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Rethinking and Remaking a High School Art Foundations Curriculum

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Rethinking and Remaking a High School Art Foundations Curriculum Rethinking and Remaking a High School Art Foundations Curriculum Jethro Gillespie A Thesis In the Department of Art Education Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Art Education) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada February, 2018 © Jethro Gillespie, 2018 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Jethro Gillespie Entitled: Rethinking and Remaking a High School Art Foundations Curriculum and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Of Philosophy (Art Education) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: Chair Dr. Mark Watson External Examiner Dr. Mary Hafeli External to Program Dr. Robert Cassidy Examiner Dr. Daniel Barney Examiner Dr. Lorrie Blair Examiner Dr. MJ Thompson Thesis Supervisor Dr. Juan Carlos Castro Approved by Dr. Lorrie Blair, Graduate Program Director Wednesday, April 4, 2018 Dr. Rebecca Taylor Duclos, Dean Faculty of Fine Arts ABSTRACT Rethinking and Remaking a High School Art Foundations Curriculum Jethro Gillespie, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2018 This research study examines my experience as a high school art educator as I attempted to rethink and remake a high school art foundations curriculum. For this study, I utilized a theoretical framework of complexity thinking as it pertains to the dynamic phenomena of teaching and learning to critically approach and challenge traditional pedagogical approaches to teaching an art foundations course. Processing data collected from two classes over the course of a semester (January-May, 2016), I utilized a Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology to iteratively examine the effects of a newly designed curriculum whose central focus was to promote the potential benefits of treating contemporary artists as creative role models by examining various aspects of their artistic practices with students. Through the experience of this study, I found that greater success and stronger student engagement could be cultivated in a high school art foundations course by 1) conceiving of the classroom as an ecosystem, 2) welcoming the tension between contemporary curricular choices and the many traditional structures in his school, and 3) advocating for a classroom culture and class time to be focused on ideation, studious play, and ambiguous spaces to cultivate more authentic and meaningful art projects. Keywords: complexity thinking, design-based research, contemporary art, art foundations, curriculum, high school iii Acknowledgements In recognition and sincere gratitude, I would like to thank the following: Robyn Gillespie, Lincoln, Sophia, & Anders Drs. Juan Carlos Castro, Daniel Barney, Lorrie Blair, & M. J. Thompson (Teachers, mentors, and committee members) Drs. Mark Graham, Sharon Gray, Jorge Lucero, Kathleen Vaughn, Anita Sinner, Richard Lachapelle, & David Pariser (Teachers and mentors) Oliver Herring (Mentor and collaboration partner) Bart Francis, David Jones, Clark Goldsberry, Martin LaLonde, Melissa Ledo, Jessica Hamlin, Jack Watson, Don Ball, Dana Helwick, Ty Talbot, Todd Elkin, Stacey Abramson, Joe Fusaro, Tricia Fitzpatrick (Art Educator friends and colleagues) William “Bus” Gillespie, Susan Gillespie, Steven Peterson, Barbara Peterson (Family) Concordia University The faculty, administration, and students of Ridge High School iv Dedication For William “Bus” Gillespie (1952-2018) v Table of Contents List of Figures xi Preface 1 A Note about Images 1 Background/Positionality 3 Statement of Problem 4 Curriculum Design 5 Definitions 6 Complexity thinking. 6 Design-Based research (DBR). 7 Contemporary art. 7 Thesis Organization 7 Connections to the Past and Connections Looking Forward 8 Introduction 11 Designed Curriculum 11 A Brief History of Curriculum Development in Art Education 12 Early developments. 12 Self expression. 13 Discipline-Based art education. 14 Visual culture art education. 15 Ongoing revisions and additions to contemporary art education. 15 What does art foundations mean? 16 Rorty’s Pragmatism 18 Contemporary Art in the Classroom 20 Contemporary Considerations About Art in the Classroom 21 Knowing and Learning 21 Student Autonomy in the Classroom 23 Power within the classroom. 23 Different models of education. 24 Conditions for the emergence of student autonomy. 25 Example 1: Einstein class. 26 Example 2: TASK. 27 vi Part 1 Conclusion 28 Introduction 29 What Does Complexity Look Like? 29 Self-Organizing. 30 Ambiguously bounded, closed systems. 30 Bottom up. 30 Nested structure. 31 Neighbor interactions. 31 Feedback. 31 Adaptive. 31 Unpredictable behavior. 31 A Complex View of Learning Systems: A Series of Nested Structures 31 Complexity in art education: Affordances. 32 Complexity in art education: Limitations. 33 Thomas Hirschhorn’s Gramsci Monument as a Model of Complexity for Teaching and Learning 35 Being “present and productive”. 36 Energy = YES, Quality = NO. 37 “Every human being is an intellectual”. 37 Conclusion 38 Introduction 40 Description of Ridge High School 40 Ridge High School. 41 Administration and faculty. 41 The history and growth of the Visual Arts program at RHS. 42 School and community art culture. 44 Personal History & Biases 45 Brief history of my professional career as an art educator. 46 Collaborations with Oliver Herring. 46 Description of institutional structure. 49 Schedules. 51 Philosophical Approaches and Pedagogical Strategies 52 Curriculum mapping. 53 vii General daily format in Art Foundations. 53 Sketchbooks with featured artists. 54 Eight questions of artistic practice. 56 Introduction to DBR 57 Criticisms of DBR 58 DBR through the Lens of Complexity Thinking 58 What Constitutes Data in DBR? 59 Organizing data. 60 Coding data. 60 Shaping and presenting findings. 61 Conclusion 62 Description of Class Projects 64 TASK Description for the First Day of Class 66 TASK analysis. 67 Iteration notes for TASK. 68 Representational Drawing Unit Description 69 Representational drawing unit analysis. 70 Iteration notes for representational drawing unit. 70 Grid Drawing Unit Description 71 Grid drawing unit analysis. 72 Iteration notes from the grid drawing unit. 74 Six Second Video Description 75 Six second video project analysis. 76 Six second video iteration notes. 77 Hirschhorn-Inspired Foucault Monuments Project Description 77 Hirschhorn-Inspired Foucault monuments project reflection. 79 Hirschhorn-Inspired Foucault monuments iteration notes. 79 Nine Figure Drawings Project Description 80 Nine figure drawings project analysis. 81 Nine figure drawings project iteration notes. 83 Tape Sculpture Project Description 83 Tape sculpture project analysis. 85 Tape sculpture project iteration notes. 87 viii Plaster Hand Project Description 88 Plaster hand project analysis. 90 Plaster hand project iteration notes. 91 Repetition Project Description 91 Repetition project analysis. 94 Repetition project iteration notes. 99 Make/Do Project Description 100 Make/Do project analysis. 101 Make/Do project iteration notes. 107 Collage Project Description 108 Collage project analysis. 109 Collage project iteration notes. 110 Printmaking Project Description 110 Printmaking project analysis. 112 Printmaking project iteration notes. 114 Spring Showcase Entry Project Description 114 Spring showcase entry project analysis. 116 Conclusion 120 Introduction 123 Findings 123 The art classroom as an ecosystem. 123 Complex. 124 Relational. 125 Alive. 127 Tension between contemporary art curricula and traditional school structures. 129 Examples from the data. 129 The understandable prevalence and acceptance of traditional structures. 132 Tension as an agent of disequilibrium. 133 Ideation Time during Class 135 Studious play. 136 Challenges of ideation time during class. 136 A classroom orientation towards process-focused practices. 137 Curricular interventions for a more process-based focus. 138 ix Conclusion 140 Research Interests for the Future 143 References 146 Appendix 1- Commentary about the LDS culture at Ridge High School. 157 Appendix 2- Video URLs from the curriculum content 159 Appendix 3- Protocol and consent forms for participants 163 x List of Figures Figure 1.1 “Pete with rubber bands in a purple butcher paper curtain” Gouache on paper, 30” x 22” ............................................................................................................................................. 2 Figure 2. 1 "Melissa with circles and hands" Gouache on paper, 30"x22" .................................10 Figure 2. 2 Production stills from "Art in the Twenty-First Century" Season 7 episode, "Investigation," 2014. Segment: Thomas Hirschhorn © Art21, Inc. 2014 depicting site-specific participatory installation “Gramsci Monument” (2013) at Forest Houses, Bronx, New York .......36 Figure 3. 1 “Dana in a yellow paper curtain with spots” Gouache on paper, 30” x 22” ...............39 Figure 3. 2 Ridge High School ..................................................................................................40 Figure 3. 3 The portable art gallery set up at a local park ..........................................................45 Figure 3. 4 Photos taken from a community TASK party organized by Herring and myself in Mapleton, UT on October 24, 2015 ...........................................................................................48 Figure 3. 5 The front wall of my classroom ................................................................................50
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