The impact of an ‘ Artists in Residence’ project on pre-service ‘generalist’ teachers

1. The impact of an ‘Artists in Residence’ project on pre-service ‘generalist’ teachers Janet McDowall Jeff Meiners Research assistants: • Tuula Roppola • Emma Gill • Rita Alexandru Project manager: • Jill Forster

2. Welcome! Centre for research in Education

3. Aim of today’s CRED seminar: to provide a glimpse into the 2011 Artists in Residence (AiR) project and associated research Outline of seminar: • Context for the AiR project • How the AiR project was established • Short film • Research project • Where to next…

4. Context for the AiR project: changing political landscape • 1970s-1980s: specialist advisory or consultant dance/drama/music/visual arts teachers and curriculum officers supporting classroom teachers • 1990s-2000: trends - towards national curriculum, professional artists in schools • NOW – a lively time for arts education…

5. Decreasing time for the arts… • Australian Senate report (Senate Environment, Recreation, Communications and the Arts Reference Committee 1995) highlighted inadequate preparation by universities of generalist primary teachers for teaching ‘the arts’ in schools, a decline in preservice training and a reduction in curriculum time for individual arts disciplines. • Ebbeckand McDowall (2003) refer specifically to pre-service students at the University of South Australia no longer being given the opportunity to choose a major study in the arts in the early childhood degree program.

6. Concerns… • the peripheral and vulnerable location of the arts in schooling (Dimitriades, Cole & Costello 2009). • Ewing (2010) suggests that the arts have become marginalised, particularly in western cultures.

7. Australian Primary Principals’ Associaton 2005 study: • only 13% of generalist teachers felt they had the expertise to teach the arts (Angus, Olney & Ainley 2007).

8. new arts curriculum: EYLF 2009, ACARA 2011 • The development of a new arts curriculum as a foundational entitlement for all primary school students has heightened discourse around the challenges of implementation for generalist and specialist arts teachers. • Research and literature addressing the area of ‘teacher confidence and competency in dance’ appears limited and raises issues pertaining to the expertise of ‘generalists’ and ‘specialists’.

9. Background to the project • Concerns about arts teaching in schools leading to partnerships between schools and arts practitioners. • In Australia, Artists-in-Residence (AiR) projects have been funded in recent years by the Australian Government through Community Education Partnerships at the Australia Council for the Arts.

10. National Education and the Arts Statement (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) & Cultural Ministers Council (CMC) 2007) • …emphasises the development of partnerships between teachers, students and artists to ensure that students have access to arts specialists and resources in schools.

11. Teacher education in the arts • Peter Garrett (2009) announced that, as a result of the arts being included in the new Australian curriculum, attention would be given to teacher training. • Alter, Hays & O’Hara (2009) suggest that ‘providing more training in pre-service teacher courses would go some way to redressing a lack of prior arts background’ (p. 28).

12. ‘The Artists in Residence initiative, in conjunction with state arts and education departments, employs professional artists in schools to introduce young people to a creative arts practice’ (Australia Council 2011). • This extensive and significant program has included more than seventy projects in schools (Australia Council 2011). • Recently extended in 2011 to focus on new AiR projects in pre-service teacher education institutions, as announced by the then Minister for the Arts (Garrett 2009).

13. Tensions…

14. Pressures… • Teachers in primary schools and early childhood settings are generally responsible for all arts areas: music, dance, visual art, drama and media. • Arts curriculum: often challenging for teachers, including pre-service teachers. • Lack of ‘arts’ confidence for many teachers. • Arts as a learning area in Phase 2 of the Australian Curriculum, from 2013.

15. Artists and students 8 artists: • embodied practices: sensory nature of mark-making by drawing and painting , voice, hands for drumming, dancing body, use of media/technology to enhance sensory experience, images of bodies • provide an introduction to their ‘artistic practices’ rather than teaching ‘how to teach’ Students: • Generalists: high requirements as arts educators • 3rdand 4th years (part of longer term vision) for AiRevery 2 years • Timeframe (not weekly but immersion)

16. Challenges • student population: earner-learners, time, no precedent for such a project • timing: April mid-semester break + July mid-year break • location – no access to specialist spaces: voice, drumming, presence of dancing bodies, visual arts space, equipment • administration: contracts, bookings, equipment, purchases

17. FilM!

18. Research project: DRPF + School of Education +Arts SA The research questions: • How does the Artists-in-Residence project affect students’ learning and development as pre-service teachers? • Does the AiR project support the development of a culture of arts and creative practice at UniSA? • What is the impact of the AiR project on artists’ working practices?

19. A multifaceted Case Study Following Intensive 1: • Online survey of all AiR Intensive 1 attendees * • Individual interviews with early childhood attendees • Focus groups with early childhood attendees • Individual interviews with the artists * Following Intensive 2: • Online survey of all AiR Intensive 2 attendees • Individual interviews with early childhood attendees • Focus groups with early childhood attendees * • Individual interviews with the artists. At the end of Study Period 5: • Online survey of all AiR Intensive 1 and Intensive 2 attendees—focused on impact of the AiR during professional experience placements. • Survey of all AiRattendess at Intensive 2: online • , including surveys and interviews with student participants, and interviews with the artists. • Janet to give summary of case study elements • Forty-one in initial survey

20. Online survey of all AiR Intensive 1 attendees • Immediately following Intensive 1. • Eight single response questions using 5 Likert scale options. • Three text based questions.

21. Response rate of 70%, comprised of …

22. Over 60% of respondents strongly agreed and over 30% of respondents agreed that the AiR intensive had: • increased their artistic awareness and sensitivity; • developed arts-related skills and processes; • strengthened arts-related confidence; • and enabled participants to be creative.

23. Over 70% of the respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that the AiR intensive had an impact on their professional identity as a pre-service teacher. The remaining were neutral in regard to this question. • All respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their awareness of how to implement the arts with children had developed due to participation in the intensive.

24. Just over half of the respondents agreed and almost one quarter strongly agreed that they became aware of their body as an important aspect of their arts practices. The remaining respondents were neutral with one disagreeing with this statement. • The social aspects of the AiR intensive were important to over 90% of respondents.

25. Structure and timing of the AiRintensive Structure: • Well-organised, appropriate and balanced. • Immersive nature seen as positive Timing: • Some issues around timing with three hour sessions and five days overall too long for a few respondents. • Maybe linked to timing of the intensive—mid study period.

26. Aspects of the AiR intensive that impacted on attendees’ professional development Gaining skills and confidence in the arts Developed confidence: • ‘Being exposed to such deep experiences with the artists is what has impacted my professional development. It is so hard to teach something you don't understand fully and having the opportunity to refine specific skills in all areas of the arts has given me more confidence and passion to teach arts to children’. (AiR intensive attendee)

27. Working with professional artists • Artists sharing their knowledge and engaging in arts-related dialogue with attendees impacted on their professional development. • This development was influenced by the artists’ encouragement and positive feedback about their participation in workshop tasks.

28. A preservice teacher’s comments on how a teacher can create a positive learning environment in the arts for children • The experience really emphasised to me the learning environment that the teacher creates for the student to feel relaxed and wanting to participate. The passion of the arts was tangible in the way the artists taught their 'craft' and it really has developed my love of the arts, and awareness of how encouragement can be the vital catalyst to students wanting to participate. I came away feeling proud of my efforts and wanting to impart this same feeling into the students I teach. (AiR intensive attendee)

29. Attendees’ self-perception as artistic and creative Attendees’ professional development was impacted on by the opportunity to gain a sense of themselves as artistic and possessing creative abilities: • ...the AiRprogramme has really created an awareness in me as a person, that I can be artistic and are capable... [of] drawing for example. It has really made me believe in myself... (AiR intensive attendee)

30. The influence of the acquisition of new skills, freedom of expression within an art form, immersion in art forms and taking artistic risks . One attendee related their experience of facing artistic challenges to what children may similarly experience: • Feeling what it is like for students to be out of their comfort zones. After a long while out of primary studies and learning skills and concepts so new, it is easy to forget how exciting/ intimidating/ exhilarating it is. The AiR [intensive] helped me to re-find this feeling. (AiR intensive attendee)

31. Arts-related challenges encountered during the AiR intensive Personal attitudes and feelings Some self-doubt and lack of confidence Some negative comparison with other attendees Several attendees overcame negative feelings through repeated exposure to activities, and through the support and encouragement of the artists:   • I found that I had a lot of self doubt about my own abilities. I don't view myself as an artist so I had trouble believing I could be one. I found it hard to extend my imagination at first but as the artists made me feel comfortable I really saw myself grow! (AiR intensive attendee)

32. Importantly, taking artistic risks or as several attendees expressed, ‘stepping out of my comfort zone’, was crucial to attendees’ artistic learning and growing confidence: • ‘I was pushed out of my comfort zone and extended. I can see a great progression in what I did in only a matter of days and how this intensive time pushed me further’ (AiR intensive attendee).

33. Life models were used by the visual artist as a well-established practice in this field. • A few attendees reported having their ‘belief system challenged’ and finding the sessions ‘very confronting and uncomfortable’. • However, for one attendee ‘The most valuable challenge for me was to draw real life models. Initially it was a bit intimidating but the challenge was worth it’.

34. Individual learning challenges: development of new insights • Individual challenges with specific skills across all art forms. • Problem solving opportunities such as applying new media technologies and the cognitive/perceptual and somatic challenges found in dance. • But, challenges were generally viewed positively, as in: •  [The] challenges enhanced my experiences throughout the intensive and I do not think I would have gotten as much out of it if I had not encountered challenges as well as things I simply enjoyed.

35. Other comments Experience of the AiR • The overwhelming majority of respondents offered positive comments about their experience of the intensive. • Attendees described the AiR intensive as ‘brilliant’, ‘amazing’, and ‘an unbelievable opportunity and experience I will never forget’ . • One attendee reported the life affirming nature of the intensive; ‘...it is not often we are offered the opportunity for any training that is so self and life enriching, this has far exceeded all my expectations!’

36. Personal and professional development: changes to identity • Some attendees expressed profound personal changes as a result of participation in the intensive; ‘I am a better person for having experienced AiR’ and ‘I feel like it has helped me find new strengths and self belief’. • Collaborative learning with peers and artists was also noted by some attendees, engendering a sense that participants are now ‘bound by something unique’.

37. Overall … Considerable benefits. • The artists created an environment which, for attendees, was encouraging, challenging, supportive of artistic risks, and flexible. • Some of the aspects of the intensive that impacted on attendees’ professional development were similar to the challenges they encountered. This was particularly apparent with regard to attendees’ belief in their artistic abilities and taking risks in the arts, suggesting that experiences that challenge learners in a supported and stimulating environment are experiences that result in deep learning.

38. For many attendees, the AiR intensive fostered the learning of arts-related skills and processes which developed confidence in the arts and enabled them to have the tools to be creative in the arts. This then flowed to an increase in confidence in future teaching of the arts. • The AiR approach, in which attendees developed specific skills, suggests the need for such skill developmentto be included in both pre-service teacher education and professional development opportunities for teachers. • Indications of a blurring of the divide between ‘artists’ and ‘non-artists’, perhaps replaced by a more nuanced continuum rather than a sharp dichotomy. • Some may even have begun to find ‘the artist within’ (Dehouske 2006).

39. The importance of social aspects in the AIR project was indicated by almost all of the attendees. • A complex web: interactions between attendees and artists; interactions between attendees; interactions with administrative personnel; and so on.

40. The AiR project was founded on the theme of ‘the body and embodied learning’. • Almost three quarters of survey respondents reported that they became aware of their body as an important aspect of their arts practice. • In a contemporary educational climate in which there is an ever-increasing move to screen-based online teaching and learning at all levels of the education system, it is vital that the educators do not lose sight of the importance of ‘the body and embodied learning’.

41. Artists’ responses (Individual interviews with the artists following Intensive 1) Universally positive, as in: • ‘I’m sure I witnessed the … demonstrable outcomes of, you know, increased confidence, capacity to analyse, capacity to describe, capacity to appraise, capacity to cooperate in group activity, you name it, all the boxes for me got ticked. … I don’t think there were any negatives for me, it was a delightful experience, and without trying to sound like a used car salesman where everything is lovely in the world, it was a genuinely positive experience’.

42. Sense of excitement and passion. • Sense of the importance of creativity in their own practice and working at encouraging students’ creativity. • Artists talked about their approaches to their worlds, as in: • ‘You don’t know, from moment to moment, when something is going to capture attention, and then how to take that moment and turn it into Art, you know, so always to be aware, never to shut your eyes, never to shut off your feelings, always to be aware and open that there’s dynamic opportunities in everything.’

43. For most of the artists, opportunities to collaborate across arts forms were important: • ‘I found I was very energised whenever I went in and worked with the other artists, and I think that that was really good for the groups I was working with because they began to see that Art generally is not made in isolation’. • One artist was surprised, even shocked, by some student participants’ initial fearfulness to do with the arts, saying: ‘[I] found that quite worrying.’ • ‘ … I was surprised and inspired by how quickly there was a shift in thinking, and making, and making decisions, and choosing to be creative, and even the ones that were resistant at first’

44. Some artists discussed impacts from their AiR experiences on their own arts practice, for instance: ‘[I’ve found that] I don’t need to work 24 hours a day and plan everything to the nth degree. … Giving time is just as important, if not more, and I have actually found that I’m getting more out of something by just letting an idea run its course’.

45. Social aspects Social aspects were evident in some artists’ responses, as in: • ‘The drum is meant for sharing, you can’t play a drum alone, you need people to play with you, so it’s a very, very social thing, and by that, you know, it includes everybody, and like I said I’ve seen kids with slow learning disabilities, kids that were going to get in trouble, and they’re on the borderline, and when they, when they take on the drumming and they share it with their friends and they see the benefit of what they’re doing, and they get confidence, it helps them focus a lot more …’

46. Embodied experience and learning A strong theme through the artists’ responses, as in the following examples from two artists. • ‘ ‘… it was total movement. Even if you’re sitting down and drumming you’re using your upper body to drum and move, and you’re using facial expressions, whether it be that of extreme focus or for some people that pick it up really quickly, smiling when they’re playing because they can relax more, you know, so that in itself is body movement for me, because I could see whether they’re enjoying the session, struggling on their part, just from their facial expression. I guess full body movement was when we left the drums and we were in a circle together, standing in a circle and playing those rhythm games.’

47. Many student attendees made their own links to professional practice. One artist explained: • ‘I found the students very, very eager to get engaged in activities that they could then remember and take away with them, and be able to reproduce in a classroom, so it was very much about whenever I did things that were about existing or newly-created games or rhythms or chants, or that sort of thing, people were very, very eager to have those because they could use them as tools’. • ‘It [as above] emerged quite quickly, and from there it was interesting to think about OK, so how do I pull it back from here to take them to a place where maybe these kinds of things originated? ‘

48. The vision of the arts was often profound: • ‘And what are the big themes that they’re going to tackle, you know, in their lives as they grow up, and what are the themes they’re tackling now, and how Art can be an incredibly powerful healing force for people who are feeling a little bit disempowered or …’ • ‘ … young children often feel really anxious and feel alone, and that’s another of the major themes in our stories, so what are the stories of the heroes who manage to find their way, you know, through incredible obstacles, to reach their goals, and then what are the stories of the people who have to get together to achieve their goals, and what is it that each person brings to the group that makes them more than they are, that helps them achieve their goals, like Jason the Argonaut, you know, taking those stories back, or Harry Potter, you know, and he couldn’t have done what he did without his mates, you know, so how do you construct stories and what would the voices of those people be like musically?’

49. One artist expressed a desire to share with student attendees some aspects of artistic processes: ‘How to explore something as broadly as I can, as deeply as I can, and then move on to something else, leaving that there, realising that over here is an area that I haven’t made a decision about, but I have done some exploration, moving on to something else …’. [These processes were developed in Intensive 2]

50. Final Focus groups (2 groups of 4) Four main areas: • The impact and benefits of the AiR on individuals • Intensive mode of delivery • Recommendations for AiR • Future perspectives of individual