view and be able to participate in the teaching/learning activities that were happening in and around the pond. They needed a paved path leading to the central pond area, where they congregated.

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The stepping stone path.

The stepping stone path was actually an idea conceived one year prior to its installation during a group cluster. The students made cement tiles that incorporated the leftover pieces of glass from the stained glass windows project to create designs that depict images of the ecosystem around the school. These included the built environment as well as plants and animals that live in and around the pond. In a presentation to group of participants in the fall 2008 Art in Curriculum Integration: Theory and Practice course,

Dr. Buda explained that she had to experiment with different brands and grades of cement before she finally found the one she thought was most applicable and practical to the project that was the brainchild of the students. They needed a cement that was quick drying and durable for outdoor use. Having identified the cement for the project, Dr.

Buda, being aware of the precautionary measures needed for the mixing of the powdered cement, did not engage the students in this aspect of the process. To ensure all the tiles were uniform, she purchased commercial trays to use as molds for the tiles. The students first drew their designs and then arranged the designs on cellophane plastic. They laid the plastic with the design in the bottom of the trays and then poured the liquid cement in the tray, covering the design. These trays were first greased with petroleum jelly thus allowing for the tiles to fall out with ease after they were dry. These tiles were intermixed with commercially made tiles of the same size, however their tiles stand out.

Each of their off white tiles with its unique design that cannot be found anywhere else, interspersed among the grey commercial tiles, created a one of a kind wheelchair access path to the natural learning environment that ha been the focus of the integrated

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curriculum implemented in phases at the school. I recall Dr. Buda informing us that the

Monday after the path was finished; a child came to school with a broken leg, so the wheelchair access path proved its necessity immediately after its construction. I would say an idea thought of by the students and brought to reality through the creative processes by the students “must be good.”

In 2006 Dr. Buda was instrumental in getting a marine biologist to work with the community of learners, of which the students were the chief participants, to explore and discover the inhabitants (biodiversity) of the pond, thus enabling the big P.O.N.D. idea to grow to great width, length and depth. In May 2006, immediately after the Pedestrian

Tunnel Mural project was completed, Dr. Buda launched the building (school) wide

People H²O Nature Diversity (P.O.N.D.) project. This big idea had enabled her to be successful in receiving a large EPA grant. It is worth noting that she had applied twice before for an EPA grant, but was unsuccessful, however she did not allow this to cast a

“damper” on the idea for the school wide P.O.N.D. art integration project. She explained that the only difference with the third application was that she took the science teacher to the interview/project presentation, so she could attest to the fact that the P.O.N.D. project would enhance the teaching/learning of science in the school. With the funds available

Dr. Buda was ready to explore the aquatic ecosystem of a natural (re)source, the pond, in the “backyard” of the school.

Based on the information provided by Dr. Buda and the team of teachers who collaborated with her to facilitate the Art Education 807 – Art and Integrated Curriculum:

Practice and Theory course in the fall quarter 2007, there is evidence that, in order for the

People H²O (Water) Nature Diversity (P.O.N.D.) project “big idea” materialize and

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realize its potential, that is to provide state-of-the-art teaching and learning experiences at the school, that had to engage in a great deal of planning. The planning stage of the integrated curriculum can be most intense and tedious. It involved a great deal of teamwork, collaboration, negotiation, navigation, and decision making among the members of the learning community.

Dr. Buda had to build a learning community that involved teachers at all the grade levels (academic staff), the administrative staff, the custodian(s) (ancillary staff), parents and family members of children at the school, and was a “big idea” that enabled Dr. Buda to facilitate a building/school wide integrated curriculum that incorporated all grades level from Pre-K-5 over a thirty month period (December 2005- June 2008).

This activity titled - Learning Community Focus 6: Ron Hirschi Residency and Pond

Exploration

The authentic product/products were: Scientific Study and Photographs and

Videotaped documentation

The collaborators in the learning community/communities were:

All 585 students, Pre-K–Grade 5, 47 teachers and support staff, the principal, the

biologist Ron X, a mural artist, 62 family members, and representatives from the Ohio

Department of Natural Resources and Soil Conservancy.

The essential questions guiding learning were:

• How do we conduct scientific study of the pond and document what we found?

• What species of animal lives in the pond?

• Why do these species live in the pond?

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• What is specific about this habitat that creates a biome conducive for this species?

This project was very huge. It extended beyond the boundaries of the arts and the

walls of the school. In order to explore the biodiversity and educational possibilities of

the ecosystem of the miniscule pond in a major P.O.N.D. fashion, Dr. Buda employed the

expertise of a marine biologist who was equipped with the knowledge, skills, dispositions

and commitments necessary to work cooperatively and collaboratively with the

community of learners to launch a state-of-the art teaching and learning episode in the school. His first week long visit was May 15 – 19, 2006.

In May, Ron lead [led] our students, teachers and accompanying parents and

siblings to the first documented study of the pond behind our school. Each class

completed with the classroom teacher, special education teachers,

paraprofessionals, several parent volunteers and one or two younger siblings met

Ron and me at the pond during class-specific time. In order to document the

study, students in the class were given instructions on how to document scientific

research. This community of learners was eager and armed with equipment to

take action to document our findings. Ron provided us a “Write in the Rain”

book that we were able to pass from class to class while documenting all of the

studies. We recorded water temperature, air temperature, and wrote about the

general weather condition. …The students recorded all living things they

encountered during the study. They named the species they knew and measured

their lengths in centimeters. We had rulers, pencils, digital cameras and video

cameras. We took containers in which to observe captured specimens. Students

took turns sharing the different jobs necessary. Each group began by checking or

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baiting traps. Each of the traps used a different color of fish egg bait. This

enabled the classes to track which color bait attracted the most fish. At first, the

students worried about the use of the traps. They relaxed once we explained that

the traps don’t hurt the fish. We identified the desired objectives, which were to

learn from the experience through documentation in photo, drawing and write

descriptions about sizes, color and markings. Then we released them. (Buda,

2009, p. 190)

Unlike the regular Visual Arts class and/or projects, where the Pre-K and K students were not involved, this project was building (school) wide and included all grade levels so no child was left behind. A review of photographs show the students pulling up fish traps, holding and or touching crayfish, frogs, snails, tadpoles, dragonfly nymph, and fish eggs bait with Dr. Buda and Ron seining the pond and children looking through seining to collect specimens for documentation.

Professional development for the teachers.

This activity titled: Learning Community Focus 7: Teacher Professional Development

The authentic product/products were: Scientific study for the purpose of developing curriculum with students; Photographs and Video documentation; Curriculum related to the P.O.N.D. project

The collaborators in the learning community/communities were: 47 teachers, principal, biologist Ron, representatives from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources

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and Soil Conservancy, 19 substitute teachers, parents who provided the lunch for the teachers.

The essential questions guiding learning were:

• How can teachers continue to build on the students inquiries about the pond?

• What species of animals live in the pond?

• Why do these species live in the pond?

• What is specific about this habitat that creates a biome conducive to these

species?

• What adaptations do these species have that make this biome healthy for the

species?

• How can learning about lifecycles, food chain, and water cycle be taught hands-

on utilizing the pond?

• What additional equipment and resources are available to facilitate students

learning?

The last two days of Ron’s first residency were designated as Professional

Development (PD) for the teachers. Since the two days for the PD were during regular school hours and the students were still in school, it meant the school would need the assistance of twenty nine substitute teachers. Being aware of this activity and what it necessitated, the principal contacted the central office in January, informing them that the school would be in need the number of substitutes during those two days and asked not to hold training or meetings that would need the substitute teachers. During the two days, the teachers were divided into two groups. On the first day the first and second grade

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teachers were engaged in training sessions indoors with the Ohio Department of Natural

Resources and Soil Conservancy while the third, fourth and fifth grade teachers spent the day with Ron seining and netting the Indian Run Stream, a similar activity like the students had done in the pond the previous three days. On the second day the teachers changed spaces so the grades one and two teachers went outdoors and the grades three, four and five teachers had the indoor training with the Ohio Department of Natural

Resources and Soil Conservancy.

The P.O.N.D. day.

The following week the teachers were asked to sign up for “POND Day” which was a week long activity where “several naturalists participated in hands-on grade specific activities with the students”. The activities included:

• Representatives from the City of Nildub who brought animal pelts and introduced the students to a variety of indigenous mammals to the area including beavers, skunks, raccoons and coyotes

• One representative from the Ohio Department of Wildlife who took the students to the stream

• Two from the Columbus Zoo who brought snakes, salamanders, and other reptiles found in the Ohio area

• One from Birds Unlimited who brought an owl and discussed animal adaptation

• One from the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department who worked hands-on at the pond with the students

• The Turtle Lady who brought a variety of turtles and allowed the students to touch them and ask questions about them

• One parent who is an entomology professor at The Ohio State University who

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brought two graduate students who had specific interest in pond habitats within Ohio

From the pond and POND Day experiences, Pre-K and K investigated living and non-living things, although it was not customary for them. They went to the artroom and made clay plants and animals that were found in and around the pond. Some sculpted animals while working from drawings, others drew their chosen plants and animals on flat pieces of clay, while others worked with those whose motor skills did not allow for the above activities using cookie cutters and large templates to cut around flat rolled out slabs of clay. Every student made a representation. They returned to the artroom again about a week later after their clay was fired to paint their plants and animals with under- glazes. Some of the older students in grades three and four volunteered to assist during lunch in applying the clear glaze that was needed so the clay pieces could be fired a second time.

The first and second graders constructed books in the classroom based on seasonal pond visits which included photographs, drawings and observational writings.

The photographs were taken by the students when they visited the pond. Dr. Buda taught the students how to download and print their individual photographs. They later held group activities where they explored the life cycle of the plants and animals they selected from the pond. They then constructed life cycle tiles. These were installed in the tunnel and served as borders at the top of the already installed murals.

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The stained glass windows.

The authentic product/products providing focus learning: Stained glass windows for the school library.

The collaborators in the learning community/communities were: 488 students, grades three through five, the librarian and library aides, three special education teachers, the stained glass artist, an artist from the local community, parents, grandparent(s), custodians, the principal, P.T.O., Nilbud Arts Council, and Columbus Museum of Art.

The essential questions that guided the learning were:

• How can we document the biodiversity of plants and animals discovered in our

study through an artistic means?

• How can we share this knowledge with the school community and others coming

into the school community in the future?

• Can we demonstrate the interdependence between species in this artwork?

To continue my experience in fall 2007, I will draw your attention to the library.

Its walls extend from the height of the first and second floor. As we ascended the stairs on the southerly side of the building, we came face to face with set of stained glass windows. This work reflected the collaborative effort, artistic genius, creativity, talents, organizational skills and financial contributions of the entire learning community that extended beyond the peRIMeter of the school.

In reviewing Dr. Buda’s dissertation I discovered that, at the beginning of the calendar year the students were preparing for another large artwork related to our

P.O.N.D. study. The ideas were for a mural and a final sculpture that would represent

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what they were learning about the pond. Instead, they ended up making eighteen large

stained glass windows that reflect the P.O.N.D. study experience. These windows have

been installed in our school library. The subject matter the students selected

representative of the biodiversity of the species they observed in and around the pond

area. This project was done by the students in grades three through five who used their

field notes, photographs, research, video and their original sketches to provide accuracy

and authenticity to their representations. After much search and research, Dr. Buda was

able to employ stained glass artist Jane Albrecht to work with the students and teach them

the process of working with stained glass. Several parents and community volunteers,

teachers and the school’s custodians were involved in supporting the process, safety and

students learning. The custodial staff constructed two sets of wooden frames; one set was

used for working trays and the other was for the installation of the final work. The

classroom teachers supported our biodiversity theme and focused on the interdependence

between species with many integrated investigation through science and language arts

during and after the planning stages of the windows. Math curriculum was integrated to

determine the number of windows that would be required to fill the desired space and the

dimensions of the windows. Some of the funding was provided by the PTO and the

Principal. Students had to learn how to enlarge their drawings and how to make pattern pieces. The learning process also included cutting glass with partners, foiling pieces and soldering them together using leadless solder. While working in small groups the students learned to master specific skills as the windows progress. The first two windows completed by the students were displayed in an exhibition at the Columbus Museum of

Art and then later at the Nilbud Arts Council. (Buda, 2009)

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The fourth and fifth grade students wrote a twenty three line artists’ statement to accompany the work. Seven more windows were finished for the annual art show in

May, thus making a total of nine, half the numbers of windows finished during the academic year 2006 – 2007. The real truth is, if my calculations serve me right, the actual designing for and creation of the nine windows took just about three months. Like most of the other large scale art projects they had undertaken at the school, the windows were done on an incremental basis so at the end of the quarter the project could be classified as a work in progress. The students completed the other nine windows during a second residency by the artist in February of the following school year and these were installed during the spring vacation. They were available for the art show in May.

Besides the two sets of rectangular shaped nine panel stained glass windows, there is a square diamond shaped stained glass window, in the center of the southerly wall of library. This window is divided into four sections by two intersecting lines, depicting the image of a beautiful peacock. Verbal and written information provided by Dr. Buda revealed that this window was donated by four Indian mothers, who after learning the skills while volunteering, created this piece and gave it as a gift to the school.

In the narrative Dr. Buda revealed that the stained glass window project emerged as a result of concerns about the possible materials for the sculpture that was to be constructed in the second year as a part of the P.O.N.D grant. The sculpture should represent the students learning from the project, however, the switch was made after the librarian reminded her that she would like to see stained glass windows in the library before she retired. Dr. Buda stated that she was hesitant to take this new idea to the students since they were anticipating a three dimensional project. Dr. Buda discussed the

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idea with the fourth and fifth graders and they thought it was an outstanding idea and so

the librarian saw her wish materialize before she retired two years later. Dr. Buda had no

previous knowledge about the process of stained glass so she researched about stained

glass as well as searched for an artist for residency to facilitate the students through this

artmaking process. As Dr. Buda explained that after she identified the artist,

It took four meetings before Albrecht and I were finally on the same page with a

plan for the process and goals of such project. … She had never before, personally

or professionally, constructed such large windows. She admitted to being a bit

nervous that I had not previously worked with stained glass; so, I agreed to come

into the artroom over the winter break and have her teach me the basic process.

(Buda, 2009, p. 256)

The narrative in her dissertation and a review of some of the photographs revealed

that this might be the most risky, hazardous and challenging project that Dr. Buda had

successfully engaged the students in. It included cutting and grinding of glass, soldering

metal with a soldering iron or gun that produces heat for melting the metal, wearing goggles while in the artroom, close monitoring of students, and washing of hands each time they handled and cut the glass. The project required more than the regular parent volunteers. For this project the volunteers were needed from 9:15 AM to 12:15 PM for the three month duration of the project. The students always wore art shirts and eye protection (safety goggles) during the entire time they were in the art room. They were instructed not to touch their faces during class because they could be injured by glass chips and small pieces they were unaware of on their hands. They were required to wash

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their hands before removing the safety goggles. Most of the frequent volunteers were fourteen Indian women, comprised of parents, grandparents, a professional artist and friends of the Indian parents. Dr. Buda even stated that she had to provide counseling for an autistic student who was extremely fearful and a one student who fainted on seeing the artist cut her hand during a demonstration. To use Dr. Buda’s exact words,

One third-grade girl began to faint just by watching the guest artist accidentally

cut her finger while in the midst of the first cutting demonstration. I happened to

see the girl’s face go white and caught her just before she fell. She began to

hyperventilate and I took her to the nurse. In a phone call the next morning, her

mother explained the girl once had a bad experience being cut with glass when

she was younger, and it brought back memories of that experience. (Buda, 2009,

p. 260)

As was expected,

A few parents showed concerns during the process, while students did experience

minor cuts and none were deep. The school nurse had become concerned after

going through several zip lock bags of Band-Aids during the first few weeks…

The nurse and I had discussed the situation; and, I agreed to always send a student

to the office for any cut requiring a Band-Aid. I made it a contest for students,

challenging them to see if their class as a whole could make it through the entire

class with no Band-Aids. This helped significantly. (Buda, 2009, p. 260)

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This activity titled – Learning Community Focus 17: The Journey

The authentic product/products were: 68 foot long mixed media fabric book of the

journey showing the water flow from the school pond to the Indian Run Stream, the

Scioto River, clay animals, clay buttons, cooper fish, frogs and tadpoles, doll-like representations of the students, abstract water color paintings made with Sharpie pens, native seed sculptures.

The collaborators in the learning communities were: 585 students, 52 teachers including the special education teachers, Ron Hirschi, the mural painter, Nilbud Historic

Society, and Environmental Education specialist

The essential questions guiding the learning were:

• What is the path of the water when it leaves the Darter pond?

• What is different about the biomes of the pond, stream and river?

• Do the pond, stream and river have a different measuring ph, alkalinity, oxygen

and phosphorous?

• When viewed under a microscope what is the difference between the water and

organisms found in the pond, stream and river?

The other major project that is visibly evident is the 68 foot mixed media fabric book that made me say “Wow” when I entered the school building on Tuesday November 17,

2009. As a textile artist, I refer to this piece as layered textiles because most of the media and techniques are textile related. With the exception of a few clay and cooper objects, all the other objects are made from layering, joining, sewing and pasting together fabrics, yarns and/or fibers. Although Chapman (1978) warned against the use of mixed media as

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substitute, I am sure she would approve of this piece because it is evident how this piece

speaks volumes. It could not have been achieved using any other artistic media, tools and

techniques. Chapman has gone as far as to say that, “mixed media should be used when

they are appropriate to an expressive purpose, but they should not become a substitute for

developing students’ skills” (p. 230).

Oh, I wish I were there to experience firsthand the first and second graders creating this magnificent and dexterous piece which is time consuming, labor intensive and demanded the employment of great deal of manipulative skills. Very seldom do we find young artists being facilitated and guided to use fiber related media, tools and techniques in artistic creations, especially for works that are representational. This piece

provoked me to make the “Wow!” sound because the students’ creative act exemplified

that,

Together, form and material are transformed into a language that carries its own

meaning. What makes visual form significant is its power to attract attention and

to communicate or express a whole set of feelings and ideas in a nonverbal

manner. (Carroll, 1998, p. 77)

With the exception of the Gesso, clay and the foundation of the 68 foot fabric, everything else used in the creation of this piece seemed to be “odds and ends” that might have been discarded or previously used materials and objects, thus rendering this massive artistic creation cost efficient because it is low budget. From experience, I know that the foundation fabric which is 68 foot long by about 2 foot wide might not have to be newly bought fabric. The 68 feet could have been amassed by piecing together previously used heavy weight household linens, bed linens and table cloths, sometimes these are over 10

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feet in one dimension. The result of these creative processes that were facilitated by the adults in this learning community revealed that teachers, especially Visual Arts teachers, do not have to sit back and say “I do not have money to purchase the expensive commercial art media and tools therefore I am unable to engage the students in the creative processes.” Like Dr. Buda, they can encourage and engage students in artmaking processes by guiding and facilitating them to explore and experiment with non-traditional art materials and tools, including “trashables,” that is, discarded materials and objects which might be natural or man-made. They should stimulate the students to be creative, imaginative and innovative so that they will create individual and/or collaborative projects that reflect their inner thoughts and make connections with the many and different curricular subjects.

Data from the interviews

As was stated before, in order to get the best understanding of the situation under investigation, it was necessary to include the emic perspective, that is, the participant(s) views of their life story I was about to expose. Dr. Buda was the chief participant in this research, she was the co-creator of the data; however, in order for the successful implementation of an integrated curriculum, whether with or without Visual Arts, there needs to be collaboration, especially among the faculty school and staff at the school.

From my observations and the review of written documentation, there is evidence that the

“special area” faculty, the Music teacher, Physical Education teacher, the Librarian and

Media Specialist, were most cooperative and collaborative in the implementation of the

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integrated curriculum. It is as if they were at Dr. Buda’s “beck and call.” They were her

colleagues that seemed to be the most flexible and willing to get involved in the

collaborative efforts and receptive to the rigors that the implementation of an arts

integrated curriculum necessitated. As a result, Dr. Buda solicited their participation,

along with one second and one fourth grade teachers to engage in the formal structured

interviews. This recruitment provided the “mix” that reflected diversity and provided the

perspective on how non-arts teachers have been prepared and/or willing to participate in

an integrated curriculum, with or without the arts at the core. The teachers’ participation

in the interviews is not intended to paint a picture of how they implemented an arts

integrated curriculum, but to ascertain their perspective on the value of an integrated

curriculum as a pedagogical strategy for engaging in state-of-the-art teaching and learning and what preparation and or prior knowledge and/or experiences are necessary to successfully implement an integrated curriculum with Visual Art as an anchor.

With regards to the research methodology, which is a phenomenological based inquiry case study, the interviews were not intended to be used as primary method for collecting data, but as a method to provide additional support as to how and why teacher(s) engage in integrated curriculum as a pedagogical strategy for providing state of the art education to future generation of citizens. The twenty questions (see Appendix E) were used as a guide to ascertain what a teacher should know and be able to do in order to successful participate in and/or implement of an integrated curriculum that brings

Visual Arts to the core of the curriculum in an elementary school setting. Based on my engagement with the literature related to integrated curriculum, the value of the arts in

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education, arts integrated curriculum and professional standards for teacher preparation, I

was able to establish some initial themes/categories under which to assign the

information amassed during the structured interviews. These included content or subject

matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and professional knowledge, the skills

acquired before and after initial entry into the teaching profession and dispositions and

commitments that teachers should have acquired in order to effectively engage in the

implementation an integrated curriculum.

Being the primary participant and co-creator of the data for the research, I have used Dr. Buda’s responses as structural description of the interview data under the categories identified/established. The responses from the other interviewees have been used as “back up” to explain and confirm what teachers should know and be able to do to successfully implement an integrated curriculum that has been driven or anchored by

Visual Arts. Although it had not been my intention to compare and/or contrast the teachers’ knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments regarding the implementation of an integrated curriculum, I had noted some similarities and differences from the interviewee responses based on what they know and are able to do that enabled them to participate in an integrated curriculum.

The teachers’ content and professional knowledge and skills.

Dr. Buda has been certified to teach Visual Arts to K– 12 students and has been teaching at the elementary level for an accumulated 18 years. The Librarian who is a retiree had over 30 years teaching experience and was prepared to teach K–8 grades level

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and the Media Specialist has been teaching at the elementary level for over 20 years, fifteen of which multiple grade levels and the past five years as a technology support teacher. The music teacher had 28 years teaching experience and had been certified to teach instrumental and vocal music to K – 12 students, with 22 years at the current school. The Physical Education (PE) teacher has been teaching for 23 years, she had been certified to teach PE to K–12 students, she was also certified to teach adoptive PE for students with learning disabilities and Health Education to grades 7–12 students.

Like the Music teacher she has been at the school for 22 years. The second grade teacher has been engaged in elementary education for 15 years and had been certified to teach

K – 8 and the fourth grade teacher has been for over 20 years had been certified to teach regular education K – 8 and emotionally disturbed K–12.

Dr. Buda defined integrated curriculum as a spectrum of relating curriculum from one or more content areas through curriculum that connects the desired content through use of selected topics. The Librarian defined integrated curriculum as combining the art experience to demonstrate knowledge of subject matter, as an extension of the learning experience. Like Dr. Buda all the other interviewees included making or finding connections and combinations with other content areas or subject disciplines in their definition of integrated curriculum and most of them made reference to using the arts or

“special area” subjects to be specific.

Although Dr. Buda’s undergraduate teacher education program did nothing to prepare her for integrated curriculum, she had chosen this pedagogical strategy as the

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focus of both her masters’ thesis and doctorial dissertation research. The fourth grade

teacher indicated that being trained in the up state New York where the education system

was more progressive provided her with basic knowledge about integrative teaching and

her special education masters degree which prepared her to be an inclusive teacher

required that they did integrated college courses. The Librarian stated that her initial

teacher preparation was so long ago it doesn't apply. All the other interviewees indicated

that their initial teacher education program(s) did not introduce them to or equip them

with the pedagogical strategies to implement an integrated curriculum. The second grade

teacher and Music teacher stated that through the instrumentality of Dr. Buda they

enrolled in a professional development course at the Ohio State University that provided

her with some knowledge about integrated curriculum.

In the interview, Dr. Buda stated that she found that combining highly integrated curriculum or transdisciplinary integration as defined by Crawford Burns, with service- learning methodology of Fusco extended from thinking of Freire and Dewey, enabled her to provide the students authentic learning experiences that connect students in meaningful ways to their local and global communities and contributes to developing students’ 21st century skills who become lifelong learners proficient in applying creative solutions to unforeseen problems. She explained that this methodology is informed by inquiry-based learning, Renzulli’s methods for developing interest based clusters groups, constructivist learning theory, learning theories of Vygotsky and honors effective learning-communities as an environment to facilitate cooperative learning which produces a synergy that is capable of increasing capacity of all learners regardless of age, education, gender or race.

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According to the Librarian, the students learn in different ways, therefore it is best to try to find out how they learn and use it. Although she did not state it, her response can be connected to Gardener’s theory of multiple intelligences, which is the theory the second grade teacher mentioned in her response. She stated that,

People talk about multiple intelligences a not being mosaic of thought. How the

kids learn with so many different styles: the kinesthetic learner, the auditory

learner, the visual. I tried to get as much of that as possible for me, I was not a

strong auditory learner and I know a lot of kids are not auditory learners. I try to

engage them in the kinesthetic part of it so they have time to make themselves

independent learners. (May 10, 2010).

The PE teacher made mention of using cooperative learning theory as a guide for implementing an integrated curriculum.

The teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and skills.

Dr. Buda indicated that she had been teaching using integrated curriculum methods off and on and at various levels throughout her teaching career. Early in her teaching career, she had attended DBAE (Discipline Based Art Education) training with a team of teachers from her school along with the principal. They were taught to select a historical time period and begin with the artwork then integrate curriculum that required students to analyze and respond to the selected works of art in addition to the focus on the historical content of the artwork. Based on the DBAE pedagogical strategies, in art class the students were instructed to create works that replicated methods, processes,

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techniques or subject matter from the selected historical time period while also learning

about artists of the time period and the function of the selected woks of art in society.

For a period of time there were strong references to historical time periods, artists’ and

styles associated with the “great masters” of painting and sculpture were heavily

emphasized in the artroom. She spent six years researching and implementing various

forms of curriculum integration with various communities of learners, and the results she

has still continued to explore these possibilities. With regards to her motivation for

engaging in an integrated curriculum, Dr. Buda stated that

Through my own experiences with curriculum integration I have been able to

conduct several case studies reflecting upon student learning as a result of quality

integration. I believe students who learn to ask questions and explore solutions

through the visual arts are better prepared to solve future challenges of our very

changing communities. I believe my job, as an educator should be to teach

students to question, explore solutions and shape the future not to memorize

information that will be quickly outdated and obsolete. (S. Buda, personal

communication, March 17, 2010)

The Music teacher stated that she has been involved in integrated curriculum for the 22 years she has been at the school and also made mention of her experience in the

DBAE training. All the other interviewees referenced that Dr. Buda had been the driving force and motivation for their participation in the integrated curriculum at the school.

The Librarian also stated that she was motivated because she saw it as a logical extension

of the learning process and it enabled students to become more engaged. The Physical

Education teacher stated that her motivation from observing the students’ achievements

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when they make connections. To be specific she stated that

You can’t imagine how it impacted the kids’ learning, but I can tell you they are

more interested, more excited about it… once you do something one time it is

likely the next time you do it, it becomes natural for them. Because they will

know it is not only happening in the PE class. We are talking about it in art class,

we are talking about it in music class so it more feels like we are a team and

together. (personal communication, March, 2010).

Dr. Buda stated that she tried to balance both individual and group activities in her classroom, at least the third, forth and fifth graders might be approaching fifty/fifty split or somewhere in that ball park; about half the time the students are working collaboratively and about half the time they are working independently. That is a greater percentage of collaborative work than I ever used to use in my curriculum.

I see value in developing students when we look at twenty first century skills in

developing their ability to work with other students to look at a large project and

to understand how to break them up by text. I see a lot of cooperative skills as

being important to teach students and so I have been incorporating a lot of those

activities in art room. (S. Buda, personal communication, March, 2010)

The Librarian stated that she “tried to encourage students to work as a team. This means that the individual must be responsible for his/her part of the group's work. Both individual and group work is necessary for success.” The Music teacher stated that in the music room the students are exposed to mostly whole group activities, when they do

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activities with compositions they worked in small groups and occasionally they would be

working together helping one another to develop different music skills.

The teachers’ skills and expertise.

Dr. Buda has been teaching using integrated curriculum methods of implementing various forms of curriculum integration and reflecting with various communities of learners on the results. She still continues to explore these possibilities and she believes participants must be able to flexibly move in and out of learning communities that share connections to the essential questions being explored to gain a greater understanding and that may desire exploration. She realizes that planning and implementation requires focused exploration, significant time for communities to experiment and solve problems, and then reflect which then begins a new cycle of asking another related question and continuing the cycle. As Dr. Buda explained

I see value in developing students when we look at twenty first century skills in

developing their ability to work with other students to look at large project and to

understand how to break them up by text, I see a lot of cooperative skills as being

important to teach students and so I have been incorporating a lot of that activities

in art room.

The teachers’ professional knowledge, dispositions and commitments.

Dr. Buda believes quality integrated curriculum is student driven, allows for

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organic growth to develop over extended periods of time, should involve multiple communities of learners, should allow students to participate in authentic processes using authentic tools of the content area and students should be provided experiences to work hand in hand with professionals to solve authentic problems from their communities. She believed that highly integrated curriculum requires extreme commitment on the part of at least a core number of teachers who are willing to ensure that cycles of exploration are fueled by periodic experiences that refuel the energy of the community. She believes her job, as an educator, should be to teach students to ask questions, explore for solutions and build knowledge for the future, not to memorize information that will be quickly outdated and become obsolete. She believes if the topic is important enough to be explored by the entire school over an extended period then the family and community should an integral part of the integrated curriculum processes and procedures.

Involving families and utilizing community resources helps students see the

connections to real life and provides enthusiasm for continuing the explorations

into their areas of interest. When students have the opportunity to create authentic

products viewed by and valued by their community then the motivation for

learning becomes authentic and not contrived content. Students and the entire

community are much ore likely to extend the content into scouts, sports, family

and other authentic connections. (S. Buda, personal communication, March 17,

2010).

The above data, which was collected from the interviews, provide on overview of the teachers’ knowledge base and perspectives on the value of an integration curriculum as a pedagogical strategy for engaging in teaching and learning. The teachers’ attitudes a

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and commitments regarding participating in an integrated curriculum that brought Visual

Arts to the core of the curriculum and center stage of the school.

Interpretation of the data

The teaching/learning environment.

A vital learning environment offers rich resources. The resources come in many forms and can be accessed in multiple ways. (Wald & Castleberry, 2000, p. 12).

Having provided a thorough description of the traditional learning environment, the artroom at which the bulk of the data was collected, it is time to explain how I perceived this environment as a space and/or place that enhances teaching or learning in, through, about and with Visual Arts. One should not classify any and every “old room” as an artroom or an art studio unless it offers rich resources that are befitting the characteristic and potentiality of the field, and when we think Visual Arts, the resources are bountiful. It should be equipped with a wide range of (art) media (materials), tools, equipment as well as printed and technological resources that will provide young artists with multifaceted experiences that will enable them to develop and enhance their full potential in creative, imaginative and innovative ways. I cannot envisage any other field or discipline that has the potential to utilize more resources and technological devices than Visual Arts. To prove this, one just has to visit the exhibition hall at an annual

National Art Education Association Convention and you are “bedazzled” by the wide spectrum of media, tools, equipment, and printed and technological resources that are on

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display. An aerial view, minus participants, would be prismatic or, if rotated, would be kaleidoscopic. Additionally, Visual Arts has the propensity to encourage recycling or reusing of “trashables,” materials and objects that are thrown out as refuse, giving clout to the statement “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” “Each field of human endeavor has unique means of storing, retrieving and displaying its marks of information.

In using the surfaces, tools and processes of another field, the artist is creatively responding to them” (Szelely, 1988, p. 35).

Since our children are our future, and formal education has been invented as the institution to prepare them for the future and school has been designed as a structure to prepare them to find their place in any society they may choose to live in as an adult citizen, let us give them the “Greatest Love of All” and in so doing we would “teach them well, help them to lead the way” (Whitney Houston, Date, 1986). The artroom is the designated site in the school for the teaching and learning of the Visual Arts for children of varying age and stage of development, some of whom will be the future generations of professional artists, art historians, art critics, museum and gallery owners and/or curators, art aestheticians, art educators/teachers, professional or volunteer docents and art collectors.

Using traditional and non traditional materials, tools and equipment.

The artroom that Dr. Buda had created and maintained is an exemplary Visual

Arts teaching and learning environment that offers rich resources that are representative of a state-of-the-art environment for facilitating and engaging young artists in creative

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processes. She has transformed what was an ordinary room into a multifaceted art studio, with an abundance of and wide variety of traditional, commercial, improvised, natural and non-art materials and tools and equipment that enable the young artists to explore and experiment with media and techniques that ignite creative ingenuities, thus, resulting in products that are awesome and breath taking. This is because, the “students experience the qualities of the materials they work with themselves. In the sense, the art room provides an opportunity to experience a sensory buffet” (Eisner, 2002, p. 62). These materials include pencils, markers, crayons, pastels, tempera, acrylic and oil paints, paint brushes of different sizes and fibers and pallets, paper of varying color, sizes and weight, clay, glazes and under-glazes, tongue depressors, kiln, and varying weight and color fabrics, buttons, metals, fibers and yarns. This also signals to the students that artists do not only use traditional art materials and tools but, also resources from other disciplines/fields.

By making a wide variety of tools available to children, rather than limiting them

to the traditional tools used for art making we can help them to understand that

artists constantly invent new tools and that the selection of a tool is one of the

important choices that an artist makes. (Szekely, 1988, p. 52).

By collecting and engaging the students in creating artworks with things that would have be discarded materials and objects, reflect that “art education not only attempted to develop the creative capacities of students through the use of novel visual problems, but it could also sensitize them to a host of media previously considered outside the scope of art” (Eisner, 1996, p. 11). Dr. Buda had introduced the students to

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the global environmental education act of recycling, thus helping to minimize the

quantity of substances that are later seen as pollutants to the environment. As Szekely

(1988) informed,

Design and art professionals may be specialized in their processes, tool and

materials, yet the art student can borrow, restate, and mix in a personal way a

variety of materials and surfaces. The tools, surfaces or materials routinely used

in one profession can be seen as symbolic or beautiful by another artist, who

experiments with them and rediscover them in a fresh way. (pp. 34 – 35)

Using technological resources.

Dr. Buda provided and utilized modern technological devices such as computers,

LCD projectors, and slide presentations as teaching and learning tools symbolizing that she is preparing the students for the 21st century working environment in which they will

have to navigate their way as adult citizens. Dr. Buda’s use of these technological

devices should not be mistaken as acts to demonstrate “What Thamus (the king of a great

city of Upper Egypt in Plato’s Phaedrus) wishes to teach us–that technology imperiously

commandeers our most important term. It redefines “freedom”, “truth”, “intelligence”,

“fact”, “wisdom”, “memory”, “history” – all the words we live by” (Postman, 1988, p. 8).

The use of the computer in the Visual Arts learning environment indicated to the students

that “computer technology functions as a new mode of transportation than as a new

means of substantive communication” (Postman, 1992, p. 118). It carries information

from all over the world, both near and far, just by a click of the button. In order to assign

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the computer its rightful position in the chapter titled “The Improbable World,” Postman presented a linear account of the stages of information revolution that “with Western cultures grasping for breath, the fourth stage of information revolution occurred, broadcasting. And then the fifth, computer technology” (p. 69). These “Boxes with

Fires,” as Gregory (2009) called them, might have been a prophecy of Plato. Gregory brought to our attention the following statement, “Someday, in the distant future, our grandchildren’s grandchildren will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and knowledge. – Plato¹” (p. 47). Dr. Buda did not only introduce the students to the computer as a device for transporting information, but their engagement showed that it can be used as a tool for recording and storing their progress throughout art making process. It reflected that she is not intimidated by the thought of including advanced technology both as tools for enhancing teaching and learning and tools for engaging the students in the creative processes.

Traditionally, the students would take the finished art pieces home for the family and friends to see their product. By introducing the students to the procedures of creating their personal I-Web where they could upload digital photographs and written documentations of the step by step progress and process as they created the artwork, Dr.

Buda did not “use established computer technologies as teaching or presentation tools” only, but for, “facilitating students’ creative production and thinking, collaborative learning, problem solving and higher order learning” (Gregory, 2009, p. 48). The computer was used as a tool for storing and illuminating moments in time and stages in the creative processes of the artmaking activity. It revealed that she is aware of “the

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value and necessity of placing technology learning tools within the hands of each learner

as well” (Gregory, 2009, p. 48). She did not give the false impression that she, the

teacher, is the only person in the learning environment endowed with “intelligence” to

use the computer. Was this the case, she would have “developed an undeserved

reputation for wisdom” (Postman, 1988, p. 9). She is not to be ranked among the so

called experts, colleagues who “cultivate competence in the use of a new technology

become an elite group that are granted undeserved authority and prestige by those who

have no such competence” (Postman, 1988, p. 9); which is what a traditional teacher-

centered classroom looks and feels like. Instead Dr. Buda cultivated a constructivist

learning environment, which was learner-centered, thus empowering, liberating and

emancipating for the students. The creation of their personal I-Web allowed them to use the computer as a mode of transportation and as an archiving facility that has the capacity to keep documented records of their work. The students were able to share with their parents and others documented evidence of moments in time in the art making process that could not be retraced once they moved to other steps in the creative process, without the assistance of the teacher.

Additionally, by engaging the students in the process of creating their personal I- web in the Visual Arts class as a part of the creative process is to establish that she recognized the values of the computer as a tool for preparing and equipping the students with skills they will need to navigate their way in the 21st century highly advanced

technological age. We are living in an importable fast moving world, and this activity

helped the students “to generate, store, and distribute more information, more

conveniently, at greater speed than before. This is the elevation of information to a

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metaphysical status: information as both means and end of human creativity” (Postman,

1988, p. 61). I tend to disagree with Postman’s idea that computer technology is both a

means and an end to human creativity. “The problem with computers isn’t computers –

they’re just tools; the problem is that overdependence on them displaces other sources of

education, from the arts to nature” (Louv 2008, p. 137). A visit to Dr. Buda’s artroom

and observation of the fourth and fifth graders’ engagement with computers in Visual

Arts lessons revealed that “the importance of technology for today’s students and

tomorrow’s citizens means that infusing technology into learning and teaching is an

increasingly important instructional goal as well as a tool” (Darling-Hammond, Banks,

Zumwalt, Gomez, Sherin, Griesdorn and Finn, 2005 p. 198). Also, the school reflects that in the United States, “most classrooms now have technology tools available, and many teachers are using them. For widespread change to occur, teachers need to incorporate the opportunities of the emerging technological infrastructure into their overall curricular thinking” (p. 198 – 199). Currently, two of the classrooms are equipped with Smart Boards. I had an opportunity to sit in one of the second grade teacher’s class one day and observed while she and the students engaged this technological device for teaching and learning. The components included a projector, a computer, an interactive whiteboard that is like a large touch screen, and whiteboarding software called Smart Notebook. The components are connected by wirelessly using

USB or serial cables. When the projector is connected to the computer, it displays the information on the computer’s desktop onto the whiteboard. The user then uses a finger, a special pen or a solid object to touch the desired image or text on the whiteboard. This interaction acts like a lift of a computer mouse. This is a technological device that has

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been promoted for improving learning outcomes; however, it is very expensive and

drains the coffer of between US $3500.00 to $10,000.00 each, plus there will be

maintenance of different parts which have short life span.

By providing an abundance of media, tools and equipment in the artroom, Dr.

Buda created an atmosphere of a professional art(ists’) studio, thus enabling the students

to explore and experiment with the many and varying media and techniques that

professional artists use in their art studios. Dr. Buda created a learning environment that

enabled the students to work with little or no interfering with or disturbing each other as

they engage in creative processes that should assist them to develop individuality. It

provided opportunities for “each child to work out something specifically his (or her)

own” (Dewey, cited in Boisvert, 1998, p. 113). This helps in the development of

technical skills as well as the building of character. Each student will get the chance to

build his/her self-confidence, self-esteem, competence and efficiency. When it is time for group projects, each child will approach the task with little to no hesitation or fear. As

Eisner (2002) stated,

The course of children’s development in the creation of visual images is

characterized by gradual emergence and refinement of form of thinking. What we

see in the feats of children’s artwork over time are the fruits of learning. Such

learning is promoted by teachers and others as they provide children with

opportunities to experience the world qualitatively, as they provide children with

materials with which they can work as they offer guidance, examples, prompts,

and assistance in ways that foster learning in the context of visual arts. (p. 111)

They have been equipped with the knowledge and skills and would have cultivated an

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attitude like the little engine that could. They will be saying, “I know I can, I know I can,

I know I can.” When it is time to navigate and negotiate their way in larger communities, they will be able to “fit in” perfectly.

Dr. Buda created an aesthetic and authentic learning environment that is undeniably a visually enriched artroom. It is both engaging and stimulating for the learners. The walls of the artroom and other surfaces are tessellated with fine art prints, sample artworks, posters, charts, written and printed text that provide information relating the elements and principles of art/design, art words, terminologies and concepts relevant to past and present lessons, diagrams with web of brainstormed ideas for projects, a few rules of the artroom and pictures from art journals of artists and their work. According to

Delaney (1998),

Display of concept visuals. The color-value wheel and the visual-verbal depiction

of design principles make meaning of these concepts more understandable.

Examples of lettering (art) styles, and a process visual for teaching text lettering

(an art technique) are accessible for students who need help, and “Artcabulary”

display on the bulletin board familiarizes students with words they need to know.

Visuals like these make your classroom an environment for learning. (p. 131)

Who is this exemplary teacher?

“The teacher is a person is a person with a rich resource of knowledge from which others can draw freely; the teacher is a manager.” (R. Shirley, personal communication, 1977)

The above statement was always echoed in our ears by Mr. Renford Shirley, the

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then Vice-Principal of Mico Teachers College, who happened to have been the lecturer

for the course Principles and Management in Education. While pursuing a Masters of

Arts in Teaching (MAT) course at an art college, I got a longer list of some of the persons

who a teacher should be, such as a manager, facilitator, mentor, councilor and nurturer.

My recent engagement as a student in the Department of Education, Policy and

Leadership in pursuit of a cognate in teacher education has equipped me with a body of knowledge that have better prepared me with sights and insights regarding what a teacher should know and be able to do in order to be deemed qualified to practice as a professional teacher. These insights include content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and professional knowledge. According to Grossman,

Schoenfeld with Lee (2005), “to argue that teachers need to know the subject matter they teach seems almost tautological, for how can we teach what we do not understand ourselves?” (p. 205).

Since Dr. Buda is a subject specialist teaching Visual Arts in an elementary school, it goes without saying that she should have earned at least a Bachelor in Fine Arts

(BFA) and gained license to teach students in grades K–8 or K–12 in the state of Ohio.

There is documented evidence that she has earned more than the minimum qualification to engage in the teaching of Visual Arts education. Dr. Buda earned a B.A. Fine Arts from Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio in 1982; an M.A in Art Education from

The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio in 2005; and a Ph.D. in Art Education from

OSU in 2009. She has been teaching Art Education in the same school district in Ohio since 1987 with a six year break from 1993 to 1999. She was a member of the Ohio

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Department of Education Academic Content Standards K–12 Fine Arts Writing Team in

2004 and a member of her City School Curriculum Guide in 2005 Curriculum writing

team (Buda, 2005; Buda, 2009 and personal communication 2010).

Evidence of visual arts content knowledge and skills.

Having earned a B.A in Fine Arts in 1982 from a recognized (reputable) college

means Dr. Buda would have been equipped with the content knowledge in Visual Arts

with at least introductory courses in most of the different areas that are aspects of Visual

Arts and a major in one or more areas. A four year program in a Fine Arts department would have provided at the basic level experiences in exploring and experimenting with a multiplicity of media, techniques and processes that are used to create two dimensional and three dimensional works of art. The two dimensional works are mostly pictorial in nature and are created to be viewed from one perspective, or what is contained or represented on surfaces. They are created using such media and techniques as drawing with lead or colored pencils and crayons and pastels, painting using tempera, oils or acrylic paints, collages using materials or objects layered or mounted on a surface, mosaic work created by using bits of tiles, glass or stones (tesserae) adhered to a surface such as wall, floors and ceilings, photography and printmaking, which can be totally manual or mechanical, graphic design that involves illustrations and calligraphy, textiles designing, printing and weaving. Three dimensional works can be viewed from mor than one vantage point–created using techniques and media such as carving/sculpting,

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wood, stones, clay, modeling clay or papier mâché, and molding using liquefied substances such as clay, wax, metals, plastics in molds left to harden and/or dry and layering or joining using materials such as fiber and fabrics, wood and metals. Also, there is architecture, art that you go into, such as the buildings and monuments like houses, churches, shopping malls. On the more advanced/academic level these works

“are a major part of this larger visual culture that includes fine art, advertising, folk art, television and performance arts, housing and apparel design, mall and amusement park design, and other forms of visual production and communication” (Freedman & Stuhr,

2004, p. 816). Visual Arts is not only about the production or making. There is also the

History of Art, Art criticism and Appreciation and the Aesthetics which are aspects that are sometimes not included when students are introduced to the art making processes.

However, having engaged in DBAE (Disciplined Based Art Education), there is evidence that Dr. Buda has the content knowledge that this pedagogical strategy required.

Additionally, Dr. Buda pursued a M.A in Art Education in 2005 and a Ph. D in

Art Education in 2009 which are evidence that she has a solid foundation in the subject matter she teaches and the requisite disciplinary tool to continue learning within the subject matter throughout her career (Crossman, Schoenfeld, with Lee 2005). Having worn the hat of researcher, which led to the writing of a 294 page thesis and a 525 page dissertation plus serving as a member of the state and city district curriculum team, reflects that Dr. Buda has built a body of scholarly knowledge in the field of art education and has been recognized for her scholarship and expertise at the district and state level with regards to her knowledge in and about Visual Arts.

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Teaching subject matter knowledge.

My observation of Dr. Buda as she engaged the students in two and three dimensional artmaking activities revealed that she is a knowledgeable, confident and competent Visual Arts educator par excellence. According to Eisner (1966), “the teacher of vocational courses in art should be thoroughly trained in his (or her) craft and, if possible, should be a practicing artist. One might hope, of course, that he might also be a person of well-rounded education” (p. 243). The manner in which Dr. Buda facilitated students in the creative processes as they engaged in exploring and experimenting with the different media and techniques, is evidence that is she understands deeply not only different areas of Visual Arts but also how to represent it to the diverse population of learners (Crossman, Schoenfeld, with Lee 2005).

Teaching two-dimensional work making.

In facilitating the students in creating meaningful two dimensional works, Dr.

Buda engaged all the students with working with dry and wet color media such as crayons, pastels, markers, and paints on paper and wood. Dr. Buda always demonstrated and explained how to use the different media and techniques before the students were given assignments to create works of art. This was most evident when she engaged the lower grade level students. Her pedagogical strategies reflect Eisner’s (2002) statement that, “if a material is to be used as a medium, techniques for working with the material must be developed. For children of different age the level of skill development will differ” (p. 80). The first graders created an Abstract Tempera Painting, Fish on the

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Journey, drawing by using colored fine tip Sharpie Markers on clear acetate. Second

graders made a mixed media piece where they painted with water color on filter paper,

(by the way they used coffee filters), and then adhered them to construction paper with circular windows cut out. They finished the art pieces with oil pastels to give the effect of a radial designs or mandala motifs. Third graders created a picture of their “Special

Space–Outdoors” and Dr. Buda allowed the students to choose any medium/media and technique(s) they wished from those they learned in the 1st to 3rd grades. Most of them

selected painting while others used a mixed media technique. They also drew their “Self

Portraits” using oil pastels. The fourth graders created several optical illusion designs

individually, using paper, pencil, rulers and compasses where needed. They then selected

their “best” design to transfer to construction paper and created a finished design in black

and white using black Sharpie markers. Next they worked in groups of four to create a collaborative group optical illusion painting on plywood using oil paints. Eisner (2002) pointed out that,

The characteristics of materials call up different conceptions and skills that

function within the limits and possibilities of the material that cognition proceeds.

As they mature, children’s recognition of the material’s potential expands, and

when their technical skills live up to their expanding conceptions of what they

want to create, the quality of their artistry increases. (p. 80)

The fifth graders designed a one point perspective landscape drawing, which

include architecture, plant and human/animal lives, on paper using pencil and rulers.

They then used a digital camera to take photographs of their design, which they uploaded

to the computer. Next they used Adobe Photoshop to create a virtual (re)presentation of

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their design. The final projects were printed in colour, mounted on construction paper

and displayed in an art show. This activity reflected Cornett’s 2011[2010] statement that,

Computers have revolutionized the making of both commercial and fine art.

Computers are used in two ways. First, teacher and students can create and

manipulate images (art making, including planning and producing two

dimensional virtual objects). A sketch can be scanned and then using a program

such as Adobe Photoshop, the image is manipulated. The internet is invaluable to

investigate visual art (art history, criticism, aesthetics), even virtual tours of

museums–often with sound and video clips that elaborate on the historical period

with music and interviews. (p. 185 – 186)

Teaching three dimensional artmaking.

I observed students from four of the five grade levels manipulate the “forgiving medium,” clay, to the stage where it was embellished with impermeable paints or they applied glazes. The first graders made holiday ornaments, the second graders made coiled containers on a slab base, the fourth graders made mugs using freeform modeling technique and the fifth graders made masks using modeling technique with a commercial mask to give form. It should be noted that the second and fourth graders were encouraged to use additive technique if they were inspired to do so while the clay was still malleable. The additive and subtractive techniques were integral aspects of the fifth grade artmaking process. Additionally, the fifth graders were encouraged to experiment with the clay as a surface for marking on. Although the third graders did not create a

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project based on a unit plan like the other grades, they manipulated clay to make their

personal symbolic tile for the mosaic mural. These were free-formed with inscriptions.

As a matter of fact, all the students realized the potential of moist clay as a surface that

can accommodate marking with pointed objects. They all had to inscribe their initials

and class identification at the back or bottom of their objects, using an everyday tool–the pencil. All the students went through the processes of wedging, rolling and cutting clay to form the objects or forms of their desire.

As mature artists and art teachers/educators should be aware, the kiln is not a piece of equipment of engagement for these young artists, especially in public school settings. Dr. Buda provided information to the students about the kiln and its usage in the creative process when working with clay. She was the only person who engaged in the firing of clay objects. After the clay pieces were fired to the bisque state, all the students painted their pieces with acrylic paints (grades 1 & 5) or under-glazes (grades 2 & 4) before they embellished them with puff paints from applicator bottles (grade 1) colored glazes (grades 2 & 4) or mixed media (grade 5). All the students experienced one of the media that is very practical for creating three dimensional objects for children of all ages and stages of development and the most important tool that is needed is their hands.

These steps involved also helped to develop and/or enhance the students’ manipulative skills as well as informed them about the properties and characteristics of clay. What these experiences reflected is that Dr. Buda understood deeply not only the content she is responsible to teach, but also how to represent that content to diverse populations of learners (Crossman, Schoenfeld, with Lee 2005).

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Having provided numerous opportunities for all the students from Grades 1 – 5 to

engage in the creation of art pieces as well large scale collaborative art projects such as

the individual grade level murals as well as the mosaic mural that is currently a “work in

progress,” reflects Szekely’s (1988) position that,

Our goal as art teachers … is to help all of our students, from the youngest to the

oldest high-school student, experience as fully as possible what it is to be an artist,

to act and think like an artist, to try on the artist’s role. (p. 16).

Szelely’s statement reminded me of a children’s story book I recently read to my

friend’s granddaughter. This story book, with its pages filled with a wide array of

colored pictures with miniscule texts, was about a little girl named Bridget. It stated that

unlike other children who liked to eat ice-cream, Bridget liked to draw, and most of all, she liked drawing outdoors. There were pages upon pages of the wonderful pictures of nature that Bridget drew and it even showed scenes of Bridget’s artwork in several exhibitions. It stated that some of Bridget’s artwork was for private viewing only. What intrigued me most about this story was the revelation that Bridget had a very special hat-a blue beret. It was one of those hats that artists would wear and each time before Bridget went out to draw, she would always put on this special hat which enabled her think like an artist. Without this hat, she could not draw. Although Dr. Buda might not have provided the students with an artist’s hat physically, the materials, tools and equipment, and artistic experiences she provided them can be equated to Bridget’s artistic hat. Dr.

Buda knew what nurturing they needed, what instructions would be necessary, and what materials, tools and equipment were required and what experiences were NOT impossible for them to grow artistically to achieve their full creative potential. She provided the

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students with the subject matter and/or content knowledge and skills that were age

appropriate, and the artistic environment(s) necessary for them to try on what I call the

“artist’s hat,” thus, affording them invaluable experiences that prepare them for future

engagements in Visual Arts to be specific and the world of work as a whole. The

students’ engagement in the creative acts also helped to develop in them the disposition

of perseverance, which is a disciplinary mechanism necessary for one to succeed.

According to Fisher (2010) “Perseverance is a key component of character development.

… The original Greek word translated “perseverance” means “steadfast, constancy, and

endurance.” (Our Daily Bread, July 3, 2010). When teachers engage students in Visual

Arts projects that require engagement over a course of two or more lessons, it cause them to realize that, “great achievement requires great perseverance” (Our Daily Bread, July 3,

2010).

Evidence of pedagogical content knowledge and skills.

Although teaching is an art, unlike the innate ability to be creative, that leads to

artistic productions, teaching is not inborn, it is cultivated and it is not dictatorial.

“Pedagogy is the art or science of teaching. It deals with how you translate information

to help students learn” (Delany, 1998, p. 130). An excellent/exemplary teacher does not

see himself or herself as the “sage on the stage,” but a “guide on the side” who facilitates

learning. S/he employs pedagogical strategies to create an atmosphere that is student-

centered, and, in so doing, s/he plans and implements lessons so that the students are the

focus, not the teacher. The teacher should incorporate what the students already know,

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including their out of school experiences, “funds of knowledge,” as building blocks to

assist them to acquire additional knowledge and skills that will equip them for the future,

not only for their vocational choice; but their choice to be “life learners” as well.

According to Crossman, Schoenfeld, with Lee 2005,

Effective teachers know much more than their subject, and more than “good

pedagogy.” They know how students tend to understand (and

misunderstand) their subject; they know how to anticipate and diagnose such

misunderstanding; and they know how to deal with them when they arise. This

kind of knowledge has been termed pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman,

1987). (p. 205)

Dr. Buda consistently conducted introduction, revision, demonstration and explanation as well a recapitulation exercises before and after the students engaged in new and/or ongoing individual and collaborative art making activities. These discussion activities are empowering and insightful and should not be viewed as a discriminatory act “when teachers hold class discussions, they make decisions about which (and whose) ideas to pick up and pursue, and which and (whose) to let drop. The teacher formulates, probes, pushes students, offer hints and provides explanations” (Ball, 2000, p. 243), in order extrapolate from learners, specific information that is relevant to the current task at hand.

These pedagogical strategies Dr. Buda employed, although routine, should not be viewed as “scripted teaching” but a creative act that provided disciplined or structured elements of instructions (Hammerness, Darling-Hammond, Bransford, with Berliner, Cochran-

Smith, McDonald and Zeicerner, 2005).

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In most of the introduction, revision and recapitulation exercises, Dr. Buda’s used questioning and answering strategies that allowed the students to be reflective and in so doing they re-experienced, recaptured, and represented and/or built the art words, terminologies and concepts that are related to the topic and themes, media and techniques of previous lessons or the current lesson, thus equipping them with vocabulary necessary to speak the language of Visual Arts. Brewer (2002) drew our attention to Hope’s (1997) reminder that, “we must make distinction between the individual arts discipline and “the arts” as a group, because each discipline has its own language, vocabulary, history, body of work, and artistic procedure” (p. 33). It was with amazement, not shock, that I listened to the fluency and eloquence with which to first to fifth graders used Visual Arts terminologies and concepts in context, when they discussed and wrote about their artworks and the works of other artists. Just imagine, first graders writing artists’ statements. Granted they used two or three sentences, but they provided information about specific pieces of work. They stated what the work is and the media and techniques they used to create the work. I had, on a few occasions, listened to interviews with experienced professional artists who found it difficult to discuss their work. This is because they had not received a solid foundation knowledge of the language of their vocation.

Additionally, Dr. Buda engaged the students in utilizing multiple senses as she went through the procedure of demonstrating and explaining how to use the different media and techniques related to the artmaking activity at the introductory stage as well as during other stages of the artmaking process. Dr. Buda showed artworks made by other

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student artists, her own ceramic art pieces, made references to the art pieces that are

permanently displayed on walls in different sections of the schools, and used posters,

prints and digital representation of famous artists’ works to draw attention to and/or

explain art styles and techniques and concepts and rules artists use as guide when creating

works. These pedagogical strategies were very integral to teaching and learning in and

about Visual Arts as well as provided the students with experience to develop and

enhance their critical thinking skills. Dr. Buda was actually providing guidance,

scaffolding and re-enforcement for the students who might be intimidated when they are

required to work with art media and techniques with which they are unfamiliar, or needed

to be reminded of concepts and skills learned in earlier grades. These activities indulged

the children’s visual and tactile sensitivities, thus igniting in them the desire to explore

and experiment with the different media and techniques at their disposal. After much

practice the students will be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to work

independently as they engage in the creative process either for individual art projects or

for collaborative projects. The pedagogical strategies Dr. Buda employed exemplify best

practices that brings Visual Art from the peRIMeter of the curriculum to take center stage

in the everyday life of the “learning community.” The dexterity involved in the creative

acts will help to develop in the students, disciplinary dispositions that are the hallmarks of perseverance, which is a desired characteristic for engagement and achievement in the academic and work-world of our ever changing world.

Three art educators who advocated and supported these types of pedagogical strategies when engaging students in the creative processes are Chapman, (1978),

Cornett, (2003 & 2011[2010] and Szkeley, 1988. Although they might not always

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identify and/or categorize their thought as pedagogical strategies in the texts, Cornett,

2003 & 2011 [2010] also categorized them as explicit teaching and direct teaching. Their thoughts and recommendations are promoted in the pedagogical strategies that Dr. Buda employed as she engaged the students in the art making process and procedures.

Szekely’s book, in its entirety, is dedicated to pedagogical strategies that he envisaged will enhance teaching and learning in Visual Arts, some of which are extremely unconventional. For want of a better term they are supererogatory pedagogical strategies, that if practiced might lead to recommendations for psychoanalytic and/or psychiatric diagnosis and treatments.

The types of educational opportunities that Dr. Buda has been providing for these elementary students can be viewed as vocational education, which should not be mistaken for skill training for the performance of manual labor or “blue collar” jobs which have been stigmatized and designated for people of lower status, which, the truth be known, sometimes provide more in remuneration for persons in these occupations than their counterparts in the sophisticated “white collar” jobs. These thoughts, however, are not based on twentieth or twenty first century orientation, but based on the “prominent legacy of Plato and Aristotle, for whom theoretical knowledge is superior to both practical and productive knowledge” (Hager, 2007, p. 144). The type of vocational education I am referring to does not include “just propositional understanding, but cognitive, conative, and affective capacities as well as other abilities and learned capacities, such as bodily know-how and skills of all kind (p. 145). This type of education or schooling would best carry out this formation is what Dewey calls

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“occupation”.

“Occupation” here does not mean a job or even training for a particular kind of

work. It means, rather, an enterprise which marshals energy for the

accomplishment of a goal. Sewing, building, gardening, and cooking are all

examples of occupations. An occupation is an activity which “reproduces or runs

parallel to some form of work carried on in social life.” An occupation maintains

a balance between the intellectual and the practical phase in experience”. …

Occupations offer an opportune context within which schooling can succeed

because they allow the child’s natural curiosity to be channelled in the direction

of more specialized work. (Boisvert, 1998, p. 102)

In the same way science in the school is not to be seen as an attempt to prepare students to be a professional scientist, the knowledge and skills gained while studying

science in school are the prerequisites that enable future generations to enter the medical

profession with choices to become nurses, pharmacists, physicians, surgeons, etc. Visual

Arts in the school should not be seen as an attempt to prepare the children to be

professional artists, although there is no harm if a few discover this where their hearts lie.

The knowledge, skills and expertise garnered while studying Visual Arts prepares

students for entry into professions such architecture, interior designer, fashion designer,

textile designer, graphic designer, motor vehicle designer, etc.

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Professional knowledge, dispositions and commitments.

Dr. Buda has situated herself in a profession that serves democratic purposes,

although for years, some “loggerheads” have refused to acknowledge teaching as a

profession, “unfortunately, educators are up against an elitist academic world that insists

that education is somehow a vocation that should possibly be conducted out of the

academy” (Steinberg, 2007, p. 37). According to Cruickshank and Associates (1996),

“perhaps the most serious obstacle preventing teaching from having true professional

status is the lack of consensus among educators regarding what constitutes the requisite

specialized body of knowledge and skills for effective teaching” (p. 15). To drive their

point home, they stated that “a major Midwestern college of medicine lists more than 20

courses, individual studies, and seminars, the college of education in that university lists

more than 300. … surely, medicine has more concurrence regarding a basic professional

culture than does education” (p. 15). This could be directly attributed to teachers being

bricoleur, trying to fit our heads into many and varying hats or our feet in too many tight fitting or oversized shoes, which has been to our demise. According to Burnaford,

Darling-Hammond and LePage (2005),

What teaching has in common with a range of other professions is that the work

serves others and, because of its social importance, must do so responsibly…

Although all professions have a body of scholarly knowledge and social calling

that form the basis of entitlement to practice, the emphasis and warrants for

practice differ. Teaching can be viewed as a field that sits at the intersection of

these other professional fields. Teachers might be viewed as similar to women

and men of cloth, as teaching has elements a vocation or a calling and it has

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strong connections to values and commitments. At the same time, although

teaching may be a calling, it is not only a calling … For the beneficiaries of the

profession to be well served, teacher also need to be able to work with other

colleagues in creating organizations that support learning. Unlike solo professions

such as architecture and accountants who can, if they choose, hang a shingle and

practice their trade, the work of educators in schools is greater than the sum of the

individual parts. (p. 12-13)

Dr. Buda displays exemplary dispositions and commitments that are befitting of a member of the noblest profession. First and foremost, her CV and the most recently acquired title(s) in front of and behind her name (Dr. or PhD) are testaments to the fact that she embraces the concept that adults should be lifelong learners and she had chosen to continue learning to improve and build on her content and professional knowledge base in the field of that she has been employed for more than seventeen years. These academic achievements, which resulted in the compilation of over 800 pages of scholarly, credible and authentic research information, have situated her as an invaluable contributor to the field of education in general and Visual Arts education to be specific, thus positioning her to be a vital and obligatory asset to the learning community at her school. Her presence is as perennial as the grass of the picturesque landscape surrounding the school and her presence has been an integral part of the infrastructural foundation and scaffolding on which the school builds its meritorious distinction. On

Tuesday March 2, 2010, while engaging in political discourse with the “five women” of

The View on ABC television, Governor Mitt Romney spoke of educators like Dr. Buda.

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He stated that, “successful schools start with great teachers” (Romney, 2010 – The

View). The collection of artworks (stained glass windows, painted murals, large quilts) that have been permanently or semi-permanently installed in and around different sections of the indoors and outdoors of the school speak volumes to her professionalism, dedication and commitment to transport Visual Arts from the peRIMeter of the curriculum with elegance and style to take center stage at the school. A perusal of each piece of artwork will reveal that they are not intended to be decorations, increasing the aesthetic value of the building and its surroundings. Individually and collectively they are cultural artifacts, repositories of archival and historical data. They are graphic documentations, (re)presentations, restorations and preservations of the ecosystem of the community in which the school is situated. However, she could not have achieved this all by herself. She had to collaborate with classroom teachers and professional artists to engage the students in large, collaborative projects which are the culmination of an arts integrated curriculum that spanned two or more subject disciplines.

Using the arts (Visual Arts) to teach content more deeply helps teachers to

understand how their students are thinking about the subject under investigation

because the arts reveal the inner logics of the learners. The arts reveal emergent

meanings, messages, plans, themes, images, and intentions present but

unexpressed by learners. Learners are not blank slates or disorganized chaos.

The arts are an important medium for learners to discover, develop and articulate

their own understanding of the world and to invent their own versions for the

future. The arts are a primary venue for making public the internal logic of the

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learners–not only for teachers, but also for the learners. (Burnaford, Aprill,

Weiss, 2001, 19)

There is evidence that Dr. Buda’s wisdom might have informed her that, to

provide the students with the state-of-the-art learning experiences they needed to engage in an art integrated curriculum, she could not do it alone so she needed the intervention of professionals with the knowledge, skills and expertise in certain media and techniques to

take the children beyond her capability. This type of wisdom is what Almond (2007)

referred to as,

Something people need for sound decision-making … Wisdom involves accepting

the stabilizing constraints of reason and rationality, but it is a richer concept than

these, involving feeling as well as intellectual judgment. It is … something that

only life itself can bring. (p. 5)

Dr. Buda is a visionary who is equipped with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and

commitments necessary to design and implement arts integrated curriculum that

required some degree of “risks taking.” In an effort to enable the diverse population of

students to maximize their creative and intellectual potential, she employ the expertise of

professional artists, some of whom had never worked with young children before, to

engage children at different levels of development in creative processes and work cooperatively and collaboratively to create the caliber artwork installed in the school.

This act(ion) required for her to relinquish some of her responsibilities that she and the students have been accustomed to her holding, which have been chief facilitator, mentor, manager and guide. However, in these cases, she was more like a gatekeeper or

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“watchdog” as well as monitor, ensuring that the students are being facilitated and

engaged in ways that are age appropriate and within the policies of the school and the

education system. This might be because she is aware that;

An artist may not be the best communicator about his particular art. One can grow

indifferent to something that one can do quite easily. … Some artists might not

know why they do a particular thing or how they do it. … an artist might have

trouble explaining a part of his job what he does instinctively. … artists have

been recorded as being occasionally impatient while working with students

because the artist stop and start and break his concentration to explain what he is

doing and why. An important factor in judging how effectively an artist can

communicate his knowledge and skills to his students is whether or not he

approaches his art intuitively. If he does then he might not know why he does

something a particular way and so will not be able to discuss it with his students,

and will probably not be a good teacher. Aquaino, (1978, p. 27).

This is supported by Burnaford, Arpill and Weiss’s (2001) statement that,

Artists often work intuitively, drawing from an array of techniques and strategies

in which they have been trained. Sometimes those strategies and ways of thinking

seem foreign to classroom teachers whose training may have been very different.

Some knowledge has become so second nature through use and expectation that

both teacher and artists have difficulty bringing bother operating procedures into

conscious awareness. Through the joint venture of arts integration, artists

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introduce teacher and teachers introduce artists, to techniques of their respective

discipline… Artists also need to learn the vocabulary and elements practice of

classrooms. They need to learn the teachers’ hopes and expectations for their

students and be informed about academic goals, standards, and curriculum

content. (p. 28)

The robust projects that Dr. Buda envisaged and brought to fruition can be viewed

as “risky business,” especially when they are done on a school-wide basis. However,

Steinberg, (2007) pointed out that

An educator who wishes to be a professional does not expect to stay safe. She or

he takes risks. A teacher often must make choices to present two curricula: the

official, and the un-official. The ability to critically read the educational

environment and political climate may result in having to create a subversive set

of knowledges in order to maintain a commitment to being the best teacher/citizen

possible. The ability to read the school, the administration and the community

must be combined with the knowledge of what the students need to know in order

to learn and thrive in society. (p. 39)

As a professional art educator, Dr. Buda is conscious that, “professionalism is not 9 – 5.

It is not summers off, and lots of vacation days. A teacher does not leave the job in the

school and return home without somehow being affected by the day’s events and the

students” (Steinberg, 2007, p. 39). As a result most days when I travelled with Dr. Buda

to or from the school, she was always pondering where or how she was going to get

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certain materials or tools to engage the students in certain projects or which “able bodied”

persons she might engage in assisting her in certain manual tasks that are necessary for

the display and installation of students’ work. Nine times out of ten it “boiled down” to

her husband and/or three sons. On some occasion she would return to the school in the

evenings or on weekends to make preparation for her classes, take ceramic pieces from

the kiln or transport materials to the artroom. These are signs of dedication and

commitment to the calling. The saying “a woman’s work is never done” also holds true

for an art teacher, and being female Dr. Buda has got a double dosage.

Leadership qualities and community building.

If “it takes a village to raise a child” just imagine what it takes to educate a school

of several hundred children to be future generations of adoptive and tolerant citizens.

Educators should know that “no man or woman is an island, no man or woman can stand

alone,” therefore a teacher should not envisage that he or she can act as a sole agent in

educating the children in his/her charge on a daily basis. If the saying, experience

teacheth wisdom holds any truth, then wisdom should even be more apparent among the

experienced teachers who are responsible to educate children in, with, through and about

the arts. While the classroom teacher’s responsibility for one group of students for the

entire year, the arts teachers/educators are responsible for providing state-of-the-art learning experiences for all children in his/her building(s) (schools). There is evidence that Dr Buda had realized that;

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A vital learning environment offers rich resources. The resources come in many

forms and can be accessed in multiple ways. Colleagues, experts, literature, and

technology that present different options that appeal to different learning styles.

Yet other rich and diverse sources of information can be found inside outside the

school walls. … This inside-outside approach to gather information provides a

balance between germinating the seeds within the school and the cross-pollination

among schools, and programs to stay connected and avoid rigidity of thinking that

often occur when schools become too insular in their approach. (Wald and

Castleberry 2000, p. 12)

Being au fait of the subject matter, pedagogical and professional knowledge demands and challenges she might encounter as the Visual Arts educator; Dr. Buda has been instrumental in creating and sustaining a professional “learning community” in her school that extends beyond the boundaries of the school. As Wald and Castleberry

(2000) pointed out, “when we apply the concept of community to school, the focus shifts from school structure, to school culture, from ways of organizing to ways of being, from brick and mortar to ideals and relationships” (p. 13). Having the ability to establish and sustain a learning community that draws on human, environmental, economical, financial, political, social, cultural and other possible resources inside and outside the

school walls are signs of excellent leadership qualities that are not a predisposed characteristic of all teachers in particular and all human beings in general.

To approach this challenge we need leaders of school communities who are

committed to continuous schoolwide learning and growing. We need leaders who

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can challenge both students and professionals and can transform our schools into

powerful communities. Building vital professional learning communities in

schools asks the leader to perform a multitude of complex roles; these roles

attend as much to realizing potential and creating relationships at both the

individual and organizational level as they do to producing results. In much the

same way as a painter carefully combines the colors of the palate to create a

background from which the painting emerges, the leader creates a culture that

serves as the setting for the emergence of a vital professional learning community.

The role of the leader as culture builder carries new responsibilities that often read

more like poetry than like a traditional job description. (Wald and Castleberry

2000, p. 12)

Gone are the days when principals are seen as the only person with leadership qualities in the school, therefore, the task of a leader should not be viewed as a hierarchal title, or bestowed on persons who hunger for and crave power for themselves.

If the prevailing view is that leadership resides in individuals, then it will be

individual people who will exercise their power to influence practice. On the

other hand, if the accepted view is that leadership is a collective enterprise, then

power will not reside exclusive or largely in the hands of a single individual, but

with a group of people. (Ryan, 2007, pp. 29- 30)

The type of leadership characteristics that Dr. Buda portrays do not fit in any of the above two perspectives, with the former being a vertical structure, mostly reflecting top down strategies and the latter being a horizontal structure. Her leadership qualities

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emanate because she is a “doer” and a “go getter,” a person who does not sit back and

wait for things to happen, she acts on her own initiative and work very hard to make

things happen. Therefore, she fits in the structure where “everyone can and should have

the power to influence what happens in their own ways and times. In this sense power is

not employed by one or more people to control others, but use as resources to work for

collective interest” (Ryan, 2007, p. 131)

Leading a schoolwide integrated curriculum driven and anchored by visual

arts.

The knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments that Dr. Buda has acquired

as a Visual Arts teacher/educator, coupled with her ingenuity as a doer, have catapulted

and guided her to lead the learning community at her school to embark on a voyage to

implement an (art) integrated curriculum that provided state-of-the-art learning opportunities and pedagogical strategies for the students and teachers at her school.

The arts teachers on the school faculty are wonderful allies and resources in arts

integration works. The arts teacher, with a commitment to teaching sequential

curriculum, is a crucial advocate for arts in school. Working together, the art

teacher, classroom teacher, and artist can develop students’ skills and aesthetic

sensibilities in the art room and the classroom, both as discrete subjects of study

and as vehicles to represent ideas in other content area. (Burnaford, Aprill,

Weiss, 2001, p. 159).

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As we might all know, voyages are not always smooth sailing. There will always be

obstacles that obstruct progress, hurdles to stride and challenges to overcome. An

integrated curriculum that brings the arts, Visual Arts to be specific, to the core of the curriculum is no easy feat, especially at the magnitude that Dr. Buda has managed to facilitate it. It is no wonder I was not able to experience full integrated curriculum in action during my six month field experience at her school. The following paragraphs are my attempt to represent information that should illuminate some of the obstacles, hurdles and challenges that can inhibit or retard the implementation of an integrated curriculum.

In essence, the information was extrapolated from a monologue Dr. Buda’s presented as an apology to me.

This was my tenth visit to the school and I am halfway through the twenty days of planned visits to the school. Today, Friday January 15, 2010, was designated teachers’ work day and so no students were in attendance at the school. All the teachers were expected to be present at the school, attending grade level or subject matter based meetings, or working in their classrooms, therefore, I would not be engaged in observing formal teaching/learning in the artroom. This was an early pick up day because Dr. Buda had a meeting scheduled to discuss creating artworks for a tunnel in another community.

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changed, however, because it is being used for a while without any further changes, the

teachers had gotten more familiar with it. She explained that the changes were overwhelming and the teachers needed to get grounded in what they are expected to do with the changes which are geared towards preparing the students for the standardized national tests. She stated that these changes are driven by the statistics of the results of previous standardized tests scores, which are used as the measuring stick to indicate the rating of the school. Like most other education systems, students test score results are assumed to be reflections of the teachers’ capabilities, efficiencies versus inefficiencies.

supported to participate in Professional Development (PDs) exercises unless they can

show or explain how it will prepare them to improve some of the deficiencies that are

shown in the statistics of the test scores.

Integrated curriculum can be viewed as a cycle – after teachers and students have

exhausted a “big idea” (theme) they need to plan and prepare for another phase and/or a

new topic. On an economic basis, an integrated curriculum requires funding. The chief

and largest grant agency might not be willing to fund another phase if there is no proof of

advancement of new “ideas”. They would not want to fund the same project for another

cycle, plus teachers believe the students need to experience new concepts. With all the

changes, teachers believe it is worth waiting for the next grant application deadline which

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will be in June when schools are out. They envisaged that the January deadline would not work.

Although I did not witness the anticipated integrated curriculum in action, the artifacts – the many and varying collaborative art pieces that were available for me to scrutinize using as many of my senses as were allowed and the documents that I was privileged to peruse - bore concrete proof and textual evidence and testimonies to the magnanimity of the integrated curriculum that was fostered and facilitated by Dr. Buda using Visual Arts as the anchor and the driving force. An examination of the content of the thirty two murals in the pedestrian tunnel plus the five – minus one (remember one was sold at an art auction during the winter quarter 2010) that are displayed on the walls of the first floor and the written documentation regarding the thought processes and procedures that guided the creation of these collaborative pieces indicated that the pieces were based on a “big idea” or theme. They included one or more content disciplines other than Visual Arts, the Visual Arts teacher working with one or more classroom teachers and/or subject discipline teachers, parents, human resources beyond the walls of the school, professional artists with the knowledge, skills, and expertise in media and/or techniques that provided authentic and sometimes novel experiences for the students and financial resources and materials beyond the art teacher budgetary allotment.

The five murals, one created by each grade level, that are displayed on the first floor of the building and were inspired by William Wegram (2002) titled Chair, were based on “good characters” in the communities where they lived as the “big idea.” Like

Wegam’s piece, the murals were guided by photographs. These photographs were taken by the students and other members of their families. The photographs reflected the

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attributes of “good characters” that were captured in the community where the children lived and could show historic buildings, groups of people participating in charitable or good deed activities, built and natural spaces etc. Dr. Buda engaged the expertise of a professional mural artist, artist-in-residence, to work with the students. The two murals in the common area are bordered by rows of the family tiles that reflect the multicultural diversity of the school’s population and were created by the teachers and families of children who have attended the school. Funding for this project amounted to close

$6,200.00. The fee of $3,000.00 was paid to the artist in residence which was almost

50% of the total sum. This grand sum was obtained from the principal’s fund, the Parents

Teachers’ Organization, civic organizations and businesses such as Wal-mart, the community’s arts council, the community education foundation and others. In order to obtain financial support from outside the school, Dr. Buda had to write grant applications to the businesses and civic organization. Funding will not be awarded from a word of mouth application. Sometimes she did not receive the amount of money sought in the grant application from the individual source, therefore, she had to apply to several sources to amass the final figure that the project demanded. Parsons (2004) stated that,

A topic commonly suggested for integrated study is the local community. Many

school reformers favor this because it can bring school and community closer

together. For example it encourages local people to come into the school and

students to go out into the community. (p. 779)

As a “doer” and a “go getter,” Dr. Buda does not take a “rear view mirror” approach to teaching. She took a quantum leap (risky if you may ask) to engage the

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elementary students, ages 8 – 11 years, in creating thirty two 4’ x 8’ mural panels for the

newly constructed pedestrian tunnel that linked the community to the park on the grounds

where the school is located. Like the five murals previously created, the same artist

guided and facilitated the students’ creativity, imagination and innovation for this project.

Taking the students and their artwork to this site is evidence that Dr. Buda realized the importance of making the connection between the school and surrounding communities and at the same time introducing to the students the idea that, like professional artists,

their artwork can be displayed in public spaces and be of value to members of the wider

community, not just their school and family members. Like the previous murals, these

reflected studies of the community, however, this project focused on topics from the

social studies curriculum. The third grade topic was the history of the local community, the fourth grade topic was the history of the state of Ohio and the fifth grade topic was

the Scioto River from Native American perspective. These art projects which made

curricular connections, were ways for the students to make visible and cement important

facts and concepts (what) that they have been learning in the school curriculum. They are

permanent records of important and valuable historic and cultural information that might

not have been recorded in books and, if not damaged or destroyed, will be a site for cites,

sights and insights for generations to come. These works can be seen as great connectors,

binding humans not only to each other, but also to the ancestors and descendants, that is

the past and the future. By recruiting volunteers from among senior citizens who have

been living in the local community and/or the state of Ohio all their lives to provide the

students with authentic tales of their lived experiences reflects that Dr. Buda is aware of

the value of resources beyond textbooks in teaching and learning and that community

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connections and resources are vital ingredients in an integrated curriculum. What better

ways to provide authentic and novel experiences and information for the students to

gather historic information about their community and state, than through the stories and

voices of the persons who can share their lived experiences? Thus, the pieces are like the

pages and/or chapters of theses or dissertations. Each panel is a portrayal of the

narratives of the native participants by the young artists, who have been positioned as the

researchers/biographers or ghost writers. They have documented from and about the

community in which the narrators have grown up and lived and most of young artists are

themselves natives of the community and state, so at least they should achieve some

degree of insider status. They produced engaging paintings, centering on the historic

dialectical, political, socio-cultural and personal relationship between the narrators and

community and state of which they are an integral part and participants. These

experiences helped to bridge the generation gap between the young children and the

seniors, some of whom might be as much as two or three generations apart. This

experience provided the seniors with an opportunity to exercise their mental faculties as

they attempted to bring back to memory stories of days long gone that will never return.

I just imagine that the seniors and students must have felt some sense of pride and joy

being present as the story tellers and the artists at the opening ceremony. The seniors

enjoyed seeing and realizing that these younger generations of citizens deemed it fitting

to represent their stories graphically for others to view and enjoy. The young artists

realized that their creativity had (re)produced such magnificent and valuable representations that will last for a long time to come. These art pieces reminded me of

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Roland Barthes’ (1977) words in his work titled From Work to Text. The students work, creative endeavors, have been elevated to the status of “texts” and as texts, these murals

are plural, which is not simply to say that they have several meanings: an

irreducible (and not merely an acceptable) plural. The text is not a co-existence

of meanings but a passage, an overcrossing; thus it answers not to an

interpretation, even a liberal one, but an explosion, a dissemination. The plural of

the Text depends, that is, not on the ambiguity of its contents but on what might

be called the stereographic plurality of its weave of signifiers (etymologically, the

text is a tissue, a woven fabric)” (p. 159).

Like the other murals, funding for this project was obtained from many and varying sources both inside and outside the school, documentation by Buda (2009) revealed that $4,000.00 came from the large EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) grant, $1,000.00 from the PTO (Parents Teachers’ Organization), the principal provided the masonite for the initial sixteen panels for the third and fourth graders, the custodian donated leftover paints from a painting job and $4,000.00 was provided by the City Fund for the fifth graders’ additional sixteen panels that were created later, after the third and fourth graders’ project.

Dr. Buda indicated that at the beginning of the planning for their project, she discovered that the fifth grade students had misconceptions about the Native Americans, the original inhabitants of this continent, before Columbus’ voyage to the western world in the late

15th century. Due to marginalization, discrimination, exploitation and stereotyping of the

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first nation by the US, they have been reduced to acts of ridicule and stigmatization especially in film, advertising and other media representations. Since little has been done to educate and provide valid information about the history and culture about these native peoples, the students rely on what they see and hear from the (mis)presentation about these people via films, cartoons, video games, which are manufactured images that

“audiences identify with the Indians as part of their heritage, a kind of national mascots”

(Smith, 2009, p. 50). Like the title of Paul Chaatsmith’s book, these sources indicated that “Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong” and sometimes “the opposite of a lie isn’t necessarily true or useful” (Smith, 2009, p. 51). On realizing the students’ misconceptions, Dr. Buda quickly sought intervention measures. She employed the expertise of a representative from Native American Center of Central Ohio (NACC) to educate the fifth grade students, their teachers and other members of the learning community at the school with authentic information about the history and culture of the first nation, specifically with regards to the Scioto River.

This educational experience should have helped to minimize the misconceptions, thus increasing the credibility, reliability and validity of the information the students would (re)present in their art pieces about the Native American perspective of the Scioto

River. As was stated before, these murals are historic documentation of the community around the school, and “a history is always about who is telling the stories and to whom the story teller is speaking, and how both understand their present circumstances” (Smith,

2009, p. 53). Since “all histories have a history, and one is incomplete without another”

(Smith, 2009, p. 53), and close scrutiny of the sixteen panels reflects that the fifth grade students in all innocence had represented an unadulterated narration of the narrative that

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was (re)presented by a Native American, it is hoped that it will be accepted by the people

whose lived history and culture have been documented because “no history is complete

without knowing the history of the history” (Smith, 2009, 2009). By inviting the NACC

representative to speak on behalf to the Native American community, Dr. Buda

performed a liberating act. It must have been emancipating, detoxifying and redemptive

for the audience and elevating for the presenter who was able to participate because as

Smith (2009) rightfully stated;

The work we have to do to contribute to any serious dialogue is partly about

confronting the anti-intellectualism in our own communities. … What really

matters isn’t the number or particular outcome, but whether we can build new

understanding of what it means to be human in the twenty-first century. It isn’t

about us talking and you listening, it’s about engagement that moves our

collective understanding forward. (pp. 85-86)

An inventory of the contents of the 16 panels will reveal that the students’

representation of the ecosystem is a history of the history of the Native American

perspective of the Scioto River that could not have been more realistically documented in

graphic forms, it reflect deep and sincere critical thoughts. The images are real people,

conducting real everyday activities in real situations before interference, destruction and

pillage after “Columbus doom-burdened caravels slant to the shore, and all their seaman land” (Squire, 1922). I just imagined that had not Dr. Buda “nipped it in the bud,” the pieces the students created might have been discourteous and degrading to the people who were being represented, with superficial representations of cartoon characters, gun slaying savages, and ridiculous mascots. With intervention, the students’ creative,

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imaginative and innovative pieces were reverent and celebratory, paying homage to the first nation using images that reincarnated the Native Indian perspective on the Scioto

River where canoe was the mode of transportation, tepee was used for shelter, firewood was the source of fuel and the natural outdoor environs were spaces/places where children like

the little Hiawatha learned every birds’ it language, Learned their names, and all their secrets, How they built their nest in summer, Where they hid themselves in winter, Talked to them whene’er, Called them Hiawatha’s Children

Of all the beasts he learned their language, Learned their names and all their secrets, How the beavers built their lodges, Where the squirrels hid their acorn, How the reindeer ran so fast, Why the rabbit was so timid, Talk to them whene’er he met them, Called them “Hiawatha’s Brothers”

Viewing the students’ painting had swished me back to my childhood days at elementary school. It was almost five decades ago I learned the poem, “The Song of

Hiawatha” (Longfellow, 1855) and I felt inspired to insert the last two verses in the space above. The images represented in the murals portrayed the Scioto River from the Native

American perspective coupled with the words of the poem above are reflections that there was little or no fear among adults and children with regards to nature. They relied on this reservoir laden with rich sources and resources to provided educational, recreational, nutritional and health needs that were necessary for growth, enlightenment and sustenance. In his book titled, Last Child in the Woods: Saving our children from nature- deficit disorder, Richard Louv (2008) stated that,

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Fear is the most potent force that prevents parents from allowing their children the

freedom they themselves enjoyed when they were young. Fear is the emotion that

separates a developing child from the full, essential benefits of nature. Fear of

traffic, of crime, of stranger-danger – and of nature itself. (p. 123)

Dr. Buda’s exemplary best practice art integrated curriculum is not exclusive. In the review of literature, Parsons (2004) provided an overview of the new national curriculum in Taiwan, which revealed that the curriculum “requires 20% of school time be spent on integrated curriculum and specifies six topics for study; the environment, the community, identity, gender, human values and home economics” (p. 779) and the case in a Cleveland elementary school where some teachers had the students studying local bridges.

The children talked with local engineers about different structures and designs of

bridges. They went and studied particular bridges in their neighborhood. … the

topic led to a study of traffic pattern, history of transportation and industry in

Cleveland, and inquiry about the history of specific bridges. The students took

photographs, made drawings, created model bridges, looked at paintings of

bridges, and wrote essays and letters about bridges. (p. 779).

However, what is praiseworthy and exceptional is the depth, breadth and height at which Dr. Buda has been able to build, facilitate and guide the learning community while using a substantial amount of inside and outside natural, human and manufactured sources and resources to engage in an integrated curriculum that has brought Visual Arts to take center stage at her elementary school. Yes, I will agree that her visions have

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resulted in expanses of expenses, but, the state-of-the-art teaching and learning that have resulted are invaluable for both the learners and the teachers. As a matter of fact, where is it written that educating future generations of citizens should be cheap? Aren’t they the ones who will be paying the price for all the bad debts that current and past generations of adult citizens have incurred, while engaging in messy businesses such as uncalled for wars, bank bailouts and oil spills, just to name a few?

The overall P.O.N.D. project that sprung from the pond in the backyard of the school seems to have the potential to encompass the depth of a well, the width of an ocean and the height of the stars. However, the evidence that prevailed revealed that, to date, Dr. Buda had managed to explore its potential to the depth of the pond itself, a length that journeys from the pond to the Gulf of Mexico via the Indian Run Stream, the

Scioto and Olentangy Rivers (which are the points at which the voyage has docked at this moment) and the height of the ceiling of the second floor of the school building.

The integrated curriculum possibilities under the P.O.N.D. banner led to the exploration of all expanses of the pond, thus resulting in the employment of the expertise of a marine biologist to guide and facilitate the learning community, which included the students, teachers, parents and others interested in the project. This type of learning environment is what Louv (2008) referred to as ecoschool and experiential education. As was shown in the descriptions that I extrapolated from Dr. Buda’s dissertation, the pond and the other outdoor sites became the “school” in general and the teaching/learning environment to be specific. The activities reflected that Dr. Buda realized that the natural environment is the most valuable source for providing state-of-the-art teaching and learning opportunities that cannot be captured and reproduced using manufactured or

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artificial sources. This is so because “natural education stimulates cognitive learning and creativity, and reduces attention deficit” (Louv, 2008, p. 138).

Having gained knowledge that the pond does not exist as a solo unit, but is affected by and has been affecting other natural environmental elements that exists within the community and extends beyond the immediate community in which the pond is located, they took a journey to explore the other sites. I view these explorations within the pond and beyond as ways of helping the students to develop relationships between themselves and nature. They activated the students to bring their innate human characteristics of being “wanderers” and “wonderers” thus providing “powerful context for inquiry. … Wandering and wondering provides many experiences with “doing” as students read, write, talk, observe, interview, and explore a topic broadly” (Steffy &

Hood, 1994, pp. 182 – 183 ). According to Louv (2008), “for more effective education reform, teachers should free kids from the classroom. That’s the message from General

Lieberman, director of the State Education and Environmental Roundtable, a national effort to study environment-based education” (p. 206). Louv also supplied the following quote from the Roundtable’s report “Closing the Achievement Gap” that was issued in

2002.

Since the ecosystem surrounding schools and their communities vary as

dramatically as the nation’s landscapes, the term ‘environment’ may mean

different things at every school; it may be a river, a city park, or a garden carved

out of an asphalt playground. (p. 206)

Educators and all concerned about the education and wellbeing of our children

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should be aware of Louv’s (2008) warning that “lacking direct experience with nature, children begin to associate nature with fear and apocalypse, not joy and wonder” (p. 134).

One of Dr. Buda’s comments in the narrative on the children’s experience at the pond was

The first experience was truly amazing for me to see my students outside of the

artroom hands-on at the pond for three days. I am pretty sure I had never heard so

much screaming in one week. Most of the times it seemed the kids weren’t even

sure if they were screaming from excitement or from fear. To be honest, I believe

it was a little of both, but one thing I am most certain of is that this was a very

active hands-on learning experience for all of us, including Ron. Coming from

the state of Washington where they have no frogs, and he mostly handles salmon,

not bluegills and catfish; Hirschi also became a learner in our specific

environment. I received a great deal of feedback from teachers commenting

about how their students connected to the experience and how Ron created an

atmosphere where students responded by wanting, almost begging, to learn more.

(Buda, 2009, p. 192)

As the students participated in the nature related educational activities, they helped to build a research community among the students, teachers, parents and the human resources from outside the school.

The participants in the P.O.N.D. project seined and netted the depth, breadth and length of the pond to ascertain the biodiversity of the ecosystem, that is, the diversity of the plants and animals that live in and around the pond itself. The primary learners for

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whom this curriculum was designed engaged all five senses and more. They did not only look at specimens, they touched, studied for details, measured, photographed, sketched, made journal entries, asked questions and sought answers, and especially conducted further searches using books and other technological devices while they were gathering vital data relevant to most if not all the subject areas under which their formal educational curriculum has been divided. These many and varying means of exploration and methods of recording the information that the students were guided to use as they documented the invaluable data they unfolded in the natural environment will equip them with the skills and expertise necessary to conduct research throughout their school life and as they position themselves as life-long learners in their adult lives.

From Louv’s perspective, I have come to understand that the concept of environment-based education, like integrated curriculum, has been known by a number other names and that is at least a century old. Louv also drew our attention to Dewey’s advocacy for immersing students in the local environment with the following quote.

“Experience [outside the school] has its geographical aspect, its artistic and its literacy, its scientific and its historical sides. All studies are from aspects of the one earth and the one life lived upon it” (p. 203). Louv went on to explain that,

Far from radical, experiential education is at the core of this older theory, an

approach developed long before videos presented ring-necked snake to the

classroom. While environmental education focuses on how to live correctly in the

world, experiential education teaches through the senses in the natural world.

(p. 203)

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As living testimony, the artifacts and written documents are substantial evidence

that, through the instrumentality, initiatives and visions of Dr. Buda, plus the financial

support of the principal, the school’s PTO, civic and governmental organizations, the

P.O.N.D. project provided for the students, who were the primary concern, and the other

members of the learning community, state-of-the-art learning that was not only beneficial and enhancing in the area of Visual Arts but other subject areas, as well as the development and enhancement of the children’s social, moral and physical skills. For example, in order for the Pre-K and K students to create their clay objects they had to differentiate between living and non-living things and which specimens are plants and which are animals. These activities are related to the sciences. The activities helped to develop and enhance their visual discriminatory and perceptual skills as well as their tactile sensitivity, as the clay went through the different stages from moist and soft to dry and hard when it is fired. By actively providing the students clay to work with to create their art pieces, this helped in the development of manipulative skills which in turn helped in the development and enhancement of their gross and fine motor skills in their arms and hands, which are necessary for throwing, grasping, catching, writing and drawing. The grades 1 & 2 also made art pieces in clay as well as constructed books based on their seasonal visits to the pond. These pond visits helped to develop and enhance their visual and discriminatory skills as they observed changes that occurred at the pond as the seasons changed.

The first and second graders constructed books in the classroom based on seasonal pond visits. A study of the seasonal changes is related to the social studies subject area and, to a lesser degree, science with regards to environmental changes and

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animals’ and plants’ behaviors with the different seasonal changes. The taking of

photographs and drawings helped to develop and enhance their visual discriminatory and

observational skills. The observational writings were not only relevant to their

observational skills but the linguistic and writing skills are related to the language arts.

Dr. Buda teaching students how to download and print their individual photographs

enabled the students to use the computer as a medium for transporting information from the camera to the computer to the printer, thus resulting in hard copies which are two dimensional representations of their selected plants and animals. They later did group activities where they explored the life cycle of the plants and animals they selected from

the pond. The group activities helped in the development of their social interaction skills

and interpersonal intelligence. We are all aware that a study of the life cycle of plants

and animals is definite a science topic. As they then constructed life cycle tiles using

clay, like the Pre-K and K students they were developing their manipulative and fine

motor skills.

The stained glass windows that were mentioned before were the project the third, fourth and fifth grade students created that was inspired by the P.O.N.D. exploration.

Like the first and second graders, these students used sketches, field notes, photographs, videos, and additional research using the computer/internet and books at the library. As

was stated before, the classroom teachers supported the biodiversity theme and focused

on the interdependence between species with many integrated investigations through

science and language arts during and after the planning stages of the windows. This

project included a great deal of measurements and so the mathematics curriculum was

integrated in to the project. Although all the eighteen windows were not completed in the

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first residency of the stained glass artist, there was evidence that Dr. Buda and her students never failed to showcase something new and novel at the annual art show. That year the parents’ eyes were greeted with nine finished stained glass windows. I am positive the students, faculty and staff at the school must be beaming with pride and joy each time they experience the aura that radiates from those windows considering they are a part of the rich and exquisite artistic legacy that has been left behind by 8 – 11 year old students who had once attended the school. Like the murals, these windows are not displayed just for beautification purposes. They contain valuable, historic data that records the story of the lived experiences of a generation of teachers and students who were once active members of this learning environment.

As you might recall, the first two finished pieces were on display at the Columbus

Museum of Art (CMA). How empowering and elevating it must have been for the school community in general and the young artists who had created the pieces? How many artists can proudly say my work was on display at the CMA? I cannot answer that question, but I can, without hesitating, testify that those student artist, have achieved that level of recognition. Their work was shown at the main museum in Ohio’s capital city.

As an art educator and an advocate for the arts, Dr. Buda succeeded in taking the young artists in her charge to great heights, creatively and publicly.

The other major project that is visibly evident is the 68 foot mixed media fabric book that a made the “WOW” when I entered the school building on Tuesday November

17, 2009. As a textile artist, I refer to this piece as layered textiles because most of the media and techniques are textile related. With the exception of a few clay and copper objects, all the other objects are made from layering, joining, sewing and pasting together

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fabrics, yarns and/or fibers. Although Chapman (1978) warned against the use of mixed

media as substitute, I am sure she would approve of this piece because it is evident that

the volume to which this piece has spoken; it could not have been achieved using any

other artistic media, tools and techniques. She has gone as far as to say that, “Mixed

media should be used when they are appropriate to an expressive purpose, but they

should not become a substitute for developing students’ skills” (p. 230).

Oh, I wish I were there to experience firsthand the first and second graders

creating this magnificent and dexterous piece, which is time consuming, labor intensive

and demanded the employment of great deal of manipulative skills. Very seldom do we

find young artists being facilitated and guided to use fiber related media, tools and

techniques in artistic creations, especially for works that are representational. This piece

provoked me to make the “Wow!” sound because the students’ creative act exemplified that,

Together, form and material are transformed into a language that carries its own

meaning. What makes visual form significant is its power to attract attention and

to communicate or express a whole set of feelings and ideas in a nonverbal

manner. (Carroll, 1998, p. 77)

With an exception of the Gesso, clay and the foundation 68 foot fabric, everything else used in the creation of this piece seemed to be odds and ends that might have been discarded or previously used materials and objects, thus rendering this massive artistic creation cost efficient because it is low budget. From experience, I know that the foundation fabric which is 68 foot long by about 2 foot wide might not have to be newly

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bought fabric. The 68 feet could have been amassed by piecing together previously used heavy weight household linens, bed linens and table cloths sometimes over 10 foot in one dimension. The result of these creative processes facilitated by the adults in this learning community revealed that teachers, especially Visual Arts teachers, do not have to sit back and say “I do not have money to purchase the expensive commercial art media and tools, therefore I am unable to engage the students in the creative processes.” Like Dr. Buda, they can encourage and engage students in artmaking processes by guiding and facilitating them to explore and experiment with non-traditional art materials and tools, including “trashables,” or discarded materials and objects which might be natural or man- made. They should stimulate the students to be creative, imaginative and innovative so that they will create individual and/or collaborative projects that reflect their inner thoughts and make connections what the many and different curricular subjects.

There is evidence that both Dr. Buda and the professional artist are aware that some medium are not age appropriate for the first and second grade students to use and so the Gesso was applied to the foundation fabric by the professional artist. However, the students were allowed to experiment with Sharpie pens to make abstract water color paintings on the surface. I believe the Sharpie pens were the medium/tool of choice because for textile work they needed to use a medium or tool that would guarantee the

“color fastness” of the colors on the foundation fabric. The inks in the Sharpie pens are permanent and so the colors would not fade after a short while. Since the focus was the layered objects which young artists used to (re)present the human participants and the biomes of the ecosystem of the journey from the pond to the Indian Run Stream to the

Scioto River; the foundation fabric was painted in a non-representational format so as not

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to be obtrusive and detract from the main focus. Because the foundation was an abstract painting, even the first grade students could have participated in this activity. As you might recall when I started the data collection process, the first graders were doing abstract tempera painting therefore they are familiar with this painting style.

To attest to the dexterity, labor intensity and time consumption of this piece Dr. Buda

(2009) explained that

At one point, we thought it was going to take the first grade students too long to

make their own arm and leg sections (for the dolls). For three days Ron and I

worked during recess with third, fourth and fifth grade students to make arm and

leg sections for the first and second grades to use. Fourth and fifth grade students

came in each day at recess to thread needles for the first and second grade

afternoon classes. … With approximately 200 students rotating through stations, I

was unsure whether the classroom teachers and special areas teachers could

contribute to this day long artmaking session. While they were not used to so

much activities in one day, I felt it was conducive to the goals of the project, and

that there be no question that the students clearly understood the journey concept

by the time we finished the construction of this artwork representing the flow of

water from the pond to the river.

Do you realize that it is difficult to guess which area of Visual Arts is Dr. Buda’s specialization? She displays strength and versatility in most if not all the areas that are necessary to provide holistic engagement in Visual Arts for the elementary age students.

Also the mural artists who facilitated and guided the creation of the thirty two murals for

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the tunnel plus five for the first floor inside the school is the same artist–in residence for

this mixed media fiber art piece. This could be because they have been “drawing” from

some of the courses they were introduced to during the foundation year and sometimes

the second year at an art school or college. Although students might have applied to

study to be a painter, they do not focus in the area of painting only in the initial year(s) of

their studies. They rotate through many disciplines in Visual Arts before they finally settle in to an area of specialization. When artists choose to become teachers of art they have to realize that, “teachers need to go beyond their favorite media. They need to investigate a broad range of two and three dimensional materials and be ready to adapt what is learned in studio courses to school art materials” (Simpson 1998, p. 18).

From experience, I am aware that, unlike Dr. Buda’s students who are being initiated in the many and varying media and techniques at the elementary level, some

students go through elementary and high school only being exposed to drawing and

painting media tools and techniques. Most of the time they draw with graphite and/or colored pencils and crayons on paper in the elementary years with an addition of pastels and paint with tempera, acrylic and/or oil paints on paper and occasionally on canvas at the high school level. This is especially evident in the education system in Jamaica. In the Jamaican context, the high school students who specialize in Visual Arts will be prepared for the external examination based on the strength of their Visual Arts teachers; my students would be in textiles and fiber arts were I to guide students in creative processes at the high school level.

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Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations

The arts reach students who are not otherwise reached. The arts reach students in ways that they are not otherwise being reached. The arts transform the environment for learning. The arts provide learning opportunities for adults in the lives of young people. The arts connect students to themselves and each other. The arts connect learning experiences to the world of real work. Edward B. Fiske (Cited in Burnaford, Aprill & Weiss, 2001, p. xliii-xliv)

In chapter four, I provided a thick and rich description of the results of engaging my five plus senses in observing Dr. Buda, an exemplary Visual Arts teacher, who employed best practices while engaging grades one through five students in authentic art making processes and procedures. I described some of the pedagogical strategies she employed while, creating state-of-the-art learning environments for the teaching and learning of two and three dimensional art making processes and procedures, that exposed the students to working with traditional and non traditional art media, tools and techniques. The description also included some of the artifacts that documented previous teaching and learning experiences that included sources and resources within and beyond the walls of the artroom and the boundaries of the peRIMeter of the school. To provide trustworthy facts about the processes that resulted in the magnificent art products, I extrapolated authentic and relevant information that was recorded and reported in Dr.

Buda’s thesis and dissertation. Having done an exhaustive description, I proceeded to provide interpretations of what, I saw, heard and felt using theoretical, philosophical,

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political and historical discourse embedded in the fields of general education, art

education and teacher education.

In this chapter I will discuss the findings using theoretical, philosophical, political

and historical statements that reflect on the interrelatedness of integrated curriculum and

Visual Arts to each other and the significance o both in general education as a whole. As

was stated before, this study was conducted to identify best practices where a Visual Arts

teacher implements an art integrated curriculum that provided state-of-the-art teaching and learning in, with, through and about Visual Arts. From my interaction with the related literature and my observation of how arts integrated curriculum has been implemented in the United States, I will discuss the implication of using Visual Arts as an anchor and a vehicle to drive an integrated curriculum into the Jamaican education system. I will make recommendations regarding how teacher education programs can prepare elementary teachers with the knowledge, skills dispositions and commitments to enable them plan and implement arts integrated curriculum lessons that provide state-of-

the-art learning experiences for diverse populations of students that they will encounter

throughout their teaching career. I will also make suggestions as to future research

possibilities that will help to develop and enhance the knowledge base in general

education, art education and teacher education in general and for the Caribbean region as

well, thus allowing “third world” or “developing” countries to participate in the

academic arena on a global basis.

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Integrated curriculum

Integrated curriculum was introduced in the Jamaican education system in 1999, the last year of the 20th century. Although it might have been a new phenomenon to some of us who are Jamaican, there is evidence that integrated curriculum is not a new concept in education. Brewer (2002) stated that “it is important to recognize that integration is an old idea, and that as long ago as Dewey’s day correlated curriculum approaches were used” (p. 31) and Parsons (2004) pointed out that, “integrated curriculum, not always with the same name, has been a recurrent interest in American education since the 19th century” (p. 775). This pedagogical approach has been tested time and again and much positive attributes have been aligned with its capacity to enhance teaching and learning at most if not all levels of education. It seems stagnating and non-progressive to recognize and acknowledge that in this the twenty first century, integrated curriculum is not being employed more universally as a pedagogical strategy to educate future generations of citizens to negotiate and navigate their way in democratic societies. Beane (1991) provided one of the most accurate answers in stating that,

It is time we faced the facts that subject areas or disciplines of knowledge around

which the curriculum has traditionally been organized are actually territorial

spaces carved out by academic scholars for their own purposes. These subject

areas contain much that is known, but not all that is or might be. Their boundaries

limit our access to broader meanings. (Beane, 1991, p. 9)

There is evidence that, the introduction of integrated curriculum in K– 2/13 classrooms, is not a novelty to twenty first century education, it has been tested and proven to be one of the best pedagogical strategies to prepare students for adult life.

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Therefore, its recurrence in the later part of twentieth century could be a means to equip and prepare future generations of citizens to meet the fast changing demands that were inevitable as we approached the new millennium. However, best practice integrated curriculum cannot be done on a “hap hazard” or an “ad havoc” manner. It involves connections within and across subject disciplines using the concept of “big ideas” guided by essential questions (Jacob, 1989). Parsons (2004) confirmed that “without these, we found curriculum projects tend to disintegrate into a set of parallel activities that had little in common than the use of a name” ( p. 788). These connections bring groups of teachers within the same grade levels, in different grade levels and subject disciplines and other resource persons to work together, thus integrated curriculum demands a great deal time for planning and preparation for proficiency in its implementation. “Teachers who are not provided with adequate in-service or time to thoughtfully develop an integrated curriculum may go to an unstructured, ‘a little of everything” (Jacobs, 1989) approaches’ rather than a truly integrated approach to learning” (Lake, 2001, p. 10).

Education reformers seem to have forgotten that when they made the decision that integrated curriculum should be the pedagogical strategy in the twenty first century classroom, that the teachers are the professionals who have been equipped and responsible to provide and sustain superior quality educational opportunities to a diverse population of K–12/13 students. As a result, they neglected to provide prior educational opportunities to prepare and equip teachers with the pedagogical strategies necessary for them to implement an integrated curriculum before its introduction into the school systems. Education reformers and school administrators seems to forget “the fact that the subject approach has been with us for so long and is so deeply entrenched in our

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schooling schemes that it has virtually paralyzed our capacity to imagine something different” (Beane, 1991, p. 12).

The interviews revealed that none of the seven teachers were introduced to integrated curriculum neither as a pedagogical strategy for learning nor for teaching.

This information stands counter to recommendations from research regarding teacher preparation for creating integrated curricula. In order for teachers to proficiently implement an integrated curriculum, there needs to be a new orientation in the ways teachers are prepared to teach. People tend to teach the way they were taught, therefore it is important that teacher educators to “practice what they preach” and teach.

In fact, learning in the ways they are expected to teach may be the most powerful

form of teacher education. Most people tend to teach in ways that mirror how

they were taught. This means that teacher education programs can benefit from

exploring the degree to which their courses and programs are consistent with what

is known about how people learn. (Bransford, Derry, Berliner, and Hammerness

with Beckett, 2005, p. 76)

Teacher education programs need to expose teacher candidates to the pedagogical strategies that they will be expected to implement when they go enter the classrooms to practice. If integrated curriculum is the pedagogical strategy teachers will be expected to implement when they enter the work world then, they should be taught using integrated curriculum pedagogy in their teacher preparation programs; they should be provided with opportunities to witness best practices integrated curriculum in practice and to do “test runs” to understand what it feels like to plan for and implement an integrated curriculum.

Effective teachers do not only know the subject(s) they teach; they should also know the

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most effective way to teach the subject to the diverse population of students they will

teach. Although they are adults, they are learners and “a learner needs to know things

and how to do things – how to engage in the practices of the discipline” (Grossman and

Schoenfeld with Lee 2005, p. 210). According to Lake (2001) “a related issue is the

extent to which pre-service teachers are prepared to teach in settings that are committed to curriculum integrated” (p. 14)

It seems that the call for integrated curriculum as a pedagogical strategy in K–

12/13 classrooms in the later part of twentieth century could be a means to equip and prepare future generations of citizens to meet the fast changing demands that were inevitable as we approached the new millennium. What educational reformers seem to have forgotten, when they made the decision that integrated curriculum should be the pedagogical strategy in the twenty first century classroom, that the teachers are the professionals who have been equipped and responsible to provide and sustain superior quality educational opportunities to a diverse population of P-13 students. As a result, they neglected to provide prior educational opportunities to prepare and equip teachers with the pedagogical strategies necessary for them to implement an integrated curriculum, before its introduction into the school systems. Education reformers and school administrators seemed to forget “the fact that the subject approach has been with us for so long and is so deeply entrenched in our schooling schemes that it has virtually paralyzed our capacity to imagine something different” (Beane, 1991, p. 12).

The information provided by the interviewees revealed that, they were all certified teachers, prepared to teach K–8 or K–12 the US education system. All are experienced teachers; only one was certified less than twenty years ago. As a matter of fact, their

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academic and professional profiles reveal that all have had teacher preparation and have been teaching fifteen to over thirty years age. None of the teachers interviewed has had their teacher preparation since the new millennium. Thus, I am left to wonder if this could be the reason not even one of them could attest to having been exposed to pedagogical strategies for the implementation of an integrated curriculum in their teacher preparation program. One factor could be that although teaching is the profession that stands at the crossroads of all other professions, so often education reformers have been noted to “put the cart in front of the horse.” They practice top down management styles.

As a result, the teachers who will be the implementers are side stepped when educational reforms are being considered. Also, teacher education institutions are not brought on board at the initial stage; they are not informed about the reforms until they are introduced for implementation in the schools. As a result, student teachers and new teachers are sometimes placed in the learning environment to participate in educational reforms for which they have not been prepared; this has been my experience in Jamaica, especial with the introduction of the Reform of Secondary Education (ROSE) and the

Revised Primary Curriculum (RPC). .

Although Dr. Buda was not exposed to integrated curriculum in her initial teacher preparation program, by embracing the concept of teacher or adults are life long learners, she was able to acquire the knowledge, skills dispositions and commitments necessary to effectively and efficiently implement an integrated curriculum on an individual level as well as to coordinate it on a school-wide level. She used Visual Arts as an anchor and an engine to drive the integrated curriculum at her school. She is an effective art

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teacher/educator who is harnessed with the pedagogical content knowledge. She joins

the rank of teachers who

Know much more than her subject(s), and more than “good pedagogy.” They

know how students tend to understand or (and mis-understand) their subject; they

know how to anticipate and diagnose such misunderstanding; they know how to

deal with them when they arise. (Grossman, Schoenfeld, with Lee 2005, p. 5)

As a proficient Visual Arts teacher/educator, Dr. Buda, knows the subject well,

she has the pedagogical content knowledge, the pedagogical knowledge and professional

knowledge. And, she knows that she is engaged in and is facilitating integrated

curriculum by teaching in, with, through and about Visual Arts.

(Visual) Arts and the integrated curriculum

Since integrated curriculum should be the pedagogical strategy for preparing future generations of citizens, then like the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001; no subject will be left behind. Parsons (2004) cited Kliebard’s (1995) statement that, “we are currently witnessing a renewed interest in integrated curriculum in both art education and in education in general” (p. 775). It seems that in order to minimize the ‘tsunami effect’ that might have been caused, by each wrestling for the limited time and space, someone must have thought it was best to consolidate both renaissances in one package titled ‘arts integrated curriculum.’ There is evidence that there is some degree of discomfort in the educational arena regarding the twinning of the general education curricula and the ostracized minority and inferior sibling(s) arts education. In fear of the inevitable, arts

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educators and advocates for arts education had put forward their fair share of warning.

Brewer (2002) declared that “there appears to be ever-growing political and administrative emphasis on integrated curricular approaches in public schools. Some of these may be good, but often others are used instrumentally to diminish or devalue art instruction” (p. 32). He also warned that “without clarity about the intrinsic value of the arts, arts educators proceed at their own peril” (p. 32).

Based on all the praises that Fiske sang for the arts, in the interest of the students, general educators and arts educators need to stop the jostling for the limited time and space. They need to work together cooperatively and collaboratively to provide best practices in the implementation of the integrated curriculum that includes; a combination of subjects, an emphasis on projects, sources that go beyond textbooks, relationships among concepts, thematic units as organized principles, flexible schedules and flexible student grouping. Each of the four art forms (visual arts, music, dance and drama/theater) should not only be taught in an integrated manner, each should also be taught as a discrete discipline and in so doing arts educators will get the students and society in general to realize that, “learning any of the arts disciplines is a time-honored

way of learning, knowing and expressing and is just as important as any other subject in

the curriculum” (Winner, 2000, cited in Brewer, 2002, p.33).

The teacher and the arts integrated curriculum.

Teachers should be able to efficiently and effectively participate in the

implementation in an integrated curriculum that is driven and anchored by one or more of

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the arts. When Visual Arts is the subject of choice, the teacher should be equipped with the knowledge, skills dispositions and commitments necessary to be engage students in learning in, with, through and about the Visual Arts. Teachers who are not equipped with the content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and skills in working with traditional and non traditional art media, tools and techniques necessary to facilitate and guide the students to create two and three dimensional art should have the professional knowledge, disposition and commitment necessary to seek the knowledge and expertise of an art teacher/educator and/or artist to provide authentic art experiences for students of all age and level of development. Teachers should not view this as recess or break from the responsibilities entrusted upon them with the students, but embrace it as a collaborative endeavor. “Through the joint venture of arts integration, artists introduce teachers, and teachers introduce artists, to the techniques of their respective disciplines”(Burnaford,

Aprill & Weiss, 2001, p. 28). Teachers need to be aware that some artists are not aware of the school and classroom culture, therefore, “artist need to learn the vocabulary and elements of classroom practice. They need to learn the teacher’s hopes and expectations for the students and be informed about the academic goals, standards, and curriculum content” (Burnaford, Aprill & Weiss, 2001, p. 28). If done in a convivial manner, the collective effort should be most advantageous, beneficial and bear much fruits for the students.

When two or three experts in their own right, come together as comrades to discuss, design, plan lesson(s) and/or project(s), they will bring to the fore their individual and collective knowledge, skills and expertise to provide authentic learning for the students. These lessons and projects if implemented efficiently and effectively will

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ensure that several of the multiple intelligences and instincts are catered to among the

diverse population of students in each class. When it is time to implement art integrated

curriculum projects that are robust and include the entire school; and the task is

overwhelming the teacher(s) will solicit and employ the assistance of professional art

experts, resource persons beyond the fields of art and education as well as colleagues at

the school to assist in ensuring that the students’ are engaged in state-of-the-art activities and experiences that are par excellence.

This caliber of educational experiences extends beyond the boundaries of the school and brings the communities and people who, in traditional educational experience, would not have been brought into the school. It also enables teaching and learning to be taken outside of the traditional classroom context, into the natural environments and into the communities; thus utilizing the ecosystems of both the natural and the built environments and the human and other resources that are readily available. This is what

Dr. Buda has been doing when she launched the entire school community into doing large scale arts integrated curriculum. She employed the knowledge and expertise of professional artists (artists in residency), for the murals and stained glass windows projects. For the P.O.N.D. project(s), she employed the expertise of the marine biologist to explore the pond with the learning community, the “naturalists” from the city’s and state’s organizations provided authentic and hands-on experiences children and adults alike. It is evident that Dr. Buda’s Visual Arts integrated curriculum projects are very expansive and expensive; however, her recommendation to teachers who are considering implementing an arts integrated curriculum is to “start small”.

An example of ‘best practices’ arts integrated curriculum is Friere’s

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recommendation that, “students should experience this process in education by

experiencing art, expressing through their cultural arts, integrating subjects, integrating

on to the world, developing a critical consciousness and encourage dialogue. This

requires a new pedagogy, attitude and approach (cited in Ballengee-Morris, 1998, p. 50).

In their recommendation for “best practices” for teaching arts, Zimelmann, Daniels &

Hyde’s (2005) list included, time for art in the school day, integration at the arts across the curriculum; using art as a tool of doing, learning, and thinking; artists in schools, both as performers and as partners in interdisciplinary work, long-term partnership with artists and arts organizations; and teacher, principal and parents involved in the arts. Based on my observation and knowledge of Dr. Buda’s exemplary practice in providing state-of- the-art learning experience for grades one to five students, I can unapologetically declare the Visual Arts has the potential to engage students in artmaking processes that reflect their inner thoughts and provide evidence of what they have been learning in the different subject areas in the school curriculum. These artmaking processes required the students to employ knowledge and skills that reflect creative, imaginative and innovative geniuses and dexterity; as well as develop dispositions perseverance, cooperation and collaboration which are sometimes not evident in current generations of adults.

The caliber of projects that can result from direct purposeful engagement in artmaking processes and techniques enable the Visual Arts teacher and students to employ the sources and resources that surpass the pages of books and the confines of the artroom and the boundaries of the school walls. Visual Arts has the capacity to encourage exploration and experimentation of traditional and non-traditional art media,

tools and techniques as well as make connections with and garner inspirations from the

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ecosystems; the built and natural environments, within and beyond the borders of school environment. Specifically, the thirty two murals in the pedestrian tunnel, plus the five in the school building, record the (his)tory and culture of the Nilbud and Ohio communities, the Scioto River from Native American perspective. The eighteen stained glass windows plus the gift from the Indian parents reflect the ecosystem of a miniscule pond. The sixty eight foot multimedia cloth traced the flora and fauna along a journey from the pond to the Scioto River. These projects are meaningful to the creators as they provide substantial evidence of what they have been learning and their thoughts and ideas. As Parsons’

(2004) pointed out

It is that artworks are always about something; they have meanings to understand,

as well as qualities to grasp, and these meanings are central to their character as

artwork. Especially they can be about social or personal issues, sometimes deep

and abiding ones. (p. 787)

The expansive and expensive P.O.N.D. projects and the current mosaic mural that is a work in progress in the pedestrian tunnel are all testimony to the multifaceted capacities of Visual Arts. However, projects of such magnitude require the (art) teacher(s) to “raise funds from outside the school system to support their arts integration work, while persistently seeking higher levels of commitment from school and district”

(Rabkin & Redmond, 2006, p. 64). There is evidence that these types of projects can bring together and built learning communities among diverse populations of people who, under normal circumstances would not have come together in the same site, at same time and for the same cause. These types of projects “do not look the same in every school, but reflects each school’s particular strengths, interests and available arts resources”

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(Rabkin & Redmond, 2006, p. 64).

I have come to realize that my voyage from Jamaica to the US on a quest to

witness ‘best practices’ in arts integrated curriculum, in elementary schools, is like

searching for a ‘pin in a haystack.’ This could be because elementary teacher preparation

programs have not equipped teachers with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and

commitments necessary to “use(s) the arts as media to communicate content and as

methods of learning through such practices as careful observation, inquiry, practice,

creation, representation, performance, critique and reflection” (Rabkin & Redmond,

2006, p. 64). It is evident that the ‘best practices’ arts integrated curriculum I hope to witness cannot be realized by the elementary school teachers acting on their own.

In an AAI [authentic arts integrated] lesson, the arts do not merely serve as an

enhancement to or beautification of the co-disciplinary objectives, but as an

equally viable and valuable part of the educational experience. Therefore, for

authentic arts integration to occur, those who teach the arts, must be highly

qualified in the art content and the pedagogy necessary to deliver specific

instruction for successful learning. (Smilan, 2007, p. 282)

The collaboration and cooperation that is required might be difficult to forge, as the Ohio State University TETAC mentors (2002) revealed that,

it has not been their tradition in art education to focus teaching on broad themes

or to integrate the whole curriculum through art because they have been

preoccupied as a profession with the autonomy of art, with its importance as a

separate discipline. (p. 15)

According to Rabkin & Redmond (2006) “arts integration is not simple or easy. The

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educators and artists who have developed it have swum against a tide of stereotypes that keep the arts in the margin” (p. 64).

Although, their recommendation is that principals should lead school-wide planning to bring arts integration into all classrooms and use multiple art forms in the school, Dr. Buda’s leadership quality, devotion to bringing Visual Arts to the core of the school’s curriculum and visionary intuition had catapulted her to take the lead role to facilitate and direct an art integrated curriculum at her school. This reflects that teachers do not have to wait on the principal(s) to initiate an arts integrated curriculum in their schools. It is obvious that in order to make a commitment that affords students experiences in ‘best practices’ arts integrated curricula, everyone concerned must come to the realization that “the value of arts integration lies in its great potential to help learners experience learning as a holistic endeavor that connects their personal feelings with intellectual and physical skill development and help them anticipate learning challenges with joy” (Strand, 2006, p. 39).

Recommendation

In this research, my focus is on teaching and learning in the Jamaican education system. The integrated curriculum was introduced in the elementary education system in

September 1999. In a best practices integrated curriculum, all subjects should be treated with equality, this means all subjects will be afforded equal amount of time and space/place in the daily teaching and learning activities. A best practices integrated curriculum should reflects Lake’s (2001) suggestions, a combination of subjects,

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connections among subjects an emphasis on projects, sources that go beyond textbooks,

relationships among concepts, thematic units as organized principles, flexible schedules

and flexible student grouping. Assessment which is an essential component of teaching

and learning should also reflect the methodology used for instruction; this means

assessment should have an integrated format. For teaching to reflect best practices in the

implementation of an integrated curriculum, the teachers should be equipped with the

knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments necessary to adequately perform the

task. This is reflected in Grossman, Schoenfeld with Lee’s (2005) argument is that,

“teachers need to understand deeply not only the content they are responsible to teach but

how to (re)present that content for learners of all kinds’ (p. 202). Also, the successful

implementation of an integrated curriculum requires assigned time for planning.

My knowledge of what are ‘best practices’ in the implementation of an integrated

curriculum and my reflection of what is happening in the Jamaican education system that

requires fully integration at Grade 1 – 3 levels reveals that the there needs to be

improvement in the (re)presentation of arts in general and Visual Arts in particular. The

arts are not being afforded equal time and space/place in the daily teaching/learning

activities, neither as discrete disciplines nor in curriculum integration. Winner’s (2000)

thoughts are that, learning any of the arts disciplines is a time-honored way of learning,

knowing and expressing and is just as important as any other subject in the curriculum

(cited in Brewer, 2002). Using one or more of the arts as culminating activity at the end of teaching one or more of the traditionally labeled “core subjects” is doing a disservice to the art(s). In such situations “the arts become handmaidens to the ends that are not distinctly artistic and the process undermine the value of the art’s unique contribution to

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the education of the young” (Eisner 1998, p. 17). The students are to be taught the arts as

distinctive disciplines; they should be exposed to the vocabulary, history, samples of

works and artistic processes and procedures in each discipline. When it is time for them

to do projects the students would have been equipped with the knowledge and skills

There needs to be improvement in the time allotted in preparing elementary teachers for the teaching of any of the discrete arts discipline. Currently each discrete arts discipline is afforded only three hours per week over three semesters in the elementary teacher preparation program in the Jamaican education system. Based on

Grossman, Schoenfeld with Lee’s (2005) argument that “prospective teachers need to have solid foundation in the subject matter they plan to teach” (p. 206), a total of one hundred and thirty five hours engagement in learning a subject discipline is inadequate for providing prospective teachers with the necessary content knowledge as well as pedagogical content knowledge to empower them to teach the subject. This is not in keeping with Ball’s (2000) statement that, “knowing subject matter and being able to teach it is at the heart of teaching all students” (p.243). The teachers do not only need be knowledgeable in the subjects they teach; they should be harnessed with pedagogical strategies to teach the subject.

A contemporary concept in adult education is that of lifelong learners. Currently, little or no facilities and/or provisions are in place for practicing teachers to put in motion

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the disciplinary tools to continue learning within the arts throughout their career. There

is a need for in- service Professional Development Programs that provide learning in the

arts, and learning through the arts for practicing primary/elementary school teachers,

especially those who have had their certification over a decade ago. Like regular teacher

education programs, professional development programs should be “organized around

three domains of knowledge that are particular relevant to teachers’ instructional practice:

general pedagogical knowledge, subject-matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge” (Borko and Putnam, 1995, p. 38). They should provide practicing teachers with ongoing in-service opportunities to acquire the additional knowledge, skills,

dispositions and commitments necessary to make the arts an integral component of

teaching and learning in the primary schools.

There is need for improvement with regards to making community connections

and the teaching the arts both as discrete disciplines and an anchor for and an engine to

drive an integrated curriculum. Although there is evidence that teachers are attempting to

make connections within and across disciplines, sometimes they do not make connections

outside their classrooms or beyond the boundaries of the walls of the school. As was

stated before, unlike the elementary education system in the United States, primary

school teachers in Jamaica teach from A to Z. Currently, there are no arts specialists in

their schools for them to connect and or collaborate with. Although, there might not be

evidence of professional or amateur artists in the community in which the schools are

located. However, if teachers do a thorough investigation they might reap rewards and

discover that there are artists in their communities. They need to employ the knowledge,

skills and expertise of artists and collaborate with them in an effort to provide the

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students with authentic and novel teaching/learning experiences. Also, all high schools employ specialist arts teachers in at least two of the distinct disciplines, Music and Visual

Arts being the two most prevalent and most female Physical Education teachers have basic knowledge and skills in the area of Dance. The primary school teachers can make connections with these teachers who should be more knowledgeable and skilled and work collaboratively to provide the students with rich arts teaching and learning experiences either as discrete arts learning or for the implementation of an integrated curriculum.

Since the arts are process oriented and the products are always evolving, assessments in and of arts should not be done only at the end of production. “The aim of assessment is primarily to educate and improve student performance, not merely to audit it” (Wiggins,

1998, p. 7). Beattie (1997) cited in Daniel, Stuhr & Ballengee-Morris, stated that

“assessment is an ongoing process for both teachers and students” (p. 10). Unlike some subjects the arts do not lend themselves to the traditional and/or most widely used assessment strategy, paper and pencil/pen. When the students’ learning occurs in, with, through and about the arts, performance assessment is a natural choice. Beattie suggested that, “there are many approaches to assessment such as portfolio, diaries, journals, logs and performance” (p. 10) and the monthly, and annually and permanent with exhibitions like those Dr. Buda has been doing.

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As was stated before, a major general theme for the fully integrated curriculum in

Grades 1 – 3 in the Jamaican Revised Primary Curriculum (RPC) is, All About Me and

My Environment; the sub-theme for Grade 1 – Myself; the sub-themes for Grade 2 – My

Home, My Family, My Community, the Nation and the Wider World; and the sub-themes

for Grade 3 – My School, My Community and My Physical Environment. Grades 4 – 6

curricula are not integrated therefore they will not be considered here. An integral

component of an integrated curriculum in general and arts integrated curriculum in

particular is making connections. Teachers will need to realize that for effective and

efficient implementation or an (arts) integrated curriculum, it should not be limited to the

subjects/disciplines in the curriculum or the academic, administrative and ancillary staffs

in their schools. Connection goes beyond the walls of the classroom and the school. In

order for exemplary teachers to provide state-of-the-art learning experiences in state-of- the-art learning environments for the students in Grades 1 – 3 the teachers will need to keep the doors of the classrooms and the artrooms constantly opened and reach over and beyond the walls of the school to identify, access and utilize sources and resources that will enhance, ensure and enable the successful implementation of an (arts) integrated curriculum. Teachers will need mine for the knowledge, skills and expertise that are available in the local, parish and national communities.

A review of the sub-themes at all three grade levels reveals that, the first

(re)source for local community connection, home and family can be the initial point of entry into curricula. The teachers could send questionnaires home to the parents to identify what knowledge, skills and expertise relevant to the themes and topics in the

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curriculum are readily available. The questionnaires should also allow the parents to

provide the teachers with an inventory of the knowledge, skills and expertise of other

local community members who might be providers of goods and services. If they have

the dispositions and commitments needed they can make invaluable contributions to the

teaching and learning of the themes/topics and even subject disciplines of the school

curricula. The teacher might discover parents and community members who are

specialist teachers, medical practitioners, or visual and performing artists who can

contribute to the teaching/learning experiences of the children and teachers as well. The

teachers would then venture into the wider community to identify other professional and

career personnel who can contribute to creation of the authentic learning experiences: the

nurse, the doctor, police, fireman, farmer, baker or soldier. The teacher will

communicate with the parish office of Jamaica Cultural Development Commission

(JCDC) for names and contact information for national performing and visual artists who

are locally based and are willing to contribute their professional knowledge and skills to

enhance teaching and learning and to help make connections between the different

subject disciplines.

During the teacher preparation experience, the prospective teachers should be

introduced to the national professional organizations, groups and individuals who

perform and/or exhibit their products and productions and the different venues where

these performances and exhibitions can be viewed. Having put together a catalog of local

and all national sources and resources, the teachers will make arrangements to include

them to provide authentic state-of-the-art teaching and learning experience for their children on a continuous basis. This preliminary work is vital and essential because,

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“curriculum integration seeks connection in all directions” (Burnaford, Aprill & Weiss

2001, p. 7) and “arts integration encourages individuals and groups of school people to stretch out a hand to community resources, whatever they may be, and makes

connections to the school curriculum” (p. 6).

The teacher would first communicate with these persons/organizations and

introduce the theme/topics of the curriculum to them and in the process solicit their

assistance in creating authentic learning experiences for the students. The teacher will

arrange and meet with the persons to plan how, when and where the person(s) will

provide the experience for the children. On some occasions, the resource person’s

engagement will be a single lesson experience while on other occasions it will be a unit

that might last a month or more. In Jamaica we have a saying, “if the mountain cannot go

to Muhammad, Muhammad will have to go to the mountain.” In cases where the

resource persons are not able to take their resources to the children, the teachers will

arrange to take the children to the sites thus creating the learning environment beyond the

walls of the school. These will take the format of field trips which will be funded by the

parents and/or fund raising efforts by the school, the teachers or Parent Teachers

Association (PTA).

With regards to the Grade 1 Curriculum: Myself – Who Am I? My Body I, II and

III; Care and Safety of Self and Satisfying Others Needs; the parents, health and safety

professional, science and food and nutrition specialist teachers would be excellent

resources to connect with these topics/themes. For Grade 2 Curriculum – My Home - My

Family, Things in the Home; My Family – Living Together as a Family, Satisfying Our

Needs; My Community, The nation and The Wider World; parents and their children

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could collaborate to discuss and demonstrate examples of the different types of family,

things in the home and living together as a family. Manufacturers, distributors and repair persons could be brought in to add to the discussion by explaining manufacturing, repairing and caring for things in the home. Farmer(s), baker(s) postmen (mail carriers), policemen/policewomen, and firemen, barber, dressmaker could be brought in to explain and demonstrate how they do what they do to provide goods and services. For Grade 3 –

My School – Myself at School, Together at School, This is my Community, Places of interest in My Community, Plants and Animals in my Community, Living and Non-living

Things in My Environment, Caring for My Environment, the teacher should include members of school community to participate for the first two topics in the Grade 3 curriculum. The students, principal, ancillary, administrative and academic personnel could discuss the part they play in the day to day experiences in and around the school.

Members from other schools in neighboring communities could also be brought in so the children can get an understanding that the organization is generally the same in schools everywhere. After students and teacher do an inventory of places of interest in the community, they can invite the persons who are connected to these places to discuss what is the interesting and important about these places. The teacher could involve the science teachers and students from neighboring high schools to work along with the students on topics such as Plants, Animals, and Living and Non-living things in the community. For the topic on Caring for the Environment, the teacher could invite local/parish government and private agencies who work in areas of environmental maintenance and sustenance to discuss aspects such as the built environment, the natural environment, and the biological

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environment that are evident in and around the school community as well as on the local, national and global levels.

The exemplary teachers who have access to community and local artists (either or

both visual and performing arts) can invite them to work individually and collaboratively

with the students in learning skills and creating products using materials, tools and

equipments related to the specific arts disciplines. As was said before, the teacher will

first consult and plan with the invited guests to make sure their engagement and

presentations with the students are age appropriate and within the boundaries of the

academic sphere. In areas where the exemplary teachers are unable to identify

community of local artists, the teacher can solicit the assistance of the arts specialists at

the local high schools for their expertise, which should allow for the sharing of tools and

equipment. This can be initiated through the instrumentality of principals who would be

members of the district principals’ association. Including the parents, local community

professionals and artists to engage in teaching/learning at the primary level reflects

Burnaford, Aprill and Weiss’ (2001) position that,

arts integration brings another dimension to planning; it brings people into the process

who have not been there before. People outside the normal teacher-student domain of

the classroom become involved- artists, museum docents, and others who have a

contribution to make when schools want to deepen both teaching and learning.

(p 33).

The exemplary teachers will expose the students to professional and amateur

performances and products; the teachers can arrange to take the students to participate in

and/or be in the audience and be spectators at the Jamaica Cultural Development

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Commission’s annual parish and national visual and performing arts festival competitions. On the more professional level they will take them on field trips to visual arts exhibitions at galleries in local cities, parish capitals and/or the National Gallery of

Jamaica, plan and make arrangement for guided tours so a knowledgeable employee, docent or arts educator/historian can provide the children and teachers with reliable and authentic information about the work. The children will be taken to the country’s capital city, Kingston, where most social and cultural activities happen to see the National Dance

Theatre Company (NDTC), the Jamaica Folk Singers, the Cari Folk Singers, Lacadco

Dance Company, Ashé Dance Company, and the Little Theatre Movement (LTM) annual

Pantomime performances. The teacher will invite parents and other community members to go along on these trips; they will make sure to inform the group/organization of the students’ (school’s community) presence so they will be acknowledged at the beginning and/or end of the performance. This will make the children have a “feel good” experience collectively and individually. As our folklorist and first lady of comedy the Hon. Louise

Bennett would say, ‘like dem a summady pickney’ (like they are someone’s child).

These experiences should be an integral part of the students learning because,

all students have the right to equitable access to art in their lives and in their

school. The arts teach learners to know themselves as capable citizens in a

democratic society, observing, reflecting, making choices, and taking responsibility

for actions in the world. Our children face a future that is much more mobile and

shifting than we know. They need to be adept at crossing many more borders-real and

virtual, social and geographical, intrapersonal and interpersonal – than we were

prepared for in our education. … Young people need flexibility, creativity, and

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tolerance for ambiguity to successfully manage their emerging adulthoods and to

become effective citizens. (Burnaford, Aprill & Weiss, 2001 p. 21)

My Goals for Visual Arts and the Integrated Curriculum in Jamaica

1. To provide elementary school teachers in Jamaica with experiences that will

equip them with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments necessary

to bring the arts, Visual Arts in particular, from the peRIMeter of the classroom

with elegance and style to take ‘pride of place’ as members of the core

curriculum. To achieve this goal I would design and implement a two semester,

six hour per week, Arts Integrated Curriculum that will provide elementary

teachers with additional content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical

content knowledge, and professional knowledge that will be necessary to teach

the arts as discrete disciplines as well as for the implementation of an arts

integrated curriculum. This will enable the teachers to perform the act of teaching

successfully at all grade levels of the primary education system.

2. To provide elementary school teachers in Jamaica with a wide range of

assessment strategies to demonstrate their awareness of its power as an

effective/efficient evaluative tool and its ability to foster and enhance teaching

and learning.

Ministry of Education goals and objectives

The current motto of the Ministry of Education is “every child can learn, every

child must learn.” In order to live up to the motto, and remedy a negative finding of

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UNICEF in its 1983 report, the Revised Primary Curriculum (RPC), which was a

collaboration between the Government of Jamaica, the Inter-American Development

Bank and the Primary Education Improvement Programme (PEIP II), was introduced

in the in the Jamaican education system, in 1999. A perusal of the introduction page as

well as the messages, in the curriculum guide, from the Ministry of Education officials

reveals that at the Grades 1 -3 curricula are fully integrated using the overarching

theme “Me and My Community”. The Grades 4 – 6 format changes to discrete

disciplines – Drama, Language arts, Mathematics, Music, Physical Education,

Religious Education, Science, Social Studies, Visual Arts, with thematic integration

across subject areas being encouraged in the pupils’ projects and research work. In

January 2001 the Primary Education Support Project (PESP) was established to

support the gains that were achieved under the Primary Education Improvement

Projects I and II (PEIP I and PEIP II). The general goal of PESP is to contribute to the

improved performance, efficiency and equity of the primary education system. The

objectives of the project are to:

• Improve performance through the effective implementation of the Revised

Primary Curriculum (RPC) and national assessment standards in schools.

• Increase efficiency through the rationalisation of teacher education and the

strengthening of educational management capacity at all levels.

• Enhance equity in the delivery of educational services to children from the lower

socio-economic background through targeted interventions for improved

literacy, numeracy and attendance.

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Goals relationships and descriptions

A review of both the PESP goals and objectives and my goals reveals that there

are connections and the achievements of my goals can be a powerful source for the

achievement of the goals and objectives of PESP. The curriculum I envisage will be

included as a new course to be introduced in the recently introduced Bachelor of

Education program at the teachers’ training colleges. It will reflect the first two

objectives of PESP: one is, preparing teachers to implement an integrated curriculum, and

the other regards efficiency through the rationalization of teacher education. It will equip

the teachers with the body of scholarly knowledge that will form the basis of entitlement

to practice. It will provide them with content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge,

pedagogical content knowledge, and professional knowledge that will be necessary to

teach the arts as discrete disciplines as well as to include them in the implementation of

the fully integrated curriculum at Grades 1 – 3 levels. Although Burnaford, Aprill &

Weiss (2001) commented that, “the arts are important in themselves; they are also

essential elements of a broad and dynamic curriculum” (p. xix), if the teachers are not

adequately prepared for the task, they will not be able to implement the integrated

curriculum in an efficient and effective manner. While using the themes, provided in the

curriculum guide, as the “big ideas” and forming the topics into “essential questions,” an

adequately prepared teacher will be able to provide the students with authentic and novel

learning experiences in that make connections in all the subject areas. Snyder (2001)

informed that, “in an integrated unit, a broad theme is chosen that cuts across disciplines, so each content area or intelligence can explore the central idea in a meaningful way.

The integrity of each intelligence of discipline is maintained” (p. 5). It means that like all

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the other subjects, the arts will be brought from the peRIMeter of the learning environment in style and elegance to the core of the curriculum. If each of the arts disciplines are treated individually and afforded equal time and place/space as the traditionally acknowledged core subjects in the daily teaching/learning activities, the teachers would be demonstrating to the students and society that, “learning any of the arts disciplines is a time-honored way of learning, knowing and expressing and is just as important as any other subject in the curriculum” (Winner 2000, cited in Brewer, 2002, p.). The course I will design and implement will equip the teachers to effectively and efficiently implement an integrated curriculum that includes the arts, as well as provide them with the knowledge and skills to enable them to teach the arts as distinct disciplines.

As was stated before, I am anticipating that all the subjects will be given equal time and space in the Grades 4 – 6 curricula. If not I expect the teachers’ orientation and preparation will provide them the necessary tools/skills that will enable them to manipulate the timetable and curricula to afford all the subjects equal time and space. As is explained in the message from the ACEO (Acting Chief Education Officer 1999) –

Core Curriculum Unit “opportunities for integration at Grades 4 – 6 levels are provided through research and project work based on interdisciplinary themes” (p. v).

Traditionally, this was the time and place that the arts were brought from the peRIMeter of the learning environment, into the curriculum, as culminating activities for the other subjects. In these situations “the arts become handmaidens to the ends that are not distinctly artistic and the process undermine[s] the value of the art’s unique contribution to the education of the young” (Eisner 1998, p. 17). However, if the students are taught the arts as distinctive disciplines as the curriculum guide for Grades 1 – 3 indicated, it

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means they will be exposed to the vocabulary, history, samples of works and artistic

processes and procedures in each discipline. When it is time for them to do projects the

students would have been equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to utilize

one or more of the arts to create excellent works that will reflect a theme being

investigated and show the “linkage between learning in the arts and learning in other subjects” (Brewer, 2002, p. 33). And, if the teachers have been reaching out beyond the walls of the school, mining their local communities for the available sources and resources, they will be able to engage students in individual and collaborative projects that require creativity, innovation and imagination to reflect that,

Education must enable young people to engage with themselves. It should help

them to recognize and develop their own unique capacities. Human culture is so

rich and diverse because human intelligence is so complex and dynamic. We can

think about our experiences in all ways we have them – visually, in sound,

movement and in touch, as well as through words and numbers. All young people

have academic abilities; for some, this is their real strength, But they also have

other abilities, which may be expressed through music, art, sport, design, dance,

and other ways. (Burnaford, Aprill, & Weiss, 2001, p. xix)

Like the arts, another essential and important component of education, teaching and learning that is sometimes not given the attention that it deserves is assessment.

Assessment should be an integral part of teaching and learning and should be relevant not only to the content of the curriculum but also the methodology that is being used for curriculum implementation. Assessment should be continuous, and should not only be

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done at the end of the term or academic year. When teachers include formative

assessment, it enables them to identify what the children have learned and what they

might not have understood. This provides the teachers with opportunity to review their

teaching strategies and employ new approaches that will enable all the children to get the

opportunity to perform at their maximum level of proficiency. When the teachers include

formative assessments they provide the students with feedback and allow the students

opportunities to revise or redo assignments to improve on their performances. When the

students’ learning occurs through the arts, performance assessment is a natural choice,

with regards to Visual Arts, like Dr. Buda, the teachers can create gallery space on the

walls outside their classrooms and mount monthly, end of term and annual exhibitions of

students works. With regards to the performing arts, they can prepare students for dance

musical, drama and dance performances which include the entire school community as

audience/spectators. Beattie (1997) suggested that, “there are many approaches to

assessment such as portfolio, diaries, journals, logs and performance” (cited in Daniel,

Stuhr & Ballengee-Morris, 2006, p. 10).

The same assessment strategies that will be used for assessing the student teachers

in the course will prepare them to conduct continuous assessments in their classrooms

among the diverse population of students they will teach. The arts integration approach

to learning will allow the teachers to use rubrics as part of an authentic assessment

system. Using rubrics with children teaches them while they are learning to critique and

be critiqued on the quality of their work. Rubrics also provide students with a prior

knowledge of how their work will be evaluated. Classroom teachers will find this approach useful in their teaching beyond the arts. Art educators, artists and teachers 278

will allow for revisions; students are given feedback, which is an integral aspect of

formative assessments, and opportunity to revise and rethink their work so that it

becomes become stronger, richer and deeper. (Burnaford, Aprill & Weiss 2001).

From this research, I have discovered that there is a vast amount of scholarly

literature on (art) integrated curriculum. However, there is need for further research to

document how theories are put into practice. More researchers need to position

themselves into classroom/school settings to gather and report data to explore how

different learning communities have been engaging in state-of-the-art teaching and learning that bring the arts to the core of the curriculum. Like Dr. Buda, teachers need to be documenting and reporting how they have been engaging in teaching in, with, through and about the arts as well as using the art to anchor or drive integrated curriculum.

With regards to the Caribbean, The Position Paper on the Way Forward for

Framing Arts Education in the Caribbean – Beyond Lisbon 2006 (draft) is a cry for more to be done with regards to the arts in education.

As a result, Caribbean art educators have formed the Association of Caribbean

Arts Education (ACAE). Its vision is “to develop an environment conducive to learning the arts (Art Education), learning through the arts (Art in Education), and participating in and understanding of the artistic forms and cultural traditions of the region.”

The contents of the position paper have some degree of relevance to my research, which was geared to identify best practices in arts integrated curriculum that can be used a model for the implementation of the integrated curriculum in Jamaica, one of the sister countries in the Caribbean. A review of the document reveals that my research is not a

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“solo” voice crying out for the arts to play an integral role in the education system in the

Caribbean region. It stated that “In the Arts Education Road Map certain strategies were identified for Arts Education: Partnerships and Education of teachers and artists. It also identified the need for informed decision making, thus requiring a research thrust in Arts

Education and knowledge sharing” (pp.1-2). Although it did not indicate the strategies identified in my research on arts integrated curriculum, I have discovered that in order for a successful implementation of an arts integrated curriculum there should be partnerships between art educators, teachers and artists, therefore, it will provide some useful strategies. There is evidence that my research will be fulfilling the need for scholarly work in Arts Education.

The action plan revealed that that there is a need to provide a solid body of knowledge and interaction in order to contribute to the global discourse on Arts

Education. My research adds a solid body of knowledge, because it contributes to the global discourse on Arts Education. It indicated that we need to make our selves ready for a major thrust to make arts central to education. My research positions me as one of the pathfinders in this major thrust for making arts central to education practice in the

Caribbean. The fact that it will be submitted as an electronic document makes it easily accessible globally.

Conclusion

And now, this charge I commit to all my colleagues, who from now on will engage in the education of future generations of citizens. Based on the philosophies,

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theories, and pedagogical practices concerning what the arts can do in the educating of our children, that you should wage good warfare to reflects that by your conscience and commitment you have played you part to ensure the arts are brought, with elegance and style, from the peRIMeter to the core of the curriculum and take center stage in the educational institution with which you will engage as a member of that “community of learners”. Through the process of “life long learning” equip yourselves with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments necessary to “preach” and put into practice the undeniable value of including the arts as an integral part of the education of future generations of citizens. Without the arts in education, contextualized and integrated into one’s life, we will be denying future generations of citizens the opportunity for a holistic development of their personhood.

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APPENDICES

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Appendix A – IRB Exemption Letter

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Appendix B – Letter Seeking Access to Field Site

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The Ohio State University Art Education Department 258 Hopkins Hall 128 North Oval Mall Columbus, OH 43210

October 1, 2009

Dear Dr. Buda,

I must say thanks very much for your response to Dr. Patricia Stuhr, consenting to participate as co-creator in my upcoming research. As co-creator, you will be allowing me an opportunity to observe first hand, how you engage in the implementation of an integrated curriculum in Visual Arts, with Visual Arts, through Visual Arts and about Visual Arts. If possible, I would also like to observe and/or interview some classroom teachers who have been collaborating with you in the implementation of the integrated curriculum. Although I will be visible, I will not be an active participant in the teaching/learning environments. I will be there as an outsider, who is interested in ascertaining how you perform the task of implementing an integrated curriculum that focuses on Visual Arts. This is a single case, case-study; therefore, I will not be comparing and/or contrasting the pedagogical strategies with any other professionals in or outside the discipline. I am aware that, research is not useful if not analyzed, document and made available for others to use, either as resource for their research or as guide to improve their practice. Therefore, I want to provide detailed account(s) of what you and the other teachers are doing and have been doing on a daily basis that reflects best practices in the implementation of an integrated curriculum that is driven by Visual Arts. This research will provide me with an authentic experience that will equip me with knowledge necessary to return to my country Jamaica, to make an invaluable contribution in the reformation of education in general and teacher education to be specific. It will place me in a position to make a commitment to ensure that the arts are moved from the periphery of the classroom to the core of the integrated curriculum that is currently being used in the elementary schools. To accurately and efficiently generate that quality data needed for the research, I hope to make between fifteen and twenty visits to your school, over a period of four months. I will employ multiple data collection methods for the case study. The primary method will be observation, which will involve journaling/note taking. I will also engage you in the basic three categories of interviews; informal conversational interviews, formal interviews by scripted

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questions and open-ended interviews. With your and the teachers consent, I would like to audio tape the formal interviews. Additionally, I hope I will be able to review and analyze some of the documents and artifacts such as unit/lesson plans, rubrics and evaluation instruments, class projects, photographs and/or samples of students’ work, and photographs and/or diagrams of the classroom settings. Neither you nor any other teacher is obligated to participate in this research; if at anytime anyone feels the need to, he/she may withdraw from participating in the research. To ensure your privacy, I will use a pseudonym for each participant when writing up the research information; this name I will allow each teacher to choose. I will at no time make mention the name of the school site at which the research will be done. When the research is completed, I will ensure the privacy of audio tapes, if used, by keeping them solely in my possession or make other arrangements to each participant’s satisfaction and consent. As you are aware, I will need to apply to the Ohio State University Office of Research Practices for an exempt determination to give me permission to conduct this research at your school with human participant(s). I am therefore asking you to replicate the response you had sent to Dr. Stuhr and address it to me so I can include it with the application for IRB exemption.

Anticipating your response.

Sincerely,

Verona Barnes PhD Candidate Ohio State University Art Education Department (614) 292-7183 (Art Education Department) (240) 672-5039 (cell) [email protected]

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Appendix C – Letter of Permission from the School

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Appendix D – Letter Recruiting Participants

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The Ohio State University Art Education Department 258 Hopkins Hall 128 North Oval Mall Columbus, OH 43210

October 25, 2009

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Verona Barnes. I am a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art Education at The Ohio State University and a teacher educator in my country Jamaica. I am collecting data for a case study on Arts Integrated Curriculum in Elementary schools. The data will be on the everyday practices of elementary schools art educator(s) (Visual Arts teachers) and classroom teacher(s) who work collaboratively and cooperatively to successfully implement an integrated curriculum with, in, through and about Visual Arts.

The methodologies I will use for collecting the data are observations, interviews, journal/diary writing and documents and artifacts analysis. During observations, I will not be fully immersed in the setting as an active participant in the teaching/learning activities. I will use structured and unstructured observations. I will take the stance of a distance visible stranger who is observing how you (the teacher) perform your daily tasks. As a result, I would like to sit in some of your classes to observe how you engage students in meaningful learning that brings the arts (Visual Arts in particular) to the core of the integrated curriculum. I will document my observations in a journal/diary, as a participant, you will be privileged to peruse my journal/diary at any time during the data collecting period of my research.

You will also be asked to participate in informal and formal interviews. The informal interviews will be unstructured and will take the format of discussions either before or after class. During these discussions I will ask unscripted questions based on lesson(s) you are preparing to teach or lesson(s) you had already taught, these might be observed or unobserved lessons. I would like to engage you in one formal interview that will last no more that two hours. The interview will be done at your convenience at a venue to be decided by you. With your permission, I would like to audio tape the discussion we will engage in during the formal interview. A list of the questions

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that you will be asked to respond to during this interview is attached with this letter. If audio taping is permitted, at the end of the interview I will play the tape so you can make changes to any responses you do not wish to be included in the research.

I would also like to sit in one or two of the planning sessions where teachers meet to engage in evaluation and reflection of previous lesson(s) and plan for future lesson(s). If I am permitted to sit in at these meetings, I would like an opportunity to report some of the observations I document in my journal/diary and ask questions that will allow you to analyze the causes and effects of instructional strategies.

Additionally, I would like to review and analyze some documents and artifacts such as unit/lesson plans, rubric and evaluation instruments, class and individual projects, photographs and/or samples of students’ works and photographs and/or diagrams of classroom settings. If possible, I would appreciate if you could give me copies of a few of the documents to take as reference. These will help me to ascertain details of the chronology of the teaching activities you had performed over a period of time, before I started the research.

Unlike other researchers, whose aim is to compare and contrast one teacher’s pedagogical strategies with other professionals in and outside you area of specialization; my aim is to identify and document best practices in the implementation of an integrated curriculum that brings Visual Arts to the core of the curriculum. The data collected will be analyzed, interpreted and written up for my dissertation, conference presentations and publication/journal articles related to this study. By participating in this research, you will also afford me an opportunity to witness and experience first hand, how exemplary teachers engage in implementing an integrated curriculum that brings the arts (Visual Arts in particular) to the core of the curriculum. This invaluable experience will provide the knowledge base and pedagogical strategies necessary to improve my practice as I prepare pre-service elementary teachers, in Jamaica, to implement an integrated curriculum that brings the arts to the core of the curriculum.

The minimum age requirement to participate in this study is eighteen. You are not obligated to participate in this research, if at anytime you feel the need to, you may withdraw from participating in the research. In order to ensure confidentiality and protect your identity, I will

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use a pseudonym for each participant when I am writing up the information. You will be given an opportunity to select the name you wish to be identified by. At no time will I use the name of the school at which this research is conducted. When my research is complete I will ensure the privacy of the tapes and written data by keeping them solely in my possession or make other arrangements to your satisfaction and consent. Before the final draft is submitted, I will provide you a draft copy to review to ensure that you are satisfied with the manner in which you are represented. That is, there are not misquoted or misrepresented in the final document.

This letter is yours to keep, if you have any questions about this research project, please feel free to contact me either by mail, e-mail, or telephone. Please note, you are not obligated to participate in this research, your participation is voluntary, you can refuse to answer questions that you do not wish to answer, and you can refuse to participate or withdraw at any time without penalty or repercussion.

Thank you for your cooperation, your participation is highly appreciated. Attached is a form for you to fill out and sign to confirm your willingness to participate in the research.

Sincerely,

Verona Barnes PhD Candidate Department of Art Education The Ohio State University (614) 292-7183 (Art Education Department) ((240) 672-5039 [email protected]

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Appendix E – Participants Consent Form

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FORM INDICATING YOUR WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE RESEARCH

Please check one of the spaces for each item to indicate whether or not you will participate in the activity that will generate valuable data for the research.

1. I am willing to participate in the research investigating the implementation of an integrated curriculum that brings the arts (Visual Arts) to the core of the curriculum. Yes ______No ______

2. I will allow you an opportunity to sit in my classes to observe and document in journal/diary format, the pedagogical strategies I employ during regular teaching/learning activities. Yes ______No ______

3. I will be available to participate in informal and informal interviews to discuss my teaching strategies. Yes ______No ______

4. I will allow you to review and analyze documents and artifacts that provide information about my previous teaching engagements. These include unit/lesson plans, rubrics and evaluation instruments, class and individual projects, photographs and/or samples of students work and photographs and/or diagrams of classroom settings. Yes ______No ______

5. I will be willing to explain any document or artifact for which you may need explanation and/or clarification. Yes ______No ______

6. I will allow you to sit in on few of the planning sessions where the other teacher(s) and I are engaged in reflection and evaluation of past lessons and planning for future lessons. Yes ______No ______

Please sign below:

Name: ______

Signature: ______Date: ______

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Appendix F – Interview Questions

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Interview Questions

1. How long have you been engaged in elementary education?

2. What grade level(s) did your teacher education program prepare you to teach?

3. How long have you been engaged in the implementation of an integrated curriculum?

4. How would you define integrated curriculum?

5. What motivated you to engage in an integrated curriculum that brings Visual Arts to the core of your daily teaching/learning activities?

6. To what extent did your teacher preparation program equip you with the knowledge and skills necessary for the implementation of an integrated curriculum?

7. What level of cooperation and collaboration is needed from the members of the school community for the successful implementation of an integrated curriculum with Visual Arts as the focus?

8. How difficult has it been for you to participate in an integrated curriculum that brings Visual Arts to the core of the daily teaching/learning?

9. To what extent do you involve families and community resources in the implementation of the integrated curriculum that focuses on Visual Arts?

10. What level of improvement have you observed in the children’s academic achievement since you have been participating in an integrated curriculum that involves Visual Arts?

11. How do you engage in planning for the implementation of the integrated curriculum that focuses on Visual Arts?

12. To what extent do you allow for and/or cater to students’ diversity and individuality?

13. What learning theory/theories do you use as a guide for the implementation of an integrated curriculum that focuses on Visual Arts?

14. To what extent do you engage the students in individual activities and/or group activities?

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15. How do you prepare children to engage in projects and/or activities that include Visual Arts media and techniques?

16. What level of independence are students allowed with regards to choosing the Visual Arts media and techniques for projects?

17. What types of materials (natural and/or commercial) do you use for projects that are based on Visual Arts base activities?

18. How do you access and/or afford the materials and tools that you utilize to engage in teaching and learning activities?

19. Assessment should be an integral aspect of teaching/learning. What assessment techniques do you employ to ensure the following?

a. That National standards and state guidelines are met b. That teaching goals are met c. The promotion and enhancement of students learning d. The evaluation of instructional methods e. That communicate to parents and administrators what the students are learning and how they are learning.

20. What advice would you give to teachers who will engage in the implementation of an integrated curriculum?

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Appendix G – Narrative: Observation Data

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Narrative representation of the data collected from the observation

In the first section, I reported the data garnered from my twenty one days visits to

the school. Observation Data is the big title for this section. Under the subtitle –

Reporting the Data, I provide an overview of the step by step procedure I use to report

the data collected from observations, the analysis of the documents and artifacts, and the

interviews conducted with seven teachers including the chief participant Dr. Buda.

Under the next subtitled – The Journey to the Site, I wrote a brief description of my

journey from the first day I met Dr. Buda to the point where I entered the artroom as a

researcher.

Next, I provide a panoramic view of the artroom, the setting - where Dr. Buda created and recreated a-state-of-the art learning environment that nurtured the young artists’ (students’) innate abilities to be creative. Following the description of the artroom,

I provide narratives of days one and two observations. These allowed me to highlight some of the pedagogical strategies and resources Dr. Buda employed as she inspired, motivated, guided and facilitated the young artists (learners) to manipulate a wide array of media and techniques that brought out the artist from within. The title Day No. 1 is the umbrella heading for all my observation on my first visit in the capacity as a researcher. I began the narration with a brief statement explaining my entry into the school building and the protocol necessary when a visitor enters the school. Next, I provide detailed descriptions of my initial observations under the subheadings – The Teaching/Learning

Environment – The Artroom and Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Knowledge and

Skills: Engaging in Formal Teaching and Learning. Next is the heading Day # 2; the

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descriptions for Day #1 are more detailed than Day #2 not because Day #1 is more

important than day two, but, because it provides an overview of the structured format and

context of most of my twenty one visits to the school. Day two’s visit is less detailed

because I used it to introduce some differences I observed, as well as the rotation of

scheduling of the “special area” subjects under which Visual Arts fall. Next I provide descriptions of some of the art processes and products; using the subtitles – Grade Levels

(1 – 5) Art Making Processes and Products. The information provided here, helps to

establish how Dr. Buda catered to the diverse populations of students based on their age

and stages of development.

The final three narratives under the observation section are somewhat different;

one – Mosaic Mural, documents two days experience and observations of a major

collaborative project, that included Dr. Buda, the other three “special areas” Music,

Physical Education and Library teachers (on day one), an artist in residence and her

assistant as they prepared and engaged all five grade levels students in a mosaic mural

activity in the pedestrian tunnel. The second of these three narratives is titled - The Art

Show – It’s a Family Affair. This explains the day of the art show, when parents, family

and friends were invited to view the students’ artworks that are on displayed on the walls

of the corridors of the two floors of the school. The final subtitle in the Observations

Data section is titled – Visit # 21- An Opportunity for Reciprocity. This explained how,

in my humble way, I was able to repay Dr. Buda for facilitating the data collection

process.

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Day One: Entering the educational space

My first visit wearing the hat of a researcher was Tuesday, November 17, 2009, as was planned. Dr. Buda picked me up at the park and ride at 8:30 AM. The ride to the school was a little over ten minutes and so we arrived at the school by 8:45 AM. Wow!

As I entered the common area, I recognized a large mixed-meeia quilt that was not on display when I last visited about one year ago. It was hung above eye level, close to the ceiling, in the passage leading to the cafeteria. To confirm my assumption, I asked

Dr. Buda, “when was this done?” Her response confirmed my thoughts, since my last

visit in fall 2008, “during the winter/spring quarters 2009” was her response. I will

discuss this quilt later. In observance of the school’s protocol, she escorted me to the

administrative office, introduced me to the staff, instructed me to sign the visitors’ book

indicating the time of arrival and the place I would be visiting at. From the way she

interacted with the administrative staff, and the way they reciprocated, there was

evidence that she had an excellent interpersonal relationship with everyone. Dr. Buda

collected a Visitor’s Sticker and a transparent case and handed them to me, when I

reached the artroom, I trimmed the sticker so it could fit in the case and created a

temporary visitor’s badge which I pinned to my garment each time I visited the school.

This was my fifth visit to the school and the artroom, the prior visit was approximately

one year earlier fall quarter, 2008. However, this was my first opportunity to have the

Visual Arts teacher and the teaching/learning environments all to myself as well as

witnessing Dr. Buda engagement in teaching in, with, through and about Visual Arts,

while still wearing the title OSU student.

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The teaching/ learning environment - the artroom

The artroom was located on the northerly section of the building, on entering the room, I encountered a huge collaborative project with objects similar to those on the quilt mentioned before. It occupied a large portion of the wall space on the easterly side of the artroom; it seemed like a work in progress. As I stood in front of it mesmerized by what I saw, Dr. Buda provided an explanation of its purpose which I will also be discussed later.

Dr. Buda then beckoned me over to the westerly side of the room and pointed to some shelves: a library containing a collection of Visual Arts related books, labeled ring binders with unit and lesson plans, grant applications, and most importantly her intellectual property/documents: her Masters of Art thesis and her Doctor of Philosopher dissertation. In addition to text books, there were also DVDs and Videos which were resources for teaching and learning as well as artifacts recording the processes, procedures and outcomes of teaching and learning that spanned beyond the walls of the artroom.

About one third of this side of the room was shelved and stocked ceiling high, the lower half contained students’ individual portfolios arranged and stored according to grade level and class teachers’ names. For example, all the grade two portfolios were on the same shelf and the entire 2 Rose students’ portfolios were stocked on top of each other with the class teacher’s name below, ready to be retrieved and stored with one pull or push. The topmost shelves contained boxes with materials, containers and objects; some of which are “trashables,” would be discarded materials and objects (one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure) in storage waiting to be recreated into new objects that will be fulfilling for the creators and aesthetically pleasing and intriguing to the

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beholders. Next to the portfolios were shelves with an assortment of small tools and materials such as scissors, markers, adhesive tapes, bottles of glue, staplers, paper punches just to name a few. A wide assortment (sizes and colors) construction

(cartridge) papers were stored in two cupboards; one waist high and the other standing over six feet tall. Almost in front of the cupboard there was a portable two tiers plastic storage cart, one tier contained hundreds of crayons and the other tier contained an equal amount of pastels. On top of this cart were kept six metal cylindrical containers with pencils, each was labeled with one of the six colors that were assigned to each of the tables. To the back of the room (the northerly section) occupying what seemed like one fifth of the westerly wall and the one quarter of the northerly wall, a rectangular space was sectioned off for ceramics products. It contained a cylindrical kiln about three feet deep and two and a half feet in diameter. On the wall above the kiln there was a chart displaying sample of the resulting colors of the different glazes after they were fired. In storage were packages of clay as well as buckets and basins with reclaimed clay at different stages of the preparation process. There was a meshed door cupboard for storing and drying unfinished clay pieces. The partition on the right of the kiln was a cupboard with one of the three sinks with hot and cold water taps. The rest of the back portion of the room was divided in two sections, each with a cupboard and a sink with hot and cold water taps. About 50% of the northerly wall was occupied by panels of double layered glass window that allows for natural lights to enter the room. It was equipped with vertical blinds that were drawn during the cold wintry seasons, to help keep the heat inside the room. Below the windows there were cupboards that stored the materials, tools and equipment for painting activities. Displayed on the top of the cupboard were the

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primary, secondary, black and white poster and acrylic paints in pint, quart and gallon containers. An electric pencil sharpener was also stored on this cupboard; it is accessible to the students. Inside the cupboard there were containers with paint brushes sorted and stocked according to the sizes and textures of their bristles (materials range from animal hair to synthetic fibers), rectangular and circular shaped palettes, an assortment of large plastic coffee containers and ice-cream and/or butter tubs for holding water for painting and clay activities. On the wall space between the windows there were two paper towel dispensers which were never out of paper. In the space that would be the fourth side of a quadrangle, there was large drying/storage rack; it was about four feet high and had between 20 and 25 flappable shelved. Next to this was a large paper recycle bin.

To the far right, opposite to the ceramic area there was a cupboard with shelves containing more art materials and equipment. This section is further enclosed by a metal cabinet that faced the entrance door; the cabinet contained additional materials, tools and equipment, some of which were either not to be easily accessible or readily available to the students (for example glue guns and glue sticks) or they were extra supplies. On the easterly side, just beside this cupboard was a glass sliding door which, in addition to allowing access to and from the artroom, it also provided for additional natural light to enter the room. This door took us back to the wall where I started the description. I had not forgotten the southerly wall. Although the entrance door is on this side of the wall, there was an unusual set-up. The wall projected beyond the doorway and so you had to take a left turn and walk about two feet from the corridor in order to enter the room; thus, causing that wall to look as if it had an extension from the inside. Spanning the entire width at the topmost section of this wall, there were two paper banners made with cut out

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letters in contrasting colors. One read: Collaboration is working with a Community

towards a common goal. The other read: Partner–table groups, Grade Levels, Classroom,

Multi Grades, All Grades, School Community, Nilbud Community, State, Region, United

States, World and Nilbud Community. The correct name of the community is written on the banner, however, for the purpose of anonymity I used Nilbud, the pseudonym Dr.

Buda had used throughout her dissertation for the community in which the school is located. Although this was the space, based on the pre-installed permanent fixtures, designated for formal teaching to occur; it is least used by Dr. Buda, she is not a “chalk and talk” teacher. The center half of the wall was equipped with a magnetic white board, an electronic projector screen that was attached to the ceiling just above the white board, and an LCD projector mounted from the ceiling about five feet from the wall. Below the white board were two wooden boxes used for storage of posters and prints of art works as well as large pieces of students’ works. To the right of the white board was a display of the series of covers from Art Education–The Journal of the National Art Education

Association. Each cover depicted a different art media/technique and the name of an artist who worked with the medium/technique. Along with the pictures were strips of colored construction paper with phrases emphasizing, Art is about our community, Art is about our world, Art is about life and introducing the different segments of art–Meanings in Art, Art History, Making Art, Judging Art, and Connecting with Art.

A quadrangle section in front of the display area was secured for the teacher, it had a small table positioned below the display board, a vertical filing cabinet, and three small tables each with a computer for the students to use and a teacher’s desk. In the center of the room were four sets of table are arranged in a rectangular formation; the

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section closest to the western wall was the teacher’s work area and distribution table.

Although a large paper cutter (guillotine) was permanently positioned on this table, children were not allowed to use it. Each of the students’ work stations was comprised of two tables each with four stools on which even a first grader could be comfortably seated.

Each pair of tables was named and labeled a primary and related secondary color, for example, the station to the east was yellow and green; the one to the south is red and orange and the one to the north is blue and purple. Each of the four students at a table was assigned a number from 1–4. At different points around the room there were mobile carts on wheels. These are used to store and/or transport materials, tools and equipment as well as students completed or incomplete works. Other mobile carts with different art materials could be found in different sections of the room. These were never seen at the same location, their placements in the room were based on the previous tasks they performed or the next tasks they were about to perform. The general appearance of the artroom was reminiscent of a professional Visual Art studio, Dr. Buda created and maintained a state-of-the-art learning environment, where young artists and future generations of professional artists were afforded opportunities to develop and enhance their visual and spatial intelligences and critical thinking skills as they engaged in the creative processes of making two and three dimensional works of art.

The teacher’s content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge and skills: engaging in formal teaching and learning.

As was stated before, the teachers of the courses titled the “special areas” (Visual

Arts, Music, Physical Education and Library) schedules for formal contact with the

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students do not commence until 10:10 AM each day. Each day Dr. Buda taught five or

six classes, each spanning 50 or 40 minutes. Below is a diagram showing the time

scheduling for the “special area” teachers.

Time Table Scheduling Special Area Classes

Time of Day Classes

10:10 AM – 11:00 AM First Class

11:00 AM – 11:50 AM Second Class

11:00 AM – 12:40 PM Third Class

12:40 PM – 1:10 PM Lunch Break/Recess

1:10 PM – 2:00 PM Fourth Class

2:50 PM Fifth Class

2:50 PM – 3:30 PM Sixth Class

Figure 4.1: Time Table Scheduling for the Special Areas Subjects at the Research Site

Engaging the third graders.

On this Tuesday morning, the first group of students to enter the artroom for

formal teaching/learning was a third grade class. The students came marching into the

artroom in single file, empty handed, all dressed in their art shirts, which were evidently

white T- shirts that were decorated to give them an “artsy” look. Most of the shirts were decorated with splashes and dots of fabric inks or dyes resulting in kaleidoscope of colours. Other shirts seemed to have been decorated by the students themselves using permanent markers. Some of the shirts had the students’ (owners) first names on them.

As the students entered the room, each branched off to his/her pre-assigned table/seat

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which is based on a color and number. It was the first class for the day and so the stools were positioned in an inverted position on the tables; the students took the stools off the tables and sat down. By the time the students were settled in their seats, Dr. Buda greeted them and gave verbal instructions which caused much movement in the room as about

75% of the students went through the routine of collecting and distributing materials, tools and portfolio. The students who sat at seats numbered 1&2 were instructed to hand out the portfolios, and those who sat at seats numbered 3 were to get the pencils for their tables. The next instruction was “boys and girls, when you get you portfolios, take out your assessment forms and come to the front of the room.” In less than five minutes all the tasks were done and all the students were seated on the floor in the quadrangle space, in front of the white board. Written on the white board was the topic “Special Place –

Outdoor” and the sub-topic: Transferring concepts learned in Landscape painting. The board was labeled with the words Mediums, Techniques and Mode/Emotion creating the three columns under which the students’ responses were placed. As soon as the students were settled, Dr. Buda introduced me to the students, some of whom were already gazing at me in a questioning manner. She told them my name and informed them that they will be seeing me in the artroom and around the school for the next four to six months; I stood, smiled and waved my hand to the students.

a. Recapitulation: Revision and discussion session.

In order to focus the students’ attention back to the lesson, Dr. Buda reminded the students that they needed to be good listeners and to raise their hands when they wished to speak, before she finished the statement, the students were all quiet and you could have

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heard a pin drop, granted, some of them were still staring on me. I quickly sat so that my presence would demand less attention. The discussion that ensued was very engaging, insightful and enlightening. Using a questioning and answering procedure individually, the students explained what each term meant. Medium – the materials that artists use to make the work; like paints, crayons, pastels, paper, yarns. Techniques – the ways the artist use the mediums to make the work. Dr. Buda reviewed with them the techniques that they learned from grades 1-3 to remind them of the choices. Some of examples named were painting, etching, drawing, printing, and etching. Mood – How the work makes you feel, like happy, sad, quietness, peaceful. Using guided questions, Dr. Buda was able to solicit the correct responses from the students. Their answers reflect the different mediums, techniques they would use and moods/emotions they would depict in their work. Next, Dr. Buda attached three art prints/posters of landscapes done by famous artists; the students were asked to name the artistic style that was used to create each work. The terminologies provided were realistic, semi-abstract and abstract. They also discussed the different levels that are evident in the different landscapes and how the artists worked to show these levels. For example, foreground is the section that is at the bottom of the work and closest to the audience. The background is the section furthest from the audience and is drawn at the top of the artwork. Things in the foreground are larger and brighter in color than thing in the middle-ground and background. Things in the foreground overlap things in the middle-ground and background. Dr. Buda engaged the students in a discussion that lasted approximately 10 minutes. Before the students were instructed to return to their seats, Dr. Buda informed them that she would be having conferences with those who she had not spoken with in the previous class; the other

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students were to continue on the design for their final work. The students for conference were instructed to take with them, their planning paper, the picture of their special place and the sketches. She also reminded the students that, those without pictures can select one from her file folder. This was a large paper folder with pictures of different landscape sceneries; it was set on the demonstration/supply table in the center of the room.

b. Students’ engagement in the art process.

Dr. Buda then took her position at the work table, the students returned to their seats, took out all the things need from their portfolios and then placed the portfolios on the floor under the tables. The students for conferencing formed a queue and waited their turn to be seen and spoken to. Although Dr. Buda was busy conferencing with some students, occasionally she would scan the room to insure all the students were on task.

She sometimes called a student by name to ask if the student needed her assistance. This inquiry would have the student buckle down to the task. As soon as Dr. Buda completed the conferencing session, she got up from her seated position and walked around the room checking on the progress the students were making and gave advice when and where needed. At about 10: 52 AM Dr. Buda announced, “Boys and girls put all your works back in your portfolios, place the portfolios on the table in the center and find sit down.” Again, there was much movement in the room as all the students returned their individual work into their portfolios and stacked the portfolios on the designated table.

The student, who had collected the can with the pencils for his/her table, took it back to the storage area. About 3 minutes lapsed, then Dr. Buda started clapping her

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hands; the students reciprocated and by the count of five claps, all the students were seated in an attentive manner. Dr. Buda did a brief recapitulation of the day’s lesson using a questioning and answering procedure. It went as follows: Who can tell me what happens to objects in the foreground of the picture? The students raised their hands; one student was called on by name to supply the answer. All the students at that table were told to put their stools under the table and form a line, which they did along the easterly wall of the room. Dr. Buda asked a total of six questions that required the students to provide answers based on the discussion at the beginning of the lesson; this ensured that at least one student from each table was given an opportunity to respond. This strategy allowed each table group to earn the right to join the line. By 11:00 AM all the students were in the queue; Dr. Buda asked who was responsible to take the bin with the art shirts back to the classroom. Two students stepped forward to the front of the line; they took up the transparent plastic storage bin off the floor. With the words, “OK boys and girls, you may leave” Dr. Buda dismissed the students. As the students left the room, each one threw his/her art shirt into the bin. As quickly as the last student left the room, in walked another set of students; these students looked a little more mature in age and size.

Engaging the fourth graders

These students were the fourth graders; one student was not wearing an art shirt.

As they entered the room Dr. Buda greeted them and announced that those without art shirts may borrow one from the bin at the doorway. She invited them to sit in the quadrangle space on the floor, and I was formally introduced to the students. Before Dr

Buda proceeded with the revision of previous lessons, she reminded the students that she

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needed them to be good listeners. When the students returned to their seats, the number two and four students handed out the portfolios and the number three students collected the cans with the pencils for their individual tables. The students were then told to take out the pieces they were currently working on, put away their portfolios then move to one of the two spaces. Those who were still working on the preliminary design were to sit at tables red and orange where they would be working with pencils only. Dr. Buda reminded these students to look at the pictures that are around the room as well as the books for inspiration, but they were not to copy, their final design should be their own creation. Within three minutes all the portfolios were under the tables and the students were all seated with paper, pencils and rulers ready to engage in the design process.

Displayed on spaces all around the room were pictures that provided examples of optical illusions. There were examples from the M.C. Escher, who is famous for his work with tessellations and architectural draftsmanship, the famous piece Relativity; some examples were based on mathematical principles such as black and white or two colors lines and shapes–spirals, squares/checkered board, the Baby Blocks pattern that is commonly seen in quilts, some were related to calligraphy, the arrangements of fonts to write double words with opposite meanings written as one word; for example Good &

Evil, Teach & Learn and even the words Optical Illusion. Some other pictures such were the ‘Young Lady or Old Lady’ and The Old Couple (Forever Always).

The students who were finished with their preliminary designs, after selecting the design for the finished artwork were to move to one the four tables; red, purple, green and blue. Each of these tables contained stocks of 12 x 12 white construction paper and a containers with fine point black sharpie marker. Dr. Buda reminded that, there were

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boxes with ruler and compasses for those who needed to use them. There was much

movement in the room as students changed position from their pre-assigned seats as well as to collect materials and tools based on their individual needs; however, within three minutes all the students had settled and proceeded to work. While the students worked,

Dr. Buda moved around giving suggestions and assistance when necessary. At about

11:40 AM Dr. Buda informed the students to stop working, put all pencils and markers in their appropriate containers, return to their spaces and put their work in their portfolios.

She then assigned students by seating numbers to put away the pencils, markers, rulers and compasses to their storage spaces. She asked the students to select an example of a picture on display and explain what is evident and what is hidden in each illusion. She returned to her work table opened her folder and asked students to raise hands those who would like another session to continue with drawing examples of illusions. She quickly checked off the names in her folder, by then all the students had taken off their art shirts, she instructed the students to line up by their assigned table. The student who was in charge of collecting the shirts went to the front of the line and held the bin. When they were dismissed, each student dropped the shirt in the bin before they left the artroom.

Like before, by the last student exited the room and in walked the most mature students’ age wise, they were the fifth graders.

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Engaging the fifth graders.

a. introduction/ recapitulation/ demonstrations

Like with the fourth graders, Dr. Buda invited the students to sit in the quadrangle before they went to their seats. Their topic was Clay Masks. After I was formerly introduced, she revised stages and characteristics of clay with students using real examples. She proceeded to discuss the final stage of the art process – the painting of the masks using acrylic paints. After explaining the properties of the paint, she lowered the projector screen and from the computer she projected some pictures of examples of painted clay masks that reflected Native American Indians themes. Some were pictures of works done by former fifth graders and some were pictured done by

Native American artists. Using guided questions she conducted a discussion about the different colors and different embellishments that can be used to decorate the masks to reflect the Native American aesthetics and artistic practices. Dr Buda reminded them that the mask should be painted in a dark color before they did the decorations and other embellishments. The students were at about three different stages in the process and so

Dr. Buda informed them where they should sit when they proceeded to work on their masks. Dr. Buda went to the clay center and invited students by their prescribed seats to collect their work and sit at the appropriate tables.

b. Students’ engagement in the art process.

About 30 % of the students’ masks were fired and ready for the final stage, as they received their fired mask, they were instructed to collect sand paper to smooth the

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rough areas on the masks in preparation for the painting process. They were informed to check for loose parts so that could do any necessary repairs before they painted the artwork. Their major task that day was to smooth their work with fine textured sandpaper. The students whose masks were at the preliminary stage were informed to sit at tables blue and green, closest to the clay center. These students were still forming/shaping their mask and so they needed to be close to where they could retrieve additional clay. They also worked on clay cloth. The third set of students was at the stage where they were adding minor details and needed minimum amount of clay to work with in preparation for the firing stage. It should be noted that all the students used a commercially made plastic mask on which to model their mask; however, each individual mask was embellished with the facial features of the creator’s liking/choice. For example, the shape, size of the noses, ears and eyes were all different and some added appendages such as bumps and/or made scarifications marks. After all the masks were handed out, Dr. Buda moved around the different work stations, giving individual advice to the students.

c. closure/dismissal

At about eight minutes before the class ended, the students were instructed to stop working and take their work to the back of the room for storage. Those who were using the sandpaper placed their work on one of the portable carts, the other two groups brought their works to the clay center for storage. Those who still needed to continue working on their mask were reminded that they were to cover their masks with plastic so they would not get dried out; the others that were to be fired were reminded that they

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should not be covered, because the clay needed to air dry before they were fired. The

students then returned the tools and materials to the appropriate storage areas. They then

cleaned up the work areas, some students used wet sponges with scouring pads after

which the other students dried with paper towels. The students then washed and dried

their hands and returned to their seats. They took off their art shirts and at about 12:38

P.M. Dr. Buda clapped her hands, the students joined in and by the time they reached a

count of five clap all the students sat attentively. Dr. Buda used two minutes to

recapitulate the day’s lesson like the third graders, students were allowed to form and/or

join the line after a member of the table gave the required response. The students

dropped their art shirts in the bin and two students carried the bin their classroom. It was

lunch time and Dr. Buda informed me that she was on lunch duty for 10 minutes. I went

to the lunch area with her to observe the proceedings at lunch time and ascertain how the teachers engaged as they supervised the students.

Lunch break.

Although the lunch break was not observed in the teaching learning context, I

include it because Dr. Buda conducted extra curricular duties and do preparations during

this time period. On my first day she had lunch time duty to perform and so she

informed me that I may observe the setting if I wished, and I did. The students were

seated on Virco Cafeteria Tables; the students had staggered lunch with the Grades 1

going first and Grades 5 last; the Pre-K – K have only half day school and so they are not

scheduled for lunch. The younger students are accompanied to the lunch area by their

classroom teachers. Some students brought lunch and some purchased at the cafeteria;

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those who purchased lunches at the cafeteria place their orders in the morning in their classrooms so they just collected their lunches and then went to their seats. About 50% of the tables were labeled No Peanut Area; each table had a bottle of hand sanitizer. The teachers’ responsibilities when on lunch duties were to monitor behavior and help students to open containers such as bottles and yogurt cups. After ten minutes Dr. Buda indicated that her time was up and we returned to the artroom to have our lunches. I had a specific dietary pattern and so, believe it or not, I took Lasoy powdered soy milk from

Jamaica, a bottle of water and cereal every day for the 21 visits I made at the school. I will also tell you that Dr. Buda sometimes did not finish her lunch at the first sitting; she was most times a “woman on the run” having tasks to accomplish before the next class arrived, or preparation for the next day’s class. Some of these tasks were also done before she left school. Some of these things were packing the kiln, removing clay pieces from the kiln, cutting paper, putting paints in the pallets, washing pallets, supervising and/or giving instructions to students who came to the artroom during the recess break to continue working on a work in progress or those who came in to assist with tasks that were within their capability.

Engaging the first graders.

a. introduction/revision/demonstrations.

Immediately at 1:10 you could hear the little feet and voices entering the artroom; in walked a group of first graders all clad in their art shirts; they were led by their class

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teacher. The teacher greeted Dr. Buda and left, the students headed to their pre-assigned seats. Dr. Buda greeted the students and invited them to stand around at the demonstration table; she introduced me to the students, just as she did with the three previous classes. I waved and then sat. As was customary, to get the students’ full attention she said, “Boys and girls I want you to be good listeners and raise your hands when you want to answer a question.” She produced a strip of paper with the topic for the lesson, this she attached to the metal filing cabinet using a magnet. Can you imagine how amazed I was when the topic was revealed? Abstract Painting with Tempera Paints,

I sat in eager anticipation and bated breadth to see how the teacher and students would handle this topic. Dr. Buda reviewed the previous lessons with the students, this included vocabulary words/terms such as, the names of the primary and secondary colours. They successfully named all six colours. She then produced an example of a student’s work painted with monochromatic colors and she asked what these colors were called and how they were created. After a few attempts, by the students who showed signs that they knew the word but just could not recall it, one child gave the required term. Dr. Buda asked the students to raise their hands if they could tell how these colors were made. The students who responded stated that by adding black to get shades and white to get tints.

Dr. Buda then displayed a poster of an artwork that was done using a monochromatic colour scheme and explained to students that when they create their monochromatic artwork, they need to paint the shapes to make hard edges so that the colours will stand out different from each other. Next Dr. Buda taped a piece of 12” x

12” white construction paper on the filing cabinet, she used a pencil to quickly draw some free formed overlapping shapes; after which she took up a palette with blue, black

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and white paints. She proceeded to demonstrate how to mix the different tints of blue by

using the brush to put some blue paint in one of the empty spaces in the palette. She

painted the straight blue color in about three of the shapes on her drawing. She pointed

out to the students not to paint the same color in shapes that were close to each and

demonstrated as she explained how to paint so that each shape had hard edges. Next she

demonstrated how to mix and paint the tints and then the shades. She painted two shapes

with each tint and shade she mixed. She showed how to get rid of excess paint on the

brush as well as how to wash out the paint before sticking the brush into another colour.

In the interest of time, Dr. Buda did not finish her example; however, she drew the

students’ attention to the finished example done by a student from a previous year’s first

grade class.

b. Students’ engagement in the process.

After about 15 minutes of revision, demonstrations and explanations, Dr. Buda instructed the students to collect materials and tools for their tables; the number 1 students got the water for their table; the number 2 students collected the paint brushes

and then distributed the students’ work that had been previously drawn on 12” x 12”

white construction paper. These were stacked together on the center table with each

student’s names written on the back. The numbers three and four students were

instructed to line up at the back of the room to collect their palettes with a primary or a

secondary color plus black and white. Each student was given the option to choose the

colour paint s/he wanted. As soon as the queue was nearing the last student, Dr. Buda

called the number one and then the number two students to come and get their palettes,

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within five minutes all the students were seated and ready to paint. The students proceeded to mix and paint following the instructions from the demonstration. Dr. Buda moved around from one table to the next providing the students with needed assistance and advice. She asked questions such as, what types of edged do you want to paint?

Where next on the artwork would you like to put that tint? The students worked on their painting for about 23 minutes.

c. closure and dismissal.

Dr. Buda then informed the students to finish painting the shape they were working on, rest the paint brushes in the containers with the water, and then take their paintings to the drying rack. Dr. Buda stood at the drying rack and monitored the students as they arranged their individual work on the shelves. When they returned to their seats they took their individual palettes and placed them on the cupboard at the back of the room. She informed the number four students to take the containers with the water and brushes to the sinks, while the others were to clean up their tables. Some students used wet sponges with scouring pads to clean up the tables and other students used paper towels to dry the tables.

When each table was cleaned and dried the students sat at their seats, took off their art shirts and folded them in preparation for the closure. Dr. Buda then stated that

“the boys and girls at table blue are ready.” Immediately all the other students stopped talking and straightened up in their seats. Dr. Buda proceeded to recapitulate the day’s lesson by asking questions such as: what types of colours are you using on your work?

How do you make a tint? How do your make a shade? What type(s) of edges do you

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want on your shapes? These questions were asked one at a time, the students raised their hands, when a student answered the question correctly, the members of the table were allowed to line up. Dr. Buda asked who was responsible for taking the bin with the art shirts to the classroom. Two girls stepped out of the line; the students brought their shirts and placed them in the bin. On the dot of 2:50 the classroom teacher came and escorted her students back the classroom. Dr. Buda headed for the area where the students’ portfolios were stored and pulled out a pile of masks made from multiple colours of construction papers. By the time she rested the artworks on the demonstration/supplies table in walked a group of students not more matured than the students who had just left the room.

Engagement with the second graders.

a. introduction/recapitulation/discussions/demonstrations.

These were a group of second grade students and they were about to add the finishing touches to their three dimensional paper masks. After the students were greeted and I was formally introduced, Dr. Buda invited them to sit in the quadrangle, where she engaged them in a ten minute revision discussion which started with the question: What did we say we were trying to do with our mask? Students raised their hands and one student was called on by name; her response was – “make it three dimensional.” The follow up question was – How do we make our masks three dimensional? Several students provided responses for this question. The responses were – depth, height, width.

Next question – How do we ensure that our masks show depth, height and width? The

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responses were - overlapping, creating contrast, symmetrical balance. Following this brief discussion the students viewed a slide show with pictures of masks from different cultures and varying media and techniques; some of which were being worn while others were just displayed. The slide show was followed by another discussion which was stimulated by the statement – Give some reasons people create masks. They provided a list of nineteen (19) words which were nouns and verbs – religion, ceremonial, control environment, fantasy, theater, magic, power, hunting, deceive, disguise, festival, change, funeral, transformation, storytelling, camouflage, fun, communication, hide.

The students were then instructed to return to their pre-assigned seat to continue working on their masks. The numbers three and four students from each table handed out the masks, the number one student from each table collected a pair of scissors and a bottle of glue from the supply table. The students were informed to collect additional pieces of construction paper from the box on the supplies table. It was a sight to observe the group of 7–8 year old students cutting, folding, bending, rolling and pasting different sizes, shapes and colours of paper to give depth, height and width as they created paper masks that were highly decorated and at the same time ensuring they were symmetrically balance.

c. closure/dismissal.

About 8 minutes before the class ended Dr. Buda informed the students that they have two more minutes before they will have to stop working on their masks. At about

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six minutes before the end of the class, Dr. Buda started clapping and the students joined in to a count of five claps. She then instructed them to cover the bottles of glue and the number two students were asked to return the pairs of scissors and the bottles of glue to the supplies table. When all the students returned to their seats Dr. Buda guided the students to do a quick self-evaluation of their work using the following strategy – Those who are finished raise your hands, about 75% of the students responded. If your mask has height raise your hand–100% raised their hand. If you mask has depth raise your hand–100% raise their hands. If you are satisfied with the width of your mask raise your hand – about 90% of the students raised their hands. If there are changes you want to make to your mask raise your hand. About 10% of the students raised their hands. Dr.

Buda informed the students that those who would like to do addition work on their masks should come during the lunch or recess time. The students were instructed to put their work on the supply table and line up when she called their table colour.

The students were then invited to follow behind her, and then she walked the students through the room; as the students left the room, in walked a group of third graders. I was still sitting in the corner so I did not see what happened outside; at the end of the day I enquired and was told that the she met the class teacher in the common area.

As it was in the beginning so it was at the end of the day; the students went to their seats and sat down, but before they could start talking Dr. Buda entered the room and gave them instructions, I observed the same procedure for this set of third graders as I did for the first class at 10:10 AM.

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Day’s conclusion.

This was one of the days when Dr. Buda had six classes. A review of my field notes revealed that I had seen Dr. Buda facilitate all five grade levels. After over six hours at the school, most of which I was an inactive observer, I was tired and exhausted but the experience was worth its weight/wait in gold. Dr. Buda informed me that she needed to pack a set of the clay masks in the kiln and leave them to fire overnight. I walked over to the ceramics center and watched her pack the kiln. We left the artroom at about 4:10 PM, on our way to the car Dr. Buda stated that she hoped I was able to get what I need from my observation. I told her that the days’ experience is helping to concretize the stories that I heard during my visits to the school in fall 2007 and 2008 and to witness theory in practice. During the ride to the bus stop at the mall, we engaged in a discussion where by Dr. Buda explained some of the activities that she had been engaged in outside of the school day. I provided information about the chief reasons I embarked on the case study to observe her practice as an art teacher/educator and provided a brief overview of the historical development of the Jamaican education system, including the teacher preparation programs at teachers’ colleges.

Day Two – observations

Non-contact time

On my second visit on Friday, November 20, 2010, during the ride to the school we engaged in a discussion about what had been happening since my first visit.

Following protocol, we went to the office, I signed the visitors’ book and we proceeded

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to the artroom. Dr. Buda headed for the ceramics center where she engaged in unloading the kiln with the fifth grade students’ masks. We engaged in a discussion and she provided an overview of how she went about applying for grants for the art integration projects. Her chief source of funding for the largest project was from the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA). She informed me that they accept grant applications twice yearly, she applied three times but her application was not approved until the third time, one and a half years after the first application was submitted. The only difference the third time was, she took the science teacher to provide support as to how the arts integrated P.O.N.D. project would impact on the teaching and learning of science. She received one of the larger grants of $50,000.00.

Engagement with the learners.

Today Dr. Buda engaged six classes in the following sequence: 10:10 AM a group of third graders, 11:00 AM a group of fourth graders, 11:50 a group of fifth graders, 1:10 a group of fifth graders, 2:00 PM a group of first graders, 2:50 another group of fifth graders.

a. Third graders.

During the first lesson with the third graders the Physical Education teacher entered the room, collected what she needed and left. Dr. Buda went on teaching the class undisturbed. The discussion followed the same format as was the third grade class observed on Tuesday, November 17, 2010. One of the students asked if they needed to use lines to show the different levels in the artwork, which are foreground, middle- ground and background. Dr. Buda explained that the placement and relationship of the

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different objects on the paper and colors (light, bright or dark) would be adequate. They did not need to use lines to separate the different levels.

b. Fifth graders

Unlike the fifth grade class observed on Tuesday, after I was introduced to the students, Dr. Buda started the oral discussion while the students were seated in their pre- assigned seats. Using samples of masks she discussed the stages of clay emphasizing the term air-dried and leather ware. Following this she reminded them of the clay project they did last year and discussed the different glazing techniques that they used. The students were reminded that they were to first paint their masks with a dark colour before they decorate and embellish them. The students were then invited to the center of the class for a discussion on colours with emphasis on monochromatic colour. Using the color wheel as guide she got the students to identify and name the three different color groups; the primary, secondary and intermediate colours. She then demonstrated and explained how to mix different tints and shades for painting an eleven values monochromatic color scheme. They were instructed to first paint the chosen color in the sixth section and paint the tints at the top and the shades at the bottom. She pointed out how gradual and slight change between each tint or shade and introduced the term just-a- noticeable-difference and explained that this is a science term they will meet in the middle school science classes. There were three groups of fifth grade classes on this day.

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c. Fourth graders.

Unlike the class observed on Tuesday, where some of the fourth grade students were still working on preliminary designs for the Optical Illusion, all the students in this fourth grade class were working on the final Optical Illusion project.

d. First graders.

The first graders worked on abstract artwork using tissue paper and glue (mod

podge). Dr. Buda explained that they were to layer the paper so that they over lapped in

some places and when they dry, because the mod podge glue is transparent when it dried,

they will be able to see the bottom color through the top layer and will notice colour

change where two colors overlapped.

End of the day discussions

At the end of the day I indicated to Dr. Buda that I noticed some changes in the

type of art work or stages that the students in the classes were at when compared with

what the same grade levels were doing on Tuesday, November 17, 2010. Dr. Buda

informed me that, the schedule for the “special area” subjects rotated on a four day basis,

meaning the students I saw in the artroom on that Friday, had already had an art class on

Monday. It was as if they were starting a new week. Therefore Friday’s class is one

week a head of the other students. This type of scheduling is not fixed and as a matter of

fact, the scheduling is referred to as ABCD days; therefore, Monday and Friday of that

week the “special area” subjects teachers would have been seen as the same day, for

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example “D Day.” It might seem complicated, but it is the culture of the school, the way of life of that community of learners.

Conclusion

The above was a thorough description of my first day’s observational experience in the artroom. It provides a detailed overview of the structured format Dr. Buda employed as she engaged the students in the creative processes of creating two and three dimensional works and verbal discourse that helped in the development and enhancement of their critical thinking skills. The last paragraph denoted some of the evident differences I observed in the teaching learning tasks among the learners of the same grade and age levels. The other visits to the school were basically the same format within the artroom with regards to how Dr. Buda engaged the learners in the teaching/learning activities. However, the themes/topics, artmaking products, media and techniques changed. I witnessed each grade levels engaged in creating at least four art projects over the six month period. In order for my story not to sound like “a recurring decimal” or “a stuck record” or the “here comes another locust and another grain of corn” (a story my grand mother told when I was a child) I will just provide brief descriptions of some of the topics, media and techniques that Dr. Buda engaged the students with over the next fifteen visits.

Artmaking processes and products – Greades 1-5

1st grade – abstract tempera paintings.

Dr. Buda engaged the students in working on their abstract tempera paintings for

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the rest of November. At the end of each class the students would place their work on the shelves of the drying rack with Dr. Buda’s supervision. When the works were dried, Dr.

Buda removed them from the rack and placed them on top of the pile of portfolios for each individual class. Each time a class reported to the artroom for class Dr. Buda would remove the students’ work in progress from the shelf and place them in a neat pile on the distribution table. She always ensured that the students finished painting the shape they were working on before they put away the work to dry. The students did not have their own individual palettes. Therefore each week they were given clean palettes with fresh paints. To ensure she has clean palettes for each class Dr. Buda washed the palettes or assigned the task to the higher grades students who offer to assist during their recess or before their lunch breaks. When the pieces were finished, they were mounted on 16” x

16” construction paper and displayed in the common area for all to see, instead of being placed in the students’ portfolio. Dr. Buda was able to get all the mounting and displaying done by soliciting the help of the higher grade level students and parents volunteers.

1st grade - clay holiday ornaments.

The next art making task Dr. Buda engaged the first graders in was clay holiday decorations which were fired and then painted and embellished with puff paints. On the first day of this experience Dr. Buda introduced the students to the different stages of clay and the characteristics at each stage. Moist clay is soft and dark. Air dried clay is lighter, fragile and will snap. Clay is fired in a kiln to make it less fragile. Fired clay sounds like glass but is not as fragile; it cannot be snapped with your fingers. Dr. Buda pointed to the

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kiln and explained to the students that the kiln is like an oven that is used form baking

things at home. The oven in their homes can be heated to as much as 500 degrees

temperature while the kiln heats up to a temperature of over 2000 degrees.

Dr. Buda then explained and demonstrated how to roll a lump of clay to make a ¼

inch slab. She paired with a student to take turns to share a rolling pin; the students worked in pairs for this step of the process. She used rolling pins from which she had removed the handles, reason is with the handles the student artists tend to apply too much pressure; thereby, sometimes rolling the clay too thin. She placed the lump of clay, the same size as the students’ on a piece of canvas; she did not use the sandwich technique because she wanted the students to see how the clay changed shape. She rolled by

pushing the rolling pin on the clay away from her body, making sure the rolling pin did

not slide off at the edge of the clay. She explained that if this happened, the clay would

get thinner at that edge. After the first roll, she passed the rolling pin to her partner; she

flipped the clay to the opposite side and rotated it so the section facing her was placed to

be facing away from her. Although this was a 180 degree rotation, Dr. Buda did not

mention this term. She watched as her partner made her first roll and ensured she flipped

and rotated the clay before replacing it on the canvas. Dr. Buda and her partner

continued the rolling process for three more rotations. Next she demonstrated how to use

commercial fancy cutters or plastic knives to cut out desired shape. Each student was

given an amount of clay equal to about one-half pound, a piece of canvas and then paired

to share a rolling pin, based on their pre-assigned seating arrangement. The students

repeated the process while Dr. Buda went around providing assistance and advice where

and when needed. They were advised to write their initials and classroom symbol on

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one side. For example, VB 1W; this was to ensure their pieces do not get mixed up with another person’s work.

For the second lesson Dr. Buda had fired the clay pieces in preparation for students to paint them one color using acrylic paints. Before handing out the students work to them, she did a brief introduction/review and made references to real samples of each stage. She informed them that their pieces are now fired and provided the following information.

If you need to eat or drink from a clay work have made, you will need to glaze

and place it in the kiln for a second firing. An unglazed container will allow

water to seep through. Today you will paint your decorations in one colour. Mrs.

Buda will inspect the work to make sure they are done properly. (S. Buda,

personal communication, November, 2009)

She demonstrated how to apply the paint to both sides and in the third lesson they embellished one side using sparkling and/or opaque fabric puff paints from applicator bottles. I observed them working on two projects before they went on December break.

The first graders also had another experience working with clay in May, 2010 when they created their personal tiles which they installed in the mosaic mural project they did with a visiting artist.

1st grade - paper weaving.

When the students returned from December holiday break, they engaged in weaving with a paper loom with paper wefts. They were given a rectangular piece of colored construction paper about 12” x 9” and instructed to fold the paper in two halved

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by bring the two shorter edged together and crease the fold line. They used pieces of

masking tape to keep the edges together at about three points. Dr. Buda demonstrated

how to use make one inch borders around the loose edges, then mark points along the

center fold and the opposite border line on the opposite side to make one inch spaces for

cutting the warps. They then used the ruler as guide to draw a line that connected the

opposite points on both sides of the loom. They used blunt point, age appropriate pairs of

scissors to cut along the drawn lines, from the fold line towards the opened edges,

making sure not to cut beyond the border line.

Dr. Buda and the student teacher moved around the room supervising the cutting

process and provided advice and guidance when and where needed. Yes, there were a

few accidents where students got carried away and cut beyond the border line if were not

being attentive and started cutting from the opened edges. These were fixed with pieces

of masking tape. The students were given the option of cutting their weft strips from a

multicolored painting they had done while experimenting with and exploring tempera

paints, before they actually painted the Abstract Tempera work. Or they could cut the

weft stripe from contrasting construction paper. There was about a fifty-fifty option. Dr.

Buda explained and demonstrated how to cut the strips randomly, so no two wefts were the same size. The topic spanned two lessons and there were some interesting results based on the undulating, wavy edges of the randomly cut weft strips, especially those that used the painted wefts.

2nd grade - 3 dimensional paper mask.

When I started visiting the school in November, the students were on the final

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stage of the 3 dimensional paper masks and so I did not witness the beginning of the

projects. A review of the lesson plan and close scrutiny of the pieces revealed that the

students stared with a rectangular piece of construction paper which they folded in two

halves. By cutting out shapes and subtracted sections around the edges they were able to

create a symmetrical design which reflected features of the face. These masks were not

functional; they were made for decorative purposes. Based on Dr. Buda’s explanation

and demonstration with regards to creating height, depth and width, the students

transformed the rectangular piece of paper into a sculptural work that highly embellished

with pieces of paper of different colors, shapes, sizes and lengths that have been cut,

folded, rolled, pleated and pasted on what was once a flat surface. Before the students

went on Thanksgiving break, these three dimensional masks were on display in the

common area.

2nd Grade – weaving on the cardboard loom.

In January the students engaged in a weaving activity using the cardboard loom.

Dr. Buda introduced the students to basic terminologies and techniques that are

associated with the art of weaving. Weaving – one method of making cloth that is used

to make clothes. Loom – the equipment on which weaving is done. Warp – the set of

yarns that are wrapped on the loom for weaving. Weft – the yarns or materials that are worked in an under and over pattern when weaving. Plain-weave – The act of passing the weft yarn or material over one warp, under one warp, over one warp under one warp until you finish the row. Basket-weave – The same as plain-weave but instead you pass the weft material over two and under two warps each time. Rya – these are made by

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knotting the weft yarn/material on two warps. This look is used for towels and rugs or carpets. Dr. Buda showed the students pictures and actual samples of weaving done by other second grade students. She pointed out the results of each technique on the samples. Dr. Buda demonstrated to the students how to mark and cut the lines on the cardboard to make the loom; how to add the warp yarns to the loom and how to weave each of the techniques using different weight yarns fibers and strips of fabrics. Dr. Buda collected a multiplicity of colours, textures, weights pre-used garments and fabrics, yarns, ribbons and other fibrous materials in preparation for this art activity.

The fabrics and garments had to be cut and/or torn in strips that the students would be able to weave with on the cardboard looms and so Dr. Buda employed the assistance of the fourth and fifth grade students to complete the preparation tasks during their free time at lunch and/or recess breaks. After the introduction lesson the students constructed their cardboard looms. Each child was given a rectangular piece of cardboard and guided to draw a one inch border around the cardboard and then marked ¼ inch spaces at the top and bottom of the cardboards. They used blunt rounded point scissors to make slits on the lines making sure not to cut beyond the 1 inch border line.

At the beginning of the second lesson Dr. Buda revised the vocabulary and again explained the weaving techniques. She then informed the students that they would be sharing the few rolls of warping yarns; therefore they will need to measure and cut off the amount they need before they started the warping process. She demonstrated how to wrap the cord/yarn around the both sides of the loom and count each complete wrap as two warp strands and then make two addition wraps before cutting the yarn. With the assistance of the Visual Arts student teacher and Dr. Buda the students were able to warp

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their looms with little to no difficulties. Before the class ended about 50% of the students, those who were in the first set to finish warping had started the weaving process. At the end of each class Dr. Buda recapitulated the lesson by asking them about the vocabulary and techniques that they had been learning.

At the beginning of the third lesson, Dr. Buda again reviewed the topic by asking questions that required the students to provide the vocabulary words and provide definitions and explanations for the terms and techniques named. Dr. Buda also provided a brief explanation and demonstration of the weaving techniques. By the end of this lesson all the students were had started the weaving process, some had even collected some yarns and materials that they wanted to include on their project. Before bringing the lesson to a closure, Dr. Buda informed the students that they will begin a new unit the next class and so the weaving will be worked on along the new unit; this will be done while they work on the different steps in the new unit. Dr. Buda stated that, “you will need a photograph that shows head, face shoulder. Your classroom teacher will give you the sheets with the related information to take home.” Yes, can you imagine, second graders doing their self-portraits using oil pastels? I will not discuss this activity, it was done by the student teacher under the watchful gaze of Dr. Buda. I will confess that the results surpassed any attempt I had ever made to represent the facial features of myself or any other human beings.

3rd grade – artwork showing my special place – outdoor.

This work spanned the first four weeks of my visitation. Because it was

(re)presenting either a landscape, seascape or cityscape the students had to gain adequate

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content knowledge about the different aspects of this subject matter; so while the students were still at the preliminary sketch stage, Dr. Buda would review the previous lessons related to the topic. They were constantly reminded of the different levels that should be included in paintings of outdoors and how to (re)present subjects and objects to show foreground, middle-ground and background; how colours appear and/or look at each level; how to place objects of people to show their position and relationships in the picture. The students worked on this work for the rest of the calendar year.

4th grade – optical illusion from solo act to collaboration to public auction.

When I first visited the school in November, 17, 2010 the fourth graders had just started preliminary work on the Optical Illusion works. They had at least three preliminary designs in their portfolios from which Dr. Buda had asked them to select their best examples for the final artwork which was done in black and white using fine point black markers. The students spent about two lessons on the final projects. After the final pieces were completed Dr. Buda placed the students in groups of four and instructed them to create a collaborative piece that reflects aspects from each person’s individual piece. This piece was to be donated to the school district’s arts association for and arts auction for generating money to provide funding for the schools’ arts projects.

This collaborative piece required a great deal of negotiation among the group members.

Each student had to decide the aspect of his/her work and/or the aspect(s) of other members of the group work that should be included; the group members had to decide where on the final design each aspect should be positioned. They also had to decide on

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the colours to use in the final piece. The final pieces were painted on ply boards of

varying size. These pieces of board were donated by the night custodian at the school; he

makes cupboards and other wooden furniture and had a wood workshop.

Having decided on the final piece and selected the ply board, two persons from each group were designated to paint the piece of board for their group. The paint was not quick drying and so they had to wait until the next class to draw on the design and paint

the final piece. At the end of this class Dr. Buda engaged the students in self- evaluation of their group activity, using the following statements:

Doing group work requires you working together well. Did everyone help with

some of the work today? Rate your group regarding how you achieved the

objectives of the class. Come up with some ideas that can help your group work

better next class. (S. Buda, personal communication, October, 2009).

The students placed the painted pieces of board on the drying rack and when they were dry Dr. Buda removed them and stored them away for the next class.

In the next class the students selected one student from their group whom they considered had the best drawing skills. This student drew the design unto the painted board and then all the students from the group worked on painting the final piece. All the students painted the final project, and then one student was appointed by the group to write an artist’s statement for the group’s collaboration. Like all other painted work the students placed the pieces on the drying rack and Dr. Buda stored them away after they were dry. After the designs were painted on the pieces of board the collaboration was taken a step further to involve the entire grade level. Dr. Buda presented all thirty pieces of finished Optical Illusion for the students to decide how best to assemble and/or install

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the final project. The first group of students created three separate pieces and they took digital photographs of the three different arrangements.

Dr. Buda uploaded the pictures to the computer and printed a color copy of each in preparation for the next class to join in the decision making process. These students were presented with the pictures; they rearranged the pieces to see other possibilities and took pictures of the new arrangements. Dr. Buda uploaded the pictures to the computer and printed a copy of each in color. The third groups of students were shown all six photographs of the different arrangements and they selected three arrangements to reassemble. They made minor modifications and again took digital photographs of the arrangements. The fourth and final group made the final decision and the last set of three photographs were taken. It was decided that the largest piece of work would be kept at the school. During the experimentation, the idea was put forward that one unique piece would look better if it was assembled on top of the largest assemblage. The decision was made that this piece should be able to rotate, so they would need a motor and that piece would stay at the school and the other two pieces would be donated for the auction.

One morning during the ride to the school Dr. Buda informed me that few days after the idea was voiced, a father came to the artroom and informed her that his son told him that she needed a motor. She said she was a little astonished because she could not recall what the student might have been talking about. Then she remembered that, they had spoken about using a motor for the art work in one of the fourth grade classes. She explained to the father what it was need for, and the next day he sent a small motor that he had taken from a motorized gadget that they were no longer using. He also sent information stating where Dr. Buda could purchase a more powerful motor, if that one

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did not work. When the students went off on December holidays all decisions were made

regarding the collaborative pieces. They only needed the large pieces boards on which to

install each piece. This was the responsibility of Dr. Buda. The students had done their

part. The projects were mounted on ply board painted white in January and two pieces

were sent to the art auction; both pieces were sold. The large piece was not yet equipped

with the motor up to the last date of my visit on Tuesday, May 25, 2010.

5th grade – creating clay mask.

The fifth graders were engaged in the clay mask activity for the rest of the

calendar year. After the masks were fired and the students had painted a monochromatic

value scale comprising the selected color, five tints and five shades; they were ready to

paint their mask using a dark colour acrylic paint which they had to mix, to match one of

the shades from the monochromatic value scale. During one of my observation sessions

before doing a slide presentation of pictures of painted masks from previous years’ work

the students were asked the following question: Why do you use a lot of water in your

base coat paint? The required response was: The Mask (Clay) is porous and will absorb

water/liquid paint. After the slide show Dr. Buda continued the discussion using guided

questions: How do you find contrast on the colour wheel? The required answer was:

When they are opposite. What happens when the colors are neighbors? There is no

contrast. The discussion led students to talk about craftsmanship. This was reflected by

them stating that they need to use hard edges which are crisp and clean.

Dr. Buda provided valuable information and instructions about how to avoid the work looking unfinished and rushed. They were to paint the underside as well as the

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front of the mask, making sure no white areas are showing and that the foundation color should dry before they started to paint designs, because if the dark colour is wet it will absorb the other colors. They were to look at patterns when they are doing details and make the work look interesting. She warned that too many patterns might not look unified. They were to use good control of the materials and not to rush in order to finish.

The students worked inventively and attentively over the next few weeks, painting lines, shapes and motifs to create patterns as well as adding embellishments such as yarns of different fiber and texture, feathers and metallic objects to reflect Native American artistic styles and culture. They also personalized them to suit their own individual preferences. When the pieces were finished, the students mounted them in sets of three in a column pattern on strips of perforated hardboard (Peg Board). On my ninth visit to the school on Thursday, January 14, 2010 I assisted Dr. Buda with the hanging of the display around the walls of the common area of the school.

Three months’ review.

By the end of February I had collected a robust amount of data as a result of the time and effort I had invested in the research process. Up to that date I had the made sixteen visits; I had observed Dr. Buda engaged in teaching and learning over seventy times; I had explored the inside and outside of the building, viewing the artworks created by the students and others as well as some of the natural and built environments from which inspirations were drawn for some of the artworks. I had rummaged several years of historical documents such as past unit/lesson plans and grant applications. I had conducted four formal interviews with teachers who have been supportive of and

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collaborated in the arts integrated curriculum. I had conducted dozens of informal interviews/discussions with Dr. Buda and was anticipating the rich data that would be yielded from the formal interview which we had already scheduled. As I reflected on the professor’s response, that I will know when to stop when there is nothing new happening at the school and Stark’s & Torrance’s, (2006) revelation that their “advice to novice researchers is often to stay in the field until a ‘saturation point’ is reached and few new findings are being collected” (p. 37); compounded with my desire to attend the Summer commencement, I came to the decision that it was time to take my leave from the school.

Mosaic mural - an authentic real experience: collaboration, connection and cooperation

Over the years, I had come to realize that Dr. Buda is a visionary. She was always looking for novel, interesting and exciting ways of engaging the students in learning with, in, through and about visual arts media and techniques, thus developing and/or enhancing their creative abilities and critical thinking skills. She had on more than one occasions informed me that she was trying to get an artist to come to the school and work with the students before the end of the academic year. So, on the seventeenth visit on March 17, 2010, after conducting the formal interview with her, I informed her that I will be taking a brake and would save the last three days/visits, should in case her vision of engaging an artist materialized. I would have the remaining three days out of the twenty visits I had stated in my proposal.

In response to an email I sent to her on May 3, 2010, Dr. Buda informed that, “I am currently collaborating with a new artist that I have not worked with before. She is a

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mosaic and mixed media artist.” She sent me attachments with the flyer that was sent to

parents announcing the residency of the artist, the artist’s bio, plus her artist’s statement

and a letter sent to the teachers informing them of the activities on Friday, May 7, 2010,

the first day of the artist’s visitation which will span a two week period. However, the

artist will be in residency for only 7 days. She invited me to review the times of the

artist’s visit and to let her know if I wanted to visit while she was there.

An opportunity like this I could not resist. So, I replied, informing Dr. Buda that I would visit on Friday, May 7, 2010 - the initial day when the artist would spend the entire day meeting the entire student body by grade levels for a 50 minute schedule each, on

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 to observe how she worked collaboratively and cooperative with the artist and her assistance to engage the students from grades 1–5 in the applying of tiles to the tunnel and Thursday, May 20, 2010, the day of the annual art show when parents were invited to view the display of the students’ work and new families would get an opportunity to paint their family tiles – which were mentioned in the description of the common area. The parents would also visit the tunnel to see the work in progress and add a tile or two, if they so desired.

On the ride to the school on Friday, May 7, 2010, Dr. Buda provided me with a brief overview of how she managed to get in contact with the artist. Another teacher in the district had been planning with the artist to engage in an art project at her school; but she did not have the funding so she contacted Dr. Buda for her assistance with a grant application(s). Dr. Buda became interested in the work that this artist has been doing and so she asked the teacher if she would mind if she engaged the artist to work on a project at her school since she was not yet ready. Within one week Dr. Buda and the artist were

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planning for the project. The artist and her assistant visited the school to see first hand

the magnitude of the work to be done. After the monetary negotiation and a fixed

amount was decided on, Dr. Buda realized she was $500.00 short; however she did not

find this amount as a challenge, she knew she could get that amount to make the project a

reality. The artist informed Dr. Buda of the materials, tools and equipment that would be

necessary for the project; they decided who would be responsible to supply the different

things. Dr. Buda sent out a two page news letter to the parents informing them of the

artist residency, as well as soliciting parent volunteers to help with the hanging of art works for the art show and to assist with their child’s class at the tunnel. She also asked for donations for the mosaic and provided a schedule of the date/day and time the artist would be engaged with each class. Below is the statement calling the donations:

Donations for Mosaic!

• Do you have any chipped, cracked or broken dishes, lamps, or other ceramics

pieces you may want to donate to the mosaic process?

• We are currently collecting donations of all sizes, shapes, and colors to add

variety to the mosaic students will use in the installation.

• If you have left over tile from a home remodeling project those can be used too.

• Drop off all donations to the art room.

• Students will be making hand made tiles and sorting items you donate through

May 14 for the installation.

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The professional artist first engagement with young artists – (Friday, May 7,

2010)

I was not present at the school to ascertain how Dr. Buda went about planning for the first day of engagement. However, on the morning of Friday, May 7, 2010, the

Physical Education teacher was busy in and out of the artroom, carting large brown paper bags to the gymnasium, while Dr. Buda was busy engaging in other activities that were relevant to the artist’s and her assistant’s visit. I later discovered that each brown paper bag contained the journals for a class and was labeled with the grade and teacher’s name and the time each class was scheduled to be at the presentation. The artist and her assistant arrived at about 8:30 AM; she collected one of the mobile carts from the artroom and trucked her resources from her vehicle to the artroom. After a formal introduction we headed to the tunnel where Dr. Buda and the artist made a final negotiation as to the quantity of work that they envisaged they would be able to finish in the five days of full engagement with all five grade levels participating in the collaboration. It was agreed on that they would aim at completing 50% of the space around the painted murals that were created from a previous project. They were also trying to decide what equipment they would be able to use for the students to stand on to apply the tiles because most of the opened areas were above the reach of most of the students if they were standing at ground level.

I made two suggestions: one was to borrow a couple of the cafeteria tables and the other was the metal benches that were outside the artroom. Dr. Buda informed me that those tables are very heavy and they would be needed for lunch and could not be removed from the area and the benches were also heavy and bolted to the ground. As we

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walked back to the artroom, which is about one third of a mile from the tunnel, I noticed

that there was a picnic shed with four metal picnic tables with seats attached. I broke

away from the group and ran off the path to the shed to ascertain if the tables were

stationary. Eureka! Eureka! I have found the answer! In an act of glee, I exclaimed,

these are not stationary and they are most suitable! The other three ladies came to the shed and all agreed that these would be the best option. At that point, Dr. Buda informed me that the equipment was the property of the city and so she would need to get permission to remove them. She assured us that this was no problem; she just had to make a telephone call to the office responsible for the public parks. I should have told you before; the school is situated on the same property of a public park, which is of great benefit to the school when it comes to maintenance of the biological environment of the ecosystem. As we left the shed, Dr. Buda thanked me for being so observant and stated that she wondered what I was up to when I left the pathway and ran towards the shed.

We went back to the artroom feeling that we were on our way to solving one of the biggest challenges associated with the project. She had a week before the students were going to be working in the tunnel; this was adequate time for her to confirm if she was permitted to move the tables to the site. School’s policy stipulated that children are not to be asked to climb on surfaces or objects that are not secured and safe. It was close to 10:00 AM and so we journeyed over to the gymnasium to make all the final preparation for the day’s activities. By 10:05 all the “special area” teachers assembled in the gymnasium. Dr. Buda introduced the artist and her assistant to each of the other three teachers, the Music teacher, the Physical education teacher, and the Librarian and indicated to each of the teachers where she would like her to facilitate the students she

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would be monitoring. At least five brown paper bags were positioned at each of the

spaces indicated.

Promptly at 10:10 AM the first group of students came marching in to the door of

the gymnasium with the teacher in front and them walking in a line. Dr. Buda formally

introduced each group of students to the artist and her assistant; the artist gave a slide

show presentation, thus, providing the students with valuable and relevant information about herself, examples of her work and process/procedures, and the type of work she wanted to engage them in. This was my opportunity to have a practical experience of how Dr. Buda uses her organizational skills, her “risk taking disposition,” (which most of

the interviewees as well as the visiting artist mentioned as one of her characteristics that

allowed to make things happen) and her visionary geniuses to make, what might have

been chaotic and/or impossible for some persons, a smooth flow throughout the day. It

was a collaborative and cooperative endeavor that included the Visual Art, Music,

Physical Education and Library teachers being in the same space at the same time. Being

a great initiator and planner and an excellent organizer, Dr. Buda envisaged that the best

way to ensure that all the students would be introduced to the upcoming project and for

each class to get at least one class contact experience working with the artist was to ask

the above teachers for their class periods/sessions for the entire day on Friday, May 7.

The time table at the school is scheduled that all classes of a particular grade level are

assigned to these teachers at the same time for what is called “specials area.” For

example, at 10:10 – 11:00 AM each class in the third grade level would be in class with

one of the four teachers. This kind of timetabling was very advantageous for Dr. Buda’s

visages. Although it interfered with the day’s regular scheduling, it allowed for all the

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grade levels/all the classes to participate in the day’s activity. Additionally, to ensure that the students were adequately monitored and supervised, and to reduce the chance behavioral problems, Dr. Buda solicited the assistance of the above teachers throughout the course of the day during each presentation in the gymnasium. The class teachers play their part by accompanying their students to the gym; the students sat on the floor in a half-circle manner facing the mobile projector screen in groups according to their specific class.

The artist’s engagement with the students.

Dr. Buda greeted the students and introduced the artist and her assistant to each group of students before the artist interacted with the students. The artist provided the students with a brief overview of herself and her assistant and their experiences as a teacher before they started to engage in mosaic mural. She was a high school teacher and her assistant was an elementary school teacher. She majored in painting in college but had taught for several years, she was always interested in nature and textural materials and so, when she heard that a famous mosaic artist was conducting a mosaic workshop, she decided to participate to gain the knowledge and skills to create large scale mosaic pieces that were suitable for outdoor environments. After she learned about the materials and processes, the first big mural she did was the back wall of her house. She showed the students pictures of the mural and explained how she included things that reflect the natural environments. She also showed two commissioned projects, one on the outdoor wall of a store in Newark, Ohio and another in an inside wall at a high school. She

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explained that like their mural, the one at the school was collaborative; it was organized

by the Visual Arts teacher and included the students’ involvement in the creative process.

She also showed pictures of the different media used in the process and how each is

prepared and utilized in the creative process.

The slide presentation lasted about twenty minutes. She used an additional ten

minutes to show the small mosaic sample pieces and some three dimensional pieces she

had created using discarded material and objects and explained the thought behind each

piece. After each presentation, each class was directed to a corner of the gym where the

students were supervised by one of the teachers as they drew in their journals some of the

things they would like to be (re)presented in their mosaic mural.

The students’ engagement in the design process.

Most of the students drew images that related to the P.O.N.D. project journey, which travels from the pond at the school all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and aspects of family and community experiences, sporting and games, as well as activities that reflect the natural and/or built environment. Some of the images included were insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and wild and pet animals and human beings in action as they interact with the environment. There was a one week span between the initial introduction of the students to the artist and her mosaic mural works. Dr. Buda informed me that, from Monday, May 10 and Thursday, May 14, she engaged the students in making their personal symbolic tile for placement in the mural, in preparation for the commencement of the real mural activity on Friday, May 14, 2010. As was stated before,

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the students who had Visual Arts class on a Monday would be having class again on the

Friday of the same week. Therefore the students would have done their tiles in the three

days prior to their engagement with the tunnel project. The students in the upper grade

levels helped with the breaking up of the tiles into sizes that were practical for the

mosaic.

Engagement beyond the walls of the school/artroom - My observation at the mural site

As was planned, I went to the school on Tuesday, May 18, 2010, to continue the data collection process. When Dr. Buda picked me up at the bus stop she explained that I was not appropriately dressed for the outdoor activity; I tried to be professionally dressed each time I went to the school. I told her that it is OK, my clothes will not get messed up.

During the ride to the school I inquired about the progress of the mural and whether she had gotten permission to remove the tables to the tunnel for the students to stand on. She informed me that she made the telephone call and left a voicemail message explaining her request. She had not got back a response, but she went ahead and removed them. She informed me that with two days gone and two days to go, it seem that they might be able to finish applying tiles to the projected 50% of the entire tunnel space. She also informed me that it rained most of Monday and so it slowed up the commuting of the students to and from the tunnel.

Research protocol prevented me from fully immersing as a participant. I was exempted from full IRB review because I was not engaging the students in the data

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collection process. They would not be engaged in the activity either in the artroom or at

the tunnel, before 10:10 A.M, so, I took the liberty to assist the artist, her assistant and

Dr. Buda with the transporting of the materials, tools and equipment to the tunnel. As

was stated before, the distance from the school building and the tunnel is approximately

one third of a mile or five minutes walk. On our walk to the tunnel we saw that three

workers on three vehicular motorized lawnmowers were busy cutting the lawns. When

we reached tunnel, we realized that the tables were taken up and returned to the picnic

shed. Luckily, it was not yet time for the students to report for their class and so, without

hesitating, Dr. Buda went in search of one of the work men to ascertain why the tables

were removed and if it was possible for one of the tables to be brought back to the site.

In the mean while, the artist and her assistant returned to the artroom to prepare the grout

that was used to fill the space between the tiles. Within ten minutes all three lawn

mowers were heading towards the tunnel, one with a table attached to its front. The lawn mower with the table was driven closest to the tunnel; all three men alighted from their vehicles. They lifted the table into the tunnel, one of the men explained that they saw the

benches were out of and thought they might have been placed there by idle persons and

so they removed them back to the picnic shed. They asked me if I was sure one table is

enough and I responded that one was OK. Before Dr. Buda left the tunnel she had stated

that one table would be enough, with the two improvised work benches that she and her

family had constructed. Before the artists and her assistant started the day’s activities,

they covered the existing painted murals and the concrete floor with paper, and tarpaulins

to avoid damage and/or discoloration from the excess grout that fell off the mosaic work.

On that day there were no parent volunteers and so Dr. Buda was the sole person

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accompanying the students to and from the tunnel. She met each group of the students at the common area and escorted the student to the tunnel; about five minutes before the class ended, Dr. Buda brought the lesson to a closure and escorted the children back to the common area in time to escort the next group to the tunnel. Dr. Buda did the preliminary introduction to the students and then she allowed the artist to conduct the rest of the lesson. The artist did a brief explanation of the process, drawing attention to different sections of the work in progress. She explained and demonstrated how to use the pieces of mirror on either sides of the outline of the shapes that (re)presented the objects they wanted to be (re)presented on the mural. She explained that, the double rows of mirror served as a guide for her to paint back the original outlines of the shapes of the objects (re)presented. She demonstrated and explained how to hold the container with the tiles and the stick with the cement in the hand on the side opposite from the hand which is mostly used; how to pick up a piece of tile or glass and apply the cement by passing the tile lightly on the cement. She explained that there should be no overlapping or touching of the tiles and there should be placed about a pencil width space between all the tiles. Her assistant explained and demonstrated how to apply and clean off the excess grout and clean up and shine the tiles after the grout is dry.

The artist and her assistant each wore a pair of rubber gloves throughout the lesson. After the explanation and demonstrations, Dr. Buda informed the students to collect their individual personal symbolic clay tiles that they made in class the previous week and install these symbolic tiles first, before they started adding the other pieces of tile to the mosaic work. Dr. Buda indicated to the students to collect a pair of disposable gloves from the supply cart. She informed them that, they should not be working with

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the tiles and cement without protecting their hands.

At one point during one of the morning lessons a woman walking her dog passed through the tunnel; she stopped and examined the existing painted panels, then went on her way with the dog. In the afternoon, the same woman returned on a bicycle with her camera and photographed the initial artworks and the mural work in progress. The artist asked the woman if she wanted to add a few tiles to the mural, without hesitating she started applying tiles to the mural. Before long she was cleaning sections of the mural that had been grouted. We discovered that this woman was actually a parent; her son was in the fourth grade class that came at 2:00 – 2:50 PM. On my next visit, Dr. Buda and the artist informed me that the parent returned and assisted with the mural on Wednesday and

Thursday as well. She also engaged in much of the clean up of the site each day.

When the last class left the tunnel at 3:30 PM, we decided that we would not truck some of the things back to the artroom and so we left the containers with the tiles, and some of the other materials, tools and equipment. That day I experienced all five grade levels of students as they worked on the collaborative piece with the professional artist, her assistant with little interference and no addition demonstration or explanation from

Dr. Buda. Unlike, when working in the artroom, the students were on their feet the entire

35 – 45 minutes, (the last class every day is scheduled for 40 minutes) so there is a reduction in engagement time due to the distance between the school building and the tunnel. The students displayed a high level of enthusiasm and stick-to-it-ness throughout the time they were engaged in the process. It was an amazing experience to observe the students as young as 6 – 7 years old working on such a large project, participating in an

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artmaking activity that in some environments are reserved for more matured learners

and/or artists.

The art show - It’s a family affair

Thursday, May 20, 2010 was not a mural work day and so Br. Buda had to

facilitate the students for her scheduled class; it was also the day of the art show and so I

spent my time not as a an observer but performing curatorial functions such as mounting

the students work for the show, which was scheduled last two hours, from 6:00 – 8:00

P.M. Although this activity might not be viewed by some persons as related or relevant for a researcher to perform, for me it was valuable and two fold. It afforded me an opportunity to participate in an activity that should be an integral part of the future teachers I will prepare for practice, and it was reciprocal. I was able to “pay back” in a small way to Dr. Buda, for all the effort and time she had put into facilitating me in the teaching/learning environment and ensuring that I got robust and relevant data to successfully complete the dissertation. It was customary for her to drop me off at the bus stop at the mall by 4:00 P.M. However, I had informed her from the previous visit that I would stay for the art show experience and take a later bus home. At about 4:30 PM, I was rearranging some of the first and second graders artwork when a man carrying a covered picnic basket passed along; I was so engrossed in what I was doing I did not take time out to see where was his destination.

At about 5:30 Dr. Buda informed me that her husband had brought dinner for us, so we need to eat before the parents started to arrive. As we sat down to dine, she told me that on occasions when she happens to work late at the school, her husband always

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takes time out to bring her dinner. She stated that when he arrived with the basket, she asked him, “Did you bring enough for Verona to get some?” His response is not important; the meal he brought was more than adequate for us both and he had prepared dishes that I could partake of. After dinner, Dr. Buda and I headed to the common area to await the arrival of the parents; we positioned ourselves among the second and fourth graders’ pottery display. I did not just stand around like “a sore thumb sticking out,” after about 15 minutes observing and listening to Dr. Buda’s engagement with the parents; I participated like an assistant and started to interact with the parents.

The pottery display.

In the afternoon after school had dismissed, Dr. Buda and I arranged over one hundred fifty pieces of clay containers on four of the cafeteria tables. The 2nd graders made coiled bowls which they decorated with motifs, objects, or scenes that are memorable to them. The 4th graders made ceramic cups using the slab technique. They were to decorate and/or embellish the cups with designs and/or objects that revealed something about themselves. Some of the clay pieces were highly decorated or heavily embellished. At the top section of the western wall were displayed the fifth graders’ clay mask. A few masks were also displayed in other areas of the common areas. The first graders clay pieces were holiday ornaments and were taken home when the students went off on the December break. Although the third graders did not have an individual clay piece to show, they were given opportunities to make a symbolic clay tile which they had

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added to the mosaic mural in the tunnel. Can you imagine 7 - 8 and 9 – 10 years old children getting opportunities to manipulate and experience how it felt to work with this medium and learn at least one technique to manipulate this malleable and forgiving medium to create three dimensional pieces that were both decorative and utilitarian?

The clay pieces displayed had gone through bisque firing, under-glazing and glazing and then final firing. This did not only develop and enhance their artistic skills, but their manipulative skills as well. Should I be ashamed to confess that, in all my artistic development and career journey, I had never made a clay object, neither for decorative nor utilitarian function? This is because my elementary and/or high school teachers were not equipped with the knowledge, skills, dispositions and commitments necessary to nurture what was natural and to expose me to and engage me with the medium and techniques.

As was stated before, the show was scheduled for two hours and should have ended at 8:00 PM. However, the show went overtime. Each of the over 500 students had at least two pieces of artwork on display, all the walls on the first floor were transformed into gallery spaces for the first and second graders and the walls of the second floor housed the third, fourth and fifth graders. Additionally, the IT room was available for the fourth and fifth graders to show their parents their digital portfolios with some of the art works that they had photographed and uploaded to the computer and the I-Web pages that they had been working on since March.

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Family participation.

There were the two hands-on activities for family members to participate in: the artroom was set up to facilitate new families to decorate a family tile; Dr. Buda had made and bisque fired clay tiles and had them available for families to work collaboratively to decorate them with under-glazes. Dr. Buda had sent home to the parents, a sheet of paper with instructions and a 6” x 6” square space (the same size of the tiles) for them to draw the design they would like on the tile that will represent the family. Families who did not turn in or take their designs were given new sheets to create their tile designs on site. The paper had spaces to fill in the family name, the child’s name and class and teacher’s name. The next step was to put a piece of carbon between the tile and the pre-drawn design and transfer the outlines onto the tile. The next step was to select the different colors under glazes and paint the design. The tile with the family’s name and the design were placed on the drying rack. It was a pleasure watching individual families scanning the borders of the two murals in the “common area,” trying to locate their family’s tile.

Nine times out of ten, it was the child who was able to accurately identify their family’s tile. Where did these tiles initially come from?

The tiles for this activity were made by students when the project was initiated in

2004 and even the first graders were involved.

Students began making tiles during their art classes. I purchased wooden lath

slats for the students to help them roll the clay slabs more evenly. I demonstrated

this new technique to grades 1–4 since they were familiar with rolling slabs

already this year, but had never used anything to control thickness of the slab. …

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Fifth graders were given the option to come in during recess to help with tiles and

27 out of 93 came in at least one time to make tiles. … Since these were to be

family tiles for a community piece of art. I stressed to the students that there was

no need to put their names on the tiles. … Students wedged clay, rolled clay with

rolling pins on their clay mats, and cut through the clay using wooden tongue

depressors as knives. They used 6” x 6” cardboard as patterns to try to assure

similar size tiles. … We made approximately 700 tiles total. Roughly 625 of

those tiles ended up being bisque fired. Tiles were removed if they were too thin,

too warped, cracked or had become misshaped as they were handled. During the

bisque firing about another 20 tiles cracked. (Buda 2005, p. 54)

The other venue was the mosaic mural in the foot tunnel. All the students had participated in the project and each had a personal symbolic tile that s/he had personally made and installed in the mosaic; therefore, these young artists were equipped and knowledgeable enough to inform the parents about the work in progress. The artist and her assistant were at the tunnel ready and waiting to facilitate parents. They provided additional information regarding the processes and techniques; they demonstrated and explained the steps involved. Interested parents, not only new ones, had the opportunity to participate in one or more of the following activities: they could add a few pieces of tiles to the work in progress and/or add grout to areas where the tiles were already set and/or clean off the excess grout and clean a section of the grouted tiles.

At about 8:15 the artist and her assistant returned to the artroom carting the rest of materials and tools that from the tunnel. However, a few new families were still milling in and out of the artroom. I was not around to see/hear how Dr. Buda managed to dismiss

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them, I had grabbed my camera and had taken a quick trip to the tunnel to see and record the progress that was made in the tunnel since my previous visit on the Tuesday, May 18,

2010. When I returned to the common area, Dr. Buda and the principal were busy packing the Grades 2 & 4 clay pieces in boxes. I quickly jumped in and lent a helping hand. Dr. Buda and I left the school close to 9:00 PM. It was a day to remember, I was standing on my feet for over twelve hours. I took two brief breaks, once to have lunch and the second to share some of the dinner Dr. Buda’s husband had brought for us. The day’s experience was very valuable to me as a researcher because I was able to do something to assist Dr. Buda with the mammoth tasks she would have had to complete, almost single handedly. On the ride to the bus stop, I inquired of Dr. Buda when she will be removing the art pieces from the walls. I had one more interview to do with the Media

Specialist teacher and I wanted the interview date to coincide with that day so I could give a helping hand as a means of showing my gratitude. Dr. Buda informed me that the artworks had to be taken down and placed in the portfolios so the students who had art classes the next Friday could get their work to take home because this would be their last art class for the academic year.

Visit #21 – An opportunity for reciprocity.

I decided that my last official researcher’s visit to the school to interview Media

Specialist would be Tuesday, May 25, 2010. This would afford me the opportunity to assist Dr. Buda to “take down” the students’ artwork. This was another long day on my feet. I spent the hours from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM with 15 minutes sitting down break for

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lunch, climbing up and down ladders to reach the works that were above the reach of the students who assisted. On one occasion, a teacher commented, you must be sorry you are

Sharon’s friend, she has been working you very hard from the other day.” My response was, “it is not a matter of friendship, in Jamaica we say, ‘One hand washes the other.’

Dr. Buda has been facilitating me for my case study research for the past six month; this is my way of showing my gratitude.” The teacher replied, “in the US we say that too, but we also say, pay back can be very cruel.” My response was, “I do not see this as a cruel act.” The dialogue ended and the teacher went on her “merry” way and I continued the task at hand. As I recalled the experience, I could not but remember, my son Junior’s perception, as he puts it, “nothing goes without a price.” In academic discourse and research literature, this “price” or “payback” is referred to as reciprocity. Glazer (1982) defined reciprocity as “the exchange of favors and commitments, the building of a sense of mutual identification and feeling of community” (cited in Glesne, 2006, p. 142). It is important to realize that, “although participants in qualitative research sometimes receive remuneration” (Glesne, 2006, p. 142), the “price” or “(pay)back” does not always have to be in monetary denominations to be valued or be viewed as adequate. In the case of my situation, I did not have to think an amount in “coinage,” I just had to show “kindness.”

Since my last visit on Tuesday, May 25, 2010, Dr. Buda has continuously been showing her gratitude each time we communicated. Researchers, especially “novices” need to, before they start the data collection process, view the situation as one for “give” and

“take,” when we enter into the lives of our participants, we should not only be seen as

“cultural thieves” or “data exporters” or academic imperialists” (who are pullers), we should be “pusher” as well. When you leave the site you should not only be overjoyed

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about what you have taken with you, but, be rejoicing about what you had left behind, to

be remembered by, as well. Do not spend time judging the adequacy of your “kind” or

“coin” by standards of equivalency; just strive to ensure what you left behind are

invaluable to the participant(s).

Later in the afternoon, I moved to the first floor to continue my act of reciprocity;

the principal, while on his “tour of duty” passed me taking down the first and second

graders’ work, made the following comment, “it is a pity they have to be taken down so

quickly, the place always looks so bare when they are taken down.” In response I

informed him that, “I will make a recommendation to Dr. Buda that she asks each student

to contribute one piece of his/her work as a gift to the school or a loan until the following

year they will be returned.” He stated that, “that would be a good idea.” When I

informed Dr. Buda of my conversation with the principal, she informed me that she had

already sent a letter home to the parents indicating that all the students’ artwork would be

sent hope at the end of the academic year. Well, although it was a tiring and exhausting

day, I am happy I had made this offer and planned to visit that day. Not only did Dr.

Buda have to teach her scheduled art classes, I think it would have been physically

challenging for her to do all of the tasks. She was experiencing severe pains at the sole of

her left foot and the continuous climbing up/down–on/off the ladder could have made the

situation worse. I made my exit from the school as an Art Education Researcher at about

4:30 PM on Tuesday, May 25, 2010. The experience was very engaging, invigorating,

enlightening, stimulating, illuminating, insightful, educational, and emancipatory. I

could not have desired a more professional, collegial and democratic “learning community” to participate and engaged in as a novice researcher.

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