Redefining The Rationale For Art Education In Irish Primary Schools

Author : Eileen Maria Keane
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (144 download)

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Download or read book An Artist-teacher Exploration of a Room 13-informed Space in an Irish Primary After-school Setting written by Eileen Maria Keane and published by . This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although "Room 13" is recognised internationally as a valued model of art education in a studio setting, relatively few examples of the model exist in the Irish context. Moreover, of those examples that have been implemented, there is a paucity of research on both the practical features of its implementation, as well as experiential dimensions in the realisation of such a model with child participants. The current study explores a Room 13-informed model in a primary school context, focusing in particular on its manifestation as an after-school space, outside of the formal timetable, thus serving as a liminal space for art marking. Participants comprised primary school children aged between 8 and 12 years, together with the author as participant-researcher. In this context, the author was positioned as the artist-teacher and co-agent in an art making process. Configured as an exploratory case study, spanning one school term, a range of qualitative data was collected to document the experiences of the participants and identify the opportunities and challenges that the artist-teacher encountered in seeking to implement the studio model. Methodological approaches to data gathering comprised individual and collective interviews with participants, the researcher's observational notes, reflective journals and visual documentation. Data was analysed from a grounded theory perspective using explanation building. Findings reveal the influence of new visual realms on children's art making. Findings also reveal the necessity to interrogate and reconceptualise agency to facilitate understandings of child-artist-teacher relationships and artist-teacher agency. Four other perspectives on the experience also emerge as aspects for interrogation and reflection as follows: children's agency, children's art practice, the artist-teacher role, and artist-teacher's values and beliefs. The existence of additional agents within children's art making invites reflection on the conceptualisations of agency, while new visual art realms that children engage with call for reflection on the ethics of the encounter in growing contexts of influence. Critical reflections on the artist-teacher in the Irish primary school reveal a lacuna and notable absence in policy discourse from conceptual or embodied perspectives. Shortcomings in material provisions, as well as conflicts between values and beliefs inherent in new emergent practice, draw attention to emerging tensions when these are set against the historical and cultural backdrop of art teaching in Irish primary school contexts. Taken together, these findings contribute significantly to thinking in the Irish primary school context and Room 13 literature within four contexts, with a broad contribution made to expanding thought about agents and spaces within discourses about children's art making in the Irish arts education landscape. Finally, mapping future explorations of Room 13, the research presents a unifying underpinning pedagogy of adventure that embraces the existence of practices yet-to-come, the ethical encounter, and expanding ecology of children's lives. Notwithstanding the limitations of exploratory case study research, the conclusions and contributions offer valuable insights to primary school teachers, artist-teachers, artists and policy makers alike.