Academia

Building Artistic Confidence

By: Dr Denise Stanley

Abstract:In our ever-changing world where the breadth of knowledge and diversity of views is constantly growing, we are asked, “What should we hold on to in art education?” This article supports the notion that one of the most imperative aspects to art education is instilling within students a basic understanding of the elements and principles of design.

Notable art educators and theorists, Viktor Lowenfeld and Betty Edwards, argue that engagement with artistic activity declines during adolescence because students begin to feel incompetent with achieving realism in their work. To defeat this, teachers can develop their students’ artistic competency by putting to practice the theoretical approach of Arthur Dow’s elements & principles of design. An understanding of perspective, texture, value, colour and how to draw the human face are just a sample of aspects that young artists should comprehend if they are to build their skill and technical abilities, and consequently their artistic confidence.

Using Arts-Informed Inquiry as a Research Approach

By: Dr Denise Stanley

Abstract:

Arts-informed inquiry blends the systematic and rigorous qualities of social science inquiry with the creative and imaginative qualities of the arts but with a greater capacity to reach audiences beyond the academy. The intention for research to appeal to a wide audience becomes an explicit endeavor to make a difference not only in the lives of ordinary citizens but also in the thinking of policy makers, politicians, legislators and other key decision makers (Cole & Knowles, 2008). Through arts-informed inquiry, researchers honour the diverse forms of knowing that are part of everyday experience. Our goals relate to relevance, accessibility and engagement in research projects. Whether it is literary, visual or performance, this relatively new qualitative approach allows art to inform processes and representations of scholarly inquiry. As such, the relationship between the purpose of the research (related to knowledge advancement) and the developing competence of the chosen art form is crucial. This paper demonstrates how arts-informed inquiry was utilised in the creation of my PhD thesis.

Discussions on Teaching as a Form of Art

By: Denise Stanley

Abstract:

While increasing numbers of teachers begin to explore approaches that are more artistic than scientific in character, shifts within postmodernism bring about new conceptualisations of how education works and what purposes teaching should serve. This article argues for a view of education that differs in fundamental ways from the positivist perspective which now prevails.

As change occurs within the scholarly community, research has strayed from emphasising generic teaching behaviours that gave currency to the “clinical information processor” label that teachers once possessed. Teachers should no longer be those who implement the prescriptions of others, but rather collaborators in the construction of knowledge (Eisner, 2002). It is this type of belief that has come to characterise a current understanding that the act of teaching might be viewed as an art form; but do teachers themselves consider their daily work a form of art?

Teachers are Artists / Artists are Teachers

By: Denise Stanley

Abstract:

While acknowledging the view that teachers are artists, this study looks specifically at artists who now see themselves as teachers