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Posts Tagged ‘drawing-out’
Drawing Out: Process [Pilot]
Friday, December 5th, 2008

This workshop focused on using drawing and small group collaboration to engage participants [fourteen art/design/media teachers] with exploring the questions; ‘who is the teacher-practitioner’? and ‘what is the teaching-practice relationship like’?

Reflection on the workshop processes, outputs and outcomes:

The final part of the work-shop, to feedback and discuss the group outputs unfortunately was cut short due to a lack of time, and as the time to discuss and respond to the process is the most revealing probably the most critical. The individual words and sketches that were produced in the first ten minutes of the session were surprisingly potent in their simplicity and also from a research perspective, produced a large amount of visual material to work with.

The second collaborative part resulted in three groups working in very different ways including; a drawing using the metaphor of cooking, recipe and cake to represent some of the elements of the TP relationship, another group create an ‘advent calendar’ presentation showing the dual perspectives of a range of issues and finally one group demonstrated ballroom dancing, reflecting partnership relationship, the learning process and mastery. Surprising here were the variety of approaches and difference in out-put, offering a range of insights on the TP relationship - although because these were as a result of group dynamics, slightly harder to read - particularly without the time in the third part to de-code the metaphor. This second part of the workshop, although harder to interpret the material produced was very successful in terms of engaging participants with a creative exploration of the issues, and without using dominant ‘teacherly’ language to do so, which is always a challenge. Since the aim of the workshop was to explore issues relating to teaching and practice from a practitioner’s perspective the approach proved to be effective, and the fact that each group took on their own interpretation of the ‘project’ reflected this.

Lead Facilitator evaluation:

The workshop enabled:

Exploration, using visual material, of the relationship between professional arts practice and teaching in HE
Greater understanding of the role of the teacher practitioner

Suggested improvements or adjustments to the technique/approach adopted in the workshop:

As with anything, more time was needed - all elements were needed to make the workshop work so extra time to reflect and discuss the group outputs and what they reveal about the TP relationship is crucial, as is to ensure none of the inputs and insights from group members are lost because they stay within the session.

Lead Facilitator evaluation:

Exploration through physical involvement can dramatically increase participation, freeing up thinking and experimentation beyond the set text. This pro-active approach can help avoid a seminar/workshop being dominated by a few individuals or driven by dominant perspective and allows for identification of issues not yet articulated. Thus real understanding developed as participants were invited to explore through the activity of drawing the complexities of the relationship from both a professional and personal perspective

The research ‘data’ in this session consists not simply of the creative product, but also observation, discussion and analysis of the process of its production and the choices made. A way of capturing this would be of benefit.

Comments on the effectiveness of the workshop in engaging teacher-practitioners with exploring the issues:

Drawing, as a technique, proved to be very effective at enabling individuals to express both conceptual and pragmatic responses to the question. The group work and the time constraint to produce a final piece meant that on the whole, participants enjoyed engaging with the question as a creative project which appeared to result in them participating fully. As with all situations or discussions, there are always individuals in a group who stand back from the process.

Lead Facilitator evaluation:

All participants gained perspective. Ultimately, the experience proved to simultaneously inspire confidence, educate, amuse, enthuse and unify the group.

Recommendations on how the workshop, or aspects of it, might be used to support the relationship between teaching and creative practice:

Drawing as a creative process, a way of exploring, representing, expressing and resulting in a visual end-point, engaged teachers with a process which enabled them to consider scholarly issues in a different language, enabling individuals to respond without having to use the dominant ‘teacherly’ discourse to reflect on learning. Using a practice based technique does highlight practice [in its myriad forms] as an alternative framework, with a different set of characteristics to pedagogic practice. It is by having the conversation through different mediums that any differences can be explored more immediately.

Lead Facilitator evaluation:

The act of transcription through drawing enabled an exploration of meaning and understanding of the context of the teacher practitioner and established the underlying issues, tensions and conflicts around the question of constructed identities and simultaneous representations.

Observations about the teacher-practitioner role and how this affects both teaching and practice.

The workshop revealed that clearly there is a point of tension between practice and teaching and that thinking about practice enables different thinking about teaching. The implications from the workshop is that teachers do not have the opportunity to explore issues around teaching through a practice based process, which has implications beyond any workshop, for the curriculum and does raise the questions whether teacher-practitioner should be understood as a practitioner-teacher.

Lead Facilitator evaluation:

Broadly speaking, art design and media education is about the development and practice of creativity. It follows, then, that the curriculum should be designed to encourage experimentation and exploration, develop skills and challenge complacency. This can most effectively be achieved if students are taught by all sorts of people in surprising ways, and for this we need real flexibility and a range of contacts and relationships in order to develop a creative culture.

Inevitably, the structures and byzantine bureaucracy of education can be seen as militating against this. Indeed, the workshop session exploring the role of teacher-practitioner (above) highlighted institutional structures as an impediment to establishing and maintaining relationships with leading creative practitioners and agencies.

Feedback from participants on the ‘drawing-out’ workshop

: partcipants feedback marking

9 participants completed the feedback sheet and questionnaire, the number attending was around 12-14. The majority of participants commented on the lack of time as an issue but 7/9 participants also commented positively and on it being enjoyable. These two comments capture the main aspects of the feedback:

” An expressive, experiential workshop which allowed us a moment of ‘play’ which we rarely have time or creative space for”
“interesting approach to looking at the issues”

If you were a participant please add your own perspective in the CommentSpace or add a comment to your drawings in the Gallery

Tags: drawing-out
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