Art Educators Research Articles

Craft as Care-Full Correspondence

Abstract Two art educators introduce craft as a communal, political, and feminist art practice when pairing it with care-full correspondence as a method for artistic research and critical reflection. Exemplified through a series of embroidered handkerchiefs, they initiate biographical interviews between them on topics like material engagement, physical and virtual correspondence, women's work, and pandemic times, all while contemplating responsiveness in the slowness of stitching. Relevant backstories and scholarship are stitched between interview questions and responses followed by a recommendation for art educators that aims to push back against neoliberal ways of being artists and making art that do not serve us.

The journey of Dr G. James Daichendt: An inspiring pursuit into one’s calling

Dr G. James Daichendt is an art critic, art historian, art educator and arts administrator, living and working in San Diego, California. This article explains the biographical history and ideas of this unique arts scholar celebrating both Jim the person and Dr Daichendt the arts academic. Through an interview on 2 February 2023, we discussed his childhood, people and ideas that influenced his philosophy of art education.

Toward Provocations for Playing with Games as Technologies

Abstract What does it mean to engage play as a method of inquiry into games? More importantly, how might we, as arts educators, invite others, particularly our students, to engage play as a method of inquiry into the politics of games as technologies? In this article, I work toward building a few short provocations to engage play as a method of inquiry into the politics of games as technologies. By reflecting upon my past pedagogical experiences alongside scholarship in critical game studies and science and technology studies, I start from the premise that all technologies are political, to argue that to approach games as technologies is to foreground the politics of games, whereby questions about their materialized arrangements of order that manifest gender, race, disability, and class politics are centered. With that understanding, I argue that to engage play as a method of inquiry into games is to disrupt what we know and can know about games, especially through the power relations that games mediate. Under this context, I end by offering a few short provocations for fellow arts educators to invite students to make sense out of nonsense and to make nonsense out of the commonsensical with regard to games.

The Pedagogy of Waiting: A Reorientation to Time with Artists with Disabilities and Creative Growth Art Center

This paper is rooted in my investigation of the artistic processes and practices of artists with disabilities through field observations at Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California. Through this investigation, I develop the concept of a pedagogy of waiting, which allows for a consideration of embodied differences. This pedagogy of waiting is conceptualized by and with 1) the everyday artistic processes and practices of artists at Creative Growth; 2) my positionality of being a Chinese art educator and researcher in an art studio, Creative Growth, in the United States; and 3) my conceptual and theoretical exploration with philosophers and disability studies scholars. Among the artists who informed the pedagogy of waiting is Latefa Noorzai, a native Farsi speaker and immigrant to the United States. The temporalities demonstrated through Latefa’s art practice and the pedagogical practice at Creative Growth challenge the normative temporalities in art learning and art making. The pedagogy of waiting is both informed by people with disabilities and as an alternative to able-bodied and able-minded pedagogies.

Introduction: Co-creating a catalyst for sustainable development

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for action by all countries to ensure that no one is left behind. It requires partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil societies across countries, continents, and sectors. This issue of Nordic Journal for Art & Research is an expression of SDG 17 - a collaboration towards achieving the goals. In this way, we wish to renew global partnerships for sustainable development by sharing new knowledge with peers and global readers alike. 23 different contributions about sustainability in arts education can bring new, interesting and hopeful discussions to our field. A wide range of different perspectives, understandings, theories and methods hopefully show the reader that arts educators can make a difference by inspiring sustainable thinking and action. We as editors believe that arts education can be a catalyst for a change in society towards more sustainable futures. Through this special issue we welcome each and every reader to take part in this aesthetic collaboration of knowledge production formed and assembled by arts educators, with a rising hope for the future of our planet.

Curating cognition in higher degree art education

This article shares research, an empirical psychological case study, about cognition in higher degree art education. It proposes cognitive curation as a concept and practice that can develop knowledge and learning autonomy in and beyond the academy. Informed by the autoethnographic stories, interviews, and artworks of three academic art educators, this article’s research demonstrates how cognition and its curation can manifest and develop in the teaching, research, and practice of higher degree art education. Open coding and framework alignment (cognitive, nexus orientated and visual) helped understand, locate, and exemplify cognition and curation in the research. Informed by the data, this article acknowledges how movement, identities, and frameworks, as learning strategies, can help facilitate cognition and cognitive curation. Cognitive curation provides means to responsibly form and follow learning, it is consequently relevant to the arts, education, and life. Art education’s cognitive value is often questioned, this article dialogically contributes to the defense of its cognitive integrity whilst foregrounding cognitive curation.

Cripping online learning space designs for collective access

Despite the growth of remote learning, many online art education space designs still overlook the learning experiences of students with disabilities, merely offering baseline assistive technologies. Drawing upon crip technoscience from critical access studies, this article defines current online learning spaces as virtually-built environments embedded with compliance-centered logics and ableist assumptions about access. I suggest that art educators challenge such preconceptions by engaging students in cripping, which entails (1) disrupting ableist designs and (2) crafting alternative designs for online learning spaces. Introducing projects by artists Elisa Giardina Papa, Shannon Finnegan, and Bojana Coklyat as exemplary practices of such disruption and reconstruction, I emphasize collaborative cripping as an anti-ableist practice informed by crip technoscience. This practice empowers students to counter the pervasive assimilation of people with disabilities into ableist online learning environments. In its conclusion, this article advocates for constructing collective access in online learning spaces toward disability justice.

Creative and Critical Entanglements With AI in Art Education

Since the advent of the postdigital era, technologies have been dramatically transforming human lives, shifting the ways humans communicate, learn, and create. This article aims to envision how entanglements with nonhuman intelligences can unsettle and reshape pedagogical approaches in the field of art education. I argue for the need to reconceptualize relations between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) as collaborative and symbiotic relationships beyond instrumental understandings, which are informed by posthuman perspectives. Reframing human–AI relations will help art educators and researchers not only explore the potential of AI for new inquiry and creativity in art curricula, but also critically examine possible ethical issues for its implementation in art classrooms. By looking at how AI has been explored in new media art projects that intersect emergent intelligences and art pedagogy, I investigate their implications for future art education.

Editorial

This editorial provides a summary on key contributions from authors within the field of digital design and creative learning strategies that are inclusive and sustainable within various learning environments. Appreciating individual conceptualized visual ideas, online project-based learning, peer learning and assessment, Indigenous knowledge and its contribution in enhancing creativity, accessible and inclusive learning platforms in art and design, and use of technology during the creative processes by design students are core scholarly contributions discussed. Authors guide the readers’ critical reflections on how best art and design educators could uphold students’ creative identities, their involvement in assessment, technology adaptation during object-based learning and the relevance of peer involvement in learning processes. Implementation of art pedagogies that enhance individual skills competences is considered imperative when considering students’ level of engagement, ownership of knowledge and their development of self-esteem within the field of art, design and technology.

Using Visual Arts Education and Reflective Practice to Increase Empathy and Perspective Taking in Medical Students.

Empathy is a critical competency for health care providers. However, empathy levels in medical students and residents have been shown to paradoxically decrease during training. Arts and humanities education and reflective practice may reduce burnout and promote empathy during medical school. We developed and implemented an art education elective for medical students focusing on observation and reflective practice and measured its impact on empathy. Between 2017 and 2022, first-year medical students were offered an annual, 4-week elective led by art educators that featured visualization exercises and discussions on the role of bias and perspective in art interpretation. Curriculum effectiveness and impact on empathy were measured using the validated Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and self-assessments. One hundred twenty-eight students participated in the elective over a 5-year period; 89 (70%) completed assessments. Students reported improvements in empathic communication, recognition of bias, and observation skills. IRI data demonstrated a significant increase in perspective taking (19.0 vs. 20.2; p < .0125). Participation in the elective was associated with self-reported improvements in visual observation, awareness of bias, and empathetic communication. IRI results showed that participants also demonstrated improved perspective taking. Since perspective taking is a cognitive component of empathy, we have provided some empirical evidence that arts education in medical school can promote empathic attitudes and skills.

Teacher and the arts educator at the interface of museum and school-based language learning

The potential rewards of non-formal education in language learning and teaching should not be underestimated. At the heart of this contribution, then, is an extensive dialogue between a language teacher and a museum guide. Together, they explore how their different disciplines can complement each other, with the overall aim of maximising the (language) learning effect for students, whilst also motivating them to engage in the art exhibition itself. They discuss the benefits museum learning can offer upper-secondary language learners and what challenges teachers and arts educators may face. It becomes clear that language learners can benefit from a collaborative relationship between their school and a museum, especially if the respective educators join forces in this shared mission.

When the Artist Studio is Alive, Art is Alive: Empowering Art Educators and Students through Live Studio Practice

Art education plays a vital role in developing artistic talent and nurturing creativity. However, the challenges facing art education in many developing countries, including Ghana, are significant. Traditional teaching methods, lack of resources, and cultural and social factors are barriers to the development of high-quality art education programmes and the cultivation of artistic talent. This qualitative study uses textual analysis to explore the potential of live studio practice as a solution to the challenges facing art education in Ghana. With regards to duration, investigation time frame falls between 2012 and 2023. The analysis of selected texts related to art education in Ghana reveals several key themes and patterns related to the challenges facing art education in Ghana and the potential of live studio practice to promote practical skills development, creativity, community engagement, professional skills development, and cultural exchange. The findings of this study disclose that policymakers, educators, and practitioners in the field of art education in Ghana does not prioritize the factor of the development of policies and practices that promote the development of high-quality art education programmes and the cultivation of artistic talent in Ghana through the use of live studio practice. In terms of suitable spaces for the critical artistic studio practical aspects, it is uneasy to have comfortable dwellings for the consistent practical works. These factors donate the hindrance of potentials in the amateur artists. This study contributes to the ongoing debate about the future of art education in Ghana and provides insights into the potential of live studio practice as a solution to the challenges facing art education in Ghana and other developing countries.

Prospective research in the field of teaching creative skills to artificial intelligence

The research relevance is determined by the importance of a thorough study of methods, schemes and models used by artificial intelligence to mechanise creativity in modern conditions of active technological development. The study aims to analyse the main processes taking place in modern art in connection with active technologization of work processes, to identify the leading concepts regarding the possibility of creating machine art in the future, etc. The employed methods are theoretical, such as analysis, systematisation, generalisation, etc., for studying key problems and further development of creativity based on artificial intelligence. The study examines in detail the main developments of Artificial General Intelligence and Artificial Narrow Intelligence, in particular the achievements of Generative adversarial networks and Creative adversarial networks. Artificial intelligence-generated art demonstrates the remarkable capabilities of technologies. The evolving artificial intelligence in the arts introduces “digital art”. Generative Adversarial Networks are used as a foundational tool for artists who use digital methods and texture generation to create unique compositions. Furthermore, sculptors collaborate with artificial intelligence tools to convert drawings into 3D models or transform historical art databases into sculptures. Creative thinking, a hallmark of human intelligence, is determined as artificial intelligence’s ability to generate new and original ideas. The development of emotional intelligence in artificial intelligence enables empathetic responses and the identification of human emotions through voice and facial expressions. The issues of authorised internationality, awareness of the creative process, psychological foundations of artificial empathy and emotional intelligence define the prospects for the development of neuroscience. Challenges persist in defining creativity, authorship, and legal aspects of artificial intelligence-generated art. The study materials may be useful for artists, art educators, technologists, and researchers interested in the intersection of technology and art, legal professionals (especially intellectual property law), and individuals involved in artificial intelligence development may find these findings valuable

Take a(nother) Left at the Valley of the Shadow of Death: Revisiting the Queer Crossroads of Art, Religion, and Education of Big Gay Church

In this excerpt from a chapter originally published in McNeil et al (2017), five queer art educators interrogate the intersections of religion, education, the arts, and LGBTQ identities&amp;nbsp;through an annual performance session called "Big Gay Church" (BGC).&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;

Teachers need teachers

This qualitative case study explores the experience of three first-year English language arts educators within a small community of practice designed to provide personal and professional support for beginning teachers. The participants engaged in a 6-week session where weekly meetings focused on participant experiences and English language arts pedagogy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meaning and Making: Laying the Groundwork for Community-Based Research-Creation

Research-creation practices have long consulted the public in the process of research, yet the act of making often rests in the hands of the individual researcher. This paper proposes a more integrated and collaborative framework for arts-based researchers and educators called Community-Based Research-Creation, which extends the collaborative logic of oral history into the realm of creation by encouraging art educators to develop focused and prolonged workshops and classes with community. I draw from my own practice as a community art teacher working primarily with adults and propose methods and frameworks for developing community-engaged studies using artworks.

Redefining liberal arts education in the twenty-first century

Redefining liberal arts education in the twenty-first century

Museal Communication Spaces of Art Education

ABSTRACT Museum communication spaces in art education enable a setting for education work that activates and involves the visitors. With appreciation, respect, and awareness, safe spaces for open communication are created. The text negotiates the framework of what we talk about, who determines and defines the negotiated topics. It is important to be aware that art educators always take a stance. In their work, they can no more act objectively than the museum can be neutral. It is only in this open communication space that it becomes possible to reveal facts, fiction, fakes, and alternative facts and to use the museum as a discursive social space.

Reimagining the English Language Arts canon: A case for inclusive and empowering instruction

AbstractThis paper explores the possible negative implications of teacher selected whole‐class reads rooted within the traditional canon of English Language Arts instruction and possible solutions for re‐engaging the disengaged adolescent reader through choice reading and the implementation of more culturally relevant texts. Historically, English Language Arts educators assign required readings to the entire class without taking into account the lens through which students view the texts. This paper identifies how texts deemed historically valuable and enabling by the educator can actually be disabling and disengaging to the learner. Additionally, this paper offers insights regarding the positive shifts that can stem from reimagining the traditional canon utilizing a whole‐class read scenario into a more democratic and culturally responsive English Language Arts canon. Assigned whole‐class reads are defined as selections of text chosen by the teacher with the understanding that every student is required to engage in the text. These are not chosen by students and they are not part of independent reading. The goal of this paper is to first, inform educators concerning the disabling effects of choosing whole‐class texts inside the traditional canon without viewing the texts through the varied interests, abilities, socio‐economic backgrounds, integration of students' cultural knowledge and experiences, and maturity levels of the students served. Furthermore, this paper will provide a basis for increasing educator knowledge regarding the traditional canon, disabling and enabling texts, and culturally responsive ELA practices along with particular scaffolds in hopes of re‐engaging the disengaged adolescent reader.

Culinary Arts Teachers Perceived on Readiness Towards Blended Learning Implementations

Blended learning is a technique that combines in-person instruction with online learning. As a result, the students' futures become a yardstick for the teachers' knowledge during a lesson. Thus, this study aims to investigate the perception of culinary arts educators' readiness to implement blended learning in teaching and learning processes. The research was conducted using a quantitative survey method, and the participants were 63 culinary arts educators from various institutions in Johor, Malaysia. This study's design is a descriptive survey that employs a quantitative strategy via a questionnaire as a research tool. Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) version 25 was used to analyze the data in both a descriptive and inferential manner. The mean, standard deviations, and Paired Sample T-Test coefficient tests were used to report the study's findings. The survey instrument used in this study was adapted from previous research and was focused on four main dimensions of readiness to implement blended learning: technology, classroom, teaching personnel, and student. The findings of this study suggest that culinary arts educators have a positive perception of their readiness to implement blended learning in their teaching and learning processes and to use face-to-face and online blended learning. Additionally, the study found that there is a significant difference between the perception of the readiness of teaching staff in the field of culinary arts when implementing face-to-face and online blended learning. The implications of this study suggest that institutions should focus on providing more support and resources for educators to improve their organizational readiness for blended learning implementation. Moreover, institutions should consider providing professional development opportunities to help educators gain the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively implement blended learning in their teaching and learning processes. Overall, the study's findings can give an overview of how prepared culinary arts educators are to apply blended learning that combines face-to-face with online instruction.