AERA 2012, Vancouver

Relationality and Pedagogy in A/r/tography (Dr. Carl Leggo, Dr. Rita L. Irwin, Dr. George Belliveau, Heidi May,

Dr. Donal O Donoghue, Valerie Triggs)

SIG: Arts and Inquiry in the Visual and Performing Arts in Education

Presenters and Papers:

•Rita L. Irwin and Carl Leggo: Becoming Pedagogical:  Sustaining Hearts with Living Credos.

•George Belliveau:  Shakespeare in the Primary Classroom: Literacy and Learning

•Heidi May and Donal O Donoghue: Performing an Intervention with/in the Space Between Art and Education

•Valerie Triggs:  Following A/r/tography in Practice: From Possibility to Potential

The purpose of this symposium is to explore a series of research projects that examined the relational and pedagogical qualities of a/r/tography in teacher education reform efforts. This presentation explores particular pedagogical qualities exemplified during the use of a/r/tography as inquiry in ongoing, disciplined, community-engaged, dialogic forms of research. All four presentations examine a shift in understanding oneself as a pedagogue to understanding oneself as a pedagogue who is also an artist.  This Symposium focuses specifically on four inter-related projects that explored the relational and pedagogical aspects of a/r/tography in their research with teachers and teacher candidates.

★ May, H. & O Donoghue, D. “Performing an Intervention in the Space Between Art and Education”

The pedagogic turn in contemporary art practice is situated within an interdisciplinary environment that is committed to inquiry, dialogue, and critical self-reflection. Artists adopt pedagogical models and education processes as the subject and object of their work, often drawing upon social situations and relational acts. In this paper we examine an artist residency that took place in a teacher education program, in which we worked collaboratively with two artists who incorporate ideas of pedagogy into their practice. The purpose of this research study was to create a space for teacher candidates (student-teachers) to think about art as a pedagogical act and to examine how they might understand the act of teaching differently by learning to learn pedagogy through artistic inquiry.