The Reflexive Teaching Artist: Collected Wisdom from the Drama/Theatre Field (Theatre in Education) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783202211 ISBN 13: 9781783202218

Verlag: Intellect Books, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

Writing from the dual perspectives of artist and educator, Kathryn Dawson and Daniel A. Kelin II raise fundamental questions about the complex functions of the teaching artist in school, community and professional theatre settings. Contributions to the text explore a series of foundational concepts, including intentionality, quality, artistic perspective, assessment and praxis, all used as a reflective framework to illuminate case studies from a wide range of teaching artist practice.

Readers are also offered questions to guide their practical application, charts to complete, and the editors examine the practice of teaching in, through and about drama and theatre.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Kathryn Dawson is assistant professor in the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin and serves as director of the Drama for Schools program.

Daniel A. Kelin II is director of drama education at the Honolulu Theater for Youth and teaching artist on the national roster of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

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The Reflexive Teaching Artist

Collected Wisdom from the Drama/Theatre Field

By Kathryn Dawson, Daniel A. Kelin

Intellect Ltd

Copyright © 2014 Intellect Ltd.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78320-221-8

Contents

Acknowledgements, 
Foreword, 
Prologue: The Teaching Artist Manifesto, 
Introduction, 
Part 1: A Teaching Artist Reflects, 
Chapter 1: The Teaching Artist, 
Chapter 2: Reflective Practice, 
Part 2: Collected Wisdom, 
Chapter 3: Intentionality, 
Chapter 4: Quality, 
Chapter 5: Artistic Perspective, 
Chapter 6: Assessment, 
Chapter 7: Praxis, 
Part 3: The Reflexive Practitioner, 
Chapter 8: Participatory Action Research, 
Final Reflections, 
References, 
Biographies, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

The Teaching Artist

A Teaching Artist is a practicing professional artist with the complementary skills, curiosities and sensibilities of an educator, who can effectively engage a wide range of people in learning experiences in, through, and about the arts.

(Booth 2010: 2)

Today, Teaching Artist has become the term used to describe the wide range of activities for those individuals who both practice their art form and engage in teaching others the knowledge and processes they employ as artists.

(McKean 2006: xii)

As drama/theatre Teaching Artists, we, the co-authors, shamelessly embrace the field. We recognize its great joys, its shortcomings, its highly engaging nature, its lack of clearly defined criteria and the related disagreements among professionals of drama/theatre and education. We also acknowledge the impressive spectrum of work included under the umbrella of drama/theatre teaching-artist practice.

In this chapter, we explore the definition and context of teaching-artist practice and pedagogy to give the reader a way to understand and define their own place and purpose in the field. Since reflection is central to our premise for the book — ask and reflect, think and rethink, question personal understanding and redefine possibilities — we will organize our reflection through guiding questions and conclude with brief activities for further self-reflection and synthesis.

WHO IS A TEACHING ARTIST?

Artists who teach. Teaching with great artistry. Teaching about art or through art or with art or using art to teach, explore and/or reflect on nonart topics. All of these descriptions could apply to the definition of Teaching Artist. Therefore we contend that to have purpose and credibility a Teaching Artist should be experienced and knowledgeable about both teaching and art. Sounds overly simple, but it underlines our journey with this book. The art of teaching. The Teaching of art. Teaching artfully. Art-inspired teaching. Art-full teaching. The art of teaching is to inspire. Inspired by their own art experiences, the Teaching Artist facilitates experiences that inspire, guiding students to discover their own inspirations.

WHAT IS A TEACHING ARTIST?

Drama/Theatre Teaching Artists work in a wide range of settings (e.g. professional theaters, arts organizations, schools, communities, universities, business, prisons, museums, etc.) in urban centers, communities and villages across the globe. Teaching Artists work with a range of populations who represent a variety of ages, gender orientations, sexual orientations, cultures, ethnicities and races, abilities, and socioeconomic statuses. Some focus on a specific population and/or location (e.g. preschool students) while still others practice a specific form of theatre with a variety of populations (e.g. youth theatre, such as devising and/or directing original or scripted performances with youth of all ages). Some are housed in a specific arts organization and/or a professional theatre. Others are employed independently, situated on a roster or are instructional staff for multiple arts organizations or they facilitate their residency or workshop practice through their own business. Still others are employed full or part-time by a school or university but use the title of Teaching Artist to illuminate a particular approach to education in and through the arts as a desired way of working. In this text we will characterize teaching artist practice as work located in specific settings: school, communities and professional theatre. Although these categories are fluid for many in the profession, the mission or intention and funding for practice is often facilitated through one or more of these larger entry points, and this shapes the approach or type of work they are asked to do.

WHY TEACHING ARTISTS?

Teaching Artists often serve as a bridge to the arts or an artistic process. In the continuing debate about who has access to art, who is engaged by art and/or who feels most welcome in art institutions, Teaching Artists are a valuable asset. The more experience an individual has with art, the more she understands how art works as a form of expression and as a medium in which she can learn to express herself. However, art access for young people is dwindling, particularly in public schools. There is less of an opportunity for students to experience and understand the power of art and art making. A drama/theatre Teaching Artist in schools, the community and in professional theatre has the potential to be the conduit for a complement of experiences that inspire a desire to encounter, practice, investigate, understand and appreciate theatre.

WHO AND WHAT SUPPORTS AND SHAPES THE TEACHING ARTIST PROFESSION?

Teaching Artists in schools

Since the days of the Settlement House in the early twentieth century in the United States, teaching artist practice has been shaped by the way society has viewed creativity and the education of its people, particularly its young people. Now, in the twenty-first century, globalization and innovative technology has shifted the ways we educate (Nicholson 2011). The field of drama/theatre has also changed in significant ways. New media and technologies have impacted some of the ways performance is created and shared with others. Educational reformers have adopted art-based terms — creativity, imagination, innovation and collaboration — as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2011). The US Government May 2011 report from the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities recommends arts education and arts integration as an effective and cost-efficient way to address teachers' and students' needs in schools. It specifically names Teaching Artists as a source of innovation and a sea change in the field.

The field of drama/theatre teaching artistry has yet to fully benefit from the increased interest in the profession. Nick Rabkin's (and others) 2011 research study of over 3500 Teaching Artists, program managers, teachers, principals and other key stakeholders was predicated on the supposition that "arts education and Teaching Artists in particular are hidden, underdeveloped, and underutilized resources in our national effort to improve schools" (2011: 27–28). Nevertheless, the results of their study confirmed that Teaching Artists are "bringing innovative pedagogy and curriculum to schools. And [the] broad belief that there is something in the nature of arts learning itself that has a particular power to drive student development" (Rabkin 2011: 6–7).

As research opens more possibilities to the place of art and applied or integrated art in the classroom, the Teaching Artist can and should play an important role in shifting instructional practice and the learning culture of the classroom. In many parts of the country, Teaching Artists collaborate with schools and teachers to plan, facilitate and evaluate the impact of learning in, through and about the arts. However, this requires that Teaching Artists have adequate training in instructional pedagogy and the skills to link and co-support academic and artistic learning objectives. Teaching Artists need to understand and be able to articulate the potential impact of their work and how to advocate for their place at the instructional table. They need to use the tools of the theatre artist (e.g. voice, body, imagination, among others) and dispositions, or habits, of the artistic process (e.g. engage and persist, envision, express, observe, reflect, improvise) and be able to connect this type of thinking and doing with moments in the instructional cycle (e.g. create, collaborate, analyze/synthesize, translate). When this happens, the drama/theatre learning experience becomes a crucial link in the education of the whole child.

Despite the renewed focus on the benefits and outcomes for learning in, through and about the arts, the professional, arts education community still struggles to agree on an appropriate definition and role for Teaching Artists in the educational environment. How does the current political and ideological climate of arts education, arts integration and education impact Teaching Artists? As increased research on the positive impact of Teaching Artists in schools is published, some members of the certified, arts specialist community are re-engaging with long-held concerns that more Teaching Artists mean less certified arts specialists in schools. Consequently, there is a growing need for Teaching Artists individually and collectively to re/name and re/claim their contribution within the fields of arts and education.

Teaching Artists in communities

Teaching Artists regularly create community programs that bring together participants from a range of settings to achieve specific goals through structured arts and arts-based interactions. One indicator of the diverse application of drama/theatre is the multitude of community settings in which Teaching Artists volunteer or are employed to work. Prisons, retirement centers, museums, health organizations, businesses, houses of worship, homeless shelters and the political arena are among the places that not only benefit from but seek out the skill set of the Teaching Artist. The diversity of work within community settings has the potential to strengthen the place of theatre within our communities and society, as participants develop a greater appreciation of and investment in the place theatre plays in their lives. Helen Nicholson (2005) writes, "The application of drama to different institutional or community settings illuminates fundamental questions about the role and significance of all theatre practice to society, and about how theatre-making articulates and challenges contemporary concerns" (4–5).

Within this community setting, practitioners have defined themselves using a variety of titles. In some cases this has contributed to a tension in the relationship between the Teaching Artist and the Community Artist. Eric Booth considered these issues in his 2010 Teaching Artist Journal reflection on the first international conference on teaching artistry:

Teaching Artists [...] seek to empower the encounters with artworks, and community artists seek to enhance the quality of community life. To clarify the difference [...] community artists might say that teaching artists have swallowed the values of elite arts institutions and are agents for institutional preferences and priorities; teaching artists might say that community artists are willing to settle for mediocre art, without rigorous attention to quality, when excellence is what delivers arts' power. [... However] I have noticed in recent years that these two traditionally-separate approaches are merging in the US.

(Booth December 2010)

Titles aside, a beneficial aspect of a community-oriented application of drama/theatre is the common focus on issues beyond K-12 education. This may include an investigation of social/emotional learning, culture, identity, politics or other larger questions of society. Drama/theatre learning experiences — whatever the application, focus or setting — provide ample opportunities for participants to carefully reflect on their actions, beliefs, life experiences and connections to their community and society. The influential work of community-based practitioner and artist Augusto Boal, for example, exemplifies the wide-ranging impact of Teaching Artists working in and with communities to discover their own voice and to focus their energy toward social and/or political change.

Teaching Artists in professional theaters

Professional theaters often provide a setting for the training and development of artists to perpetuate the professionalism and quality of live performance while seeking effective and affective ways to engage with its audiences. No formal overview exists that specifically focuses on the growth of Teaching Artists within a professional theater setting, but it might be argued that this specific area of practice developed nearly concurrently with work in the schools and community settings. Three particular programs of the last century significantly impacted the role of Teaching Artists in a professional theater setting. The Works Progress Administration's (WPA) Federal One program put tens of thousands of unemployed artists to work in such projects as the Federal Theatre Project and the Negro Theatre Project and this resulted in impacts on art and education that continue to this day. The Comprehensive Employment Act (CETA) put artists to work through funded local initiatives. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), responsible for the Artists-in-the-School model still in use, financially supported field trips to plays and productions that traveled to communities. While these performances did not necessarily include direct interaction with the audience, the artists were considered teaching artists of a sort and many organizations marketed the work as educational.

Professional theaters employ Teaching Artists in educational departments located within the theaters "drawn from their own member rosters and artistic personnel [... L]arger companies tend to employ educational administrators and staff, many of whom also serve as teaching artists" (Anderson and Risner 2012: 4). It is difficult to generalize these programs since education programs may be focused on youth performing, adults performing for children and youth, training programs for adults and/or youth, informational programming related to the theater's productions, or programs built in collaboration with other community organizations and/or schools. This is also where pre-professional theatre training happens for young people and/or early career artists hoping to make theatre a career. Often these educational programs are considered outreach for the theater with the goal of increasing revenue for stage productions or developing future audiences. In this space the Teaching Artist serves as a bridge with the community, providing direct access to, experience with and understanding of theatre performance in a professional setting.

The title, the setting or the purpose?

Certainly, the intertwined practice of art and education has wide-ranging applications. In theory and in practice, the Teaching Artist is limited only by imagination. However, there is an ongoing debate around terminology that defines practitioners who teach in, through and about drama/theatre. Are you a drama educator, artist educator, teaching artist, actor educator, community artist, artist teacher or something else? Given the relative youth of the field, it is no wonder that titles continue to appear and evolve. We, the authors, use the term Teaching Artist, as the combination of terms suggests that the practitioner needs to be skilled and/or conversant in both teaching and artistry. As Daichendt (2013), Booth (2010), McKean (2006) and others make clear, a Teaching Artist lives in the rich, overlapping space between the work of the artist and the educator.

As we consider teaching artist practice throughout a range of settings and purposes, there are multiple entry points of inquiry. What specific skills and knowledge/s does each of these locations require from the Teaching Artist? How does the designation of Teaching Artist, as a chosen profession, support a further sense of professionalism and a need for a type of 'specialized knowledge' in each of these locations? How do unique funding streams impact how we conceptualize and implement our teaching artist practice, whether we work in schools, community or professional theatre settings? Part of the challenge of teaching artist practice is its potential to contribute to so many different contexts each with its own unique characteristics, systems and needs.

WHAT IS THE TEACHING ARTIST SPECTRUM?

As stated, the term 'Teaching Artist' is a hybrid of two rich disciplines: education and the arts. Each is associated with particular skills and understandings, and practiced by people of all ages and orientations. It can be useful to think of the work of the Teaching Artist sitting at the center of a spectrum to avoid an unnecessary and unproductive either/or binary.

Where to place each teaching artist lesson, workshop, project or program on this continuum is informed by multiple factors. Ideally, though, Teaching Artist Work sits in a middle space on the Teaching Artist Spectrum. The specific context (which includes funding sources and location) and participant population can shift the needle toward one end of the spectrum or the other. For example, the particular context of funding and location (e.g. a three-day in-school process drama residency for fifth graders is supported through a grant related to a safer-schools initiative) might suggest that educational goals are prioritized in the conceptualization and evaluation of the program. However, this does not mean that the Teaching Artist is any less committed to the artistic goals of process-centered educational drama in their facilitation of the program model. So although the stakeholders within a project may choose to shift priorities to focus on the educational side of the spectrum, the Teaching Artist may still prioritize the artistic skill of role-play in the implementation of the work. Or a professional theatre that supports Teaching Artists facilitating the creation of an original documentary theatre production with youth might seem to be located more toward the artistic point on the spectrum. However, if the program is designed for young people on the autism spectrum, the Teaching Artist will need to consider the unique educational goals of the participants, and this shifts her intentions back toward center.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Reflexive Teaching Artist by Kathryn Dawson, Daniel A. Kelin. Copyright © 2014 Intellect Ltd.. Excerpted by permission of Intellect Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Intellect Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1783202211
• ISBN 13: 9781783202218
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 336
• Herausgeber: Dawson Kathryn, Kelin II Daniel A.
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar