Unfolding the Unexpectedness of Uncertainty Arts Research As a Triptych Installation: a Conversation of Processes, Practices
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UNFOLDING THE UNEXPECTEDNESS OF UNCERTAINTY ARTS RESEARCH AS A TRIPTYCH INSTALLATION: A CONVERSATION OF PROCESSES, PRACTICES, PRODUCTS by ANITA ELIZABETH SINNER M.Ed., University of Victoria, 2002 B.A., University of British Columbia, 1989 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Curriculum Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) February 2008 © Anita Sinner, 2008 ABSTRACT This conversation is an invitation to a research and artistic experience engaging in teaching and learning with sensitivity and consideration, and in the course of doing, revealing insights about the transformative processes of becoming-teacher in art education. Invoking the architecture of the contemporary triptych, this installation involves structural frames of arts research processes, practices and products, and iconographic frames of becoming-teacher as unfolding, unexpectedness and uncertainty. I explore how arts research opens possibilities through the act and art of sharing stories and visuals in a triptych which may be read sequentially, or out of order, as a relational experience, entering at any point across and/or within each panel. In doing arts research, I question: What insights are generated through the arts in a case study concerning the lived and learning experiences of women becoming-teachers? How does arts research inform research processes, practices and products? How do I theorize arts research as customary methodological ecotones? Based on this study, a number of key issues are illuminated concerning teacher education. The reconceptualization of teacher education in terms of health and well-being is critical. Emphasis on geographies of self and the evolution of situated knowledges as a means to negotiate becoming-teacher, along with notions of teacher as researcher and collaborative leadership in teacher education, provide a basis for active reform in teacher education. An emotional journey, complex and complicated, rich in artful expressions, this conversation moves between theoretical and methodological considerations and culminates in a series of realizations about becoming-teacher and arts research, honouring the knowledge creation of research partners, and my discoveries and realizations as an arts researcher, to make this expression of arts research an opportunity to share alternate perspectives within teaching culture. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................................................ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...........................................................................................................................................v ARTS RESEARCH AS A TRIPTYCH INSTALLATION .....................................................................................1 I UNFOLDING: RESEARCH PROCESSES.........................................................................................................2 Unfolding the Unexpectedness of Uncertainty..............................................................................................................3 THE ARTS PARADIGM: EXPRESSIVE RESEARCH EMERGING IN THE ACADEMY............................................................8 BECOMING IN THE ARTS...........................................................................................................................................12 THE POLITICS OF INQUIRY AND RESEARCH...............................................................................................................14 THE ART VERSUS ART DEBATE ................................................................................................................................21 ON AESTHETICS AND WORKS OF ART .......................................................................................................................27 THE POTENTIAL OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL GENTRIFICATION THROUGH THE ARTS .................................................33 RUMINATING ON THE ARTS PARADIGM ....................................................................................................................36 Doing Arts Research....................................................................................................................................................39 PRELUDE TO RESEARCH ...........................................................................................................................................40 AN INVITATION TO SHARE .......................................................................................................................................41 CRITICAL MOMENTS ................................................................................................................................................46 BECOMING TEACHERS .............................................................................................................................................50 SHIFTING UNDERSTANDINGS OF BECOMING.............................................................................................................52 RUMINATING ON RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS ............................................................................................................54 II UNEXPECTEDNESS: RESEARCH PRACTICES ........................................................................................57 Narratives of Becoming...............................................................................................................................................58 RUTH’S STORY: THE BRIDGE I HAVE TO WALK OVER ..............................................................................................60 I’m going to build a bridge............................................................................................................................61 If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.................................................................................................................66 Walking over the bridge................................................................................................................................68 I am the paintbrush........................................................................................................................................77 The long practicum went really well.............................................................................................................79 There’s a new bridge to cross........................................................................................................................84 ANN’S STORY: I GREW UP ON LAND ON THE NECHAKO RIVER ................................................................................90 It runs in my blood ........................................................................................................................................91 I just felt like I was going to a residential school or something ....................................................................98 I’ve always been an activist-type person.....................................................................................................103 I found myself in a place I visited often......................................................................................................106 I just swallow hard ......................................................................................................................................109 I want to try new things and experiment .....................................................................................................112 I had to be a root of care to the tree of unhappiness that lived in the classroom.........................................114 I hope to open their eyes .............................................................................................................................117 NATHALIE’S STORY: A GAME OF DRAMATIC HATS................................................................................................119 I have no real expectations of this program.................................................................................................120 She wants to be the ‘cool teacher’...............................................................................................................123 I was so invisible.........................................................................................................................................126 I felt like I was overreacting a little bit .......................................................................................................132 I have to be a good role model ....................................................................................................................136 It feels good so far.......................................................................................................................................140 iii A game of dramatic hats..............................................................................................................................141 My challenge was to focus on the positive..................................................................................................146 Becoming a good teacher ............................................................................................................................151