Art and Design Education 2020 Graduate Thesis Abstracts

Pratt Institute Art and Design Education 2020 Graduate Thesis Abstracts

Professors Ann Holt Heather Lewis

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Students Megan Bobbio Skyler Elfeldt Yi-Wen Fu Alex Montane Daisy Laing Kaitlin Millen Makayla Ndu Drue Schwartz Natasha Seng Shannon Shaw Anna White

Art and Design Education (ADE) graduate students conduct thesis research that explores the history and contemporary state of the field of art and design education.

This research is situated within the broader contexts of art and design as well as education and draws on a wide range of research methodologies and theoretical perspectives.

Students begin their research by analyzing diverse perspectives on a topic they are curious and passionate about so that they develop the capacity to question assumptions and previous knowledge, accept uncertainty, and situate research within ongoing theoretical and empirical research debates.

Conducting academic research for the first time involves learning about the field in relationship to both personal and professional values and learning what research is and can be. Through the thesis research process students learn to rely on their intuition and curiosity at the same time they become aware of social science, creative and embodied research epistemologies and methodologies. Students develop their self-awareness as emerging and reflective art teachers and scholars.

As demonstrated in the following thesis abstracts, students have addressed the challenge of balancing theory and practice, applying a critical lens in the early stages of their professional careers, and making sense of their lives as artists/designers and teachers within schools and communities. This particular year was unique with the added dimension of COVID-19, as students transitioned both physically and virtually into new spaces of research and learning.

Art and Design Education Department 3

Professor Ann Holt

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Ann Holt, Ph.D. is currently teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in art and design education as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute and an Adjunct Professor at Adelphi University. She holds a B.F.A. in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and an M.A. in art education from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Holt completed her doctoral work in art education with a minor in women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Penn State University. Her dissertation research explored a feminist transdisciplinary orientation to the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection and broadens understanding about engaging and encountering art education archival records. Holt also serves as an advisor to Arts Action Group, an international community-based collective committed to facilitating arts initiatives with children and youth in conflict-affected environments. Her research, teaching and writing encompasses social justice issues involving arts and human development and research on and with archives to broaden understanding about engaging art education archival records. Her art-making encompasses mixed media materials responding to her life experience, research, and teaching.

Professor Heather Lewis

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Heather Lewis has been teaching thesis research at Pratt Institute for over ten years.

Her historical research, which explores the intersection of urban social movements and the reform of public institutions, informs her teaching. Lewis also conducts research on teaching, learning and assessment as part of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Publications include: Heather Lewis, New York City Public Schools from Brownsville to Bloomberg: The Community Control Movement and its Legacy (2013); Future Teachers and Historical Habits of Mind: A Pedagogical Case Study. History of Education Quarterly (2016); Assessment by Design: Scaling up by Thinking Small. In Reframing Quality Assurance in Creative Disciplines (2015).

Megan Bobbio

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The Integration of Social Emotional Learning in the Art Classroom

This case study of a visual arts teacher in a public elementary school for students with special needs explores the teaching strategies that foster social and emotional learning. Such strategies include setting and achieving positive goals, expressing empathy with others, and developing positive relationships. The visual arts teacher integrated making and performing which helped her promote social and emotional learning through classroom routines and collaboration. Students responded positively to these strategies as they engaged in art projects, theater production and performance.

This phenomenological case study draws on observations, interviews, videos, photographs and curricular documents. The art teacher has a background in visual arts and performance, and has been teaching for sixteen years, with a focus on special needs for the last thirteen.

The school she teaches in serves students with autism spectrum disorders, significant cognitive delays, emotional disturbances, sensory impairments, and multiple disabilities. This study contributes to the research on social and emotional learning through its focus on art and performance, an unexplored area in the field.

Images (clockwise from top left): Student rehearsing in Black Box Theater under stage lighting; students in their cactus character costumes; students performing the “Art Power� song in their Art Power Shirts; principal posing with plaque for Black Box Theater recognition with students who participated.

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Skyler Elfeldt

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Family and Group Engagement with Artwork in the Virtual Museum: Access, Inclusivity, Play, Multimodality

People often feel excluded from art museums and galleries due to the perception they do not know enough or that they do not know how to engage with art, unless it is very familiar. This includes, but not limited to, parents or caretakers with small children who might feel that the art museum is not a place for them because they do not know how to help children engage with art. This thesis is a qualitative case study using online surveys to explore group engagement with artwork for the purpose of enhancing the experience and engagement of viewing artwork both in- person and virtually.

My research question is: How can a guide for engaging with artwork (online or in-person)

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make viewing art more accessible, meaningful, and experiential for families? The purpose behind this online guide is to encourage families to choose artwork they want to explore and then engage in dialogue and playful activities related to the artwork. Themes that came out of the data analysis suggest that guides for both physical and virtual visits to museums can promote the ease of accessibility and inclusive opportunities for experiences with art, opportunities for varied responses and interactions with artworks to elicit multiple kinds of experiences, social learning experiences with art, as well as meaningful play.

Yi-Wen Fu

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Building Community in a Multilingual Classroom

Educators speak about “classroom” or “school community” without actually knowing how to put it into practice. In thinking about what immigrant students need, I have seen and experienced issues of exclusion in the classroom.

This thesis investigates the topic of community building within a multilingual/ multicultural classroom. This is a qualitative study involving interviews with multicultural educators to explore the central questions of how students and teachers work together to create a sense of community and what that may look like in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to examine the specific strategies and methods that teachers use to construct a learning environment within multilingual classrooms that

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focuses on fostering collective wellbeing for all students. My research questions are: what is a “community” and how can teachers create a community within the classroom that addresses the needs of students individually as well as collectively? My sub-questions are: How can we teach towards valuing cultural differences?

What role can art education play in bridging differences? Three main themes emerged from the data analysis: the balance between individual and collective voice in teaching and learning, fostering mutual respect within the community, and the role of reflexivity in teaching. The study offers perspectives on the important values that make for a sense of community in multilingual classrooms.

Alex Montane

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Increased Access for Latinx Bilingual Youth at the Bronx Museum

This case study examines how the Bronx Museum of the Arts supports Latinx bilingual students and their families in the museum setting through dynamic bilingualism and making connections to students’ lives and cultures.

The study considers how museum educators have done this over the last ten years and how the museum’s education department staff envision strengthening these long-term practices and the museum structures that support them.

The study draws on Ofelia Garcia’s theoretical framework that leverages the complex practices of bilingual speakers to support and sustain dynamic bilingualism and translanguaging.

The case study explores how language plays a

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major role in culturally relevant teaching that is key to helping youth explore their identity and feel empowered as members of a larger community.

The case study, conducted through a participatory research approach, draws on observations, interviews, document analysis, and the museum’s website and promotional materials. The study analyzes the museum’s youth, family, group visit, and school-partnership programs as well as the education department’s mission, structure and staff. The study concludes with the education department’s vision to support bilingual youth.

Daisy Laing

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The Intersection of Art and Science

Art and science have always been thought of as two different cultures, rarely thought of as intertwined, but art and science do intersect and overlap. This is a qualitative study using content analysis to explore the intersection and interdisciplinary practice of these two disciplines. Through examples of select artists and scientists, this study shows how art and science are intersected and the beneficial result of this confluence. My research questions are how are art and science intersected? What are the possibilities and benefits of integrating

science in art education? The purpose of this study is to further the understanding of the integration of art and science, to make a case for integrating chemistry, biology, and ecology into art education through contemporary artists’ practice. The themes that emerged in the findings are the types of scientific materials and tools that artist use, the use of the natural world as a material and for inspirations, and how these artists who integrate art and science offer new perspectives on the world.

Image: Zgoda, T., & Kugler, T. (2019).

Flourescent Turtle Embryo. [Image].

Campbell Hall, New York, USA. Retrieved from https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/ galleries/2019-photomicrographycompetition/fluorescent-turtle-embryo 15

Kaitlin Millen

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The Crit: Experiences in the Art Classroom

Critiques are an institutionalized practice that has established a reputation for being a negative experience for artists. Oftentimes when an artist hears the word “critique”, they think back to their experience of a critique of their artwork. More times than not, these experiences are negative because of how the critique was structured or how their teacher or peers criticized their artwork. This is a qualitative study using a digital phenomenological survey to explore the use of critiques in the K–12 art classroom and students’ experiences through this practice. The purpose of this study is to explore the possibilities of how art critiques can be a beneficial method for students to be evaluated and to receive constructive criticism to better understand how they can grow in their artwork. My main thesis questions are as follows; What are the elements of a

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meaningful and productive critique?; How can educators create learning spaces using the critique and beneficially implement critiques in the K–12 art classroom?; How can educators effectively teach students to speak meaningfully about works of art? Through a survey on students’ first-hand experiences with art critiques, this study gives more insight for art educators about the issues within the facilitation of critiques. With the survey data, I show how critiques can be improved. The study of artists’ experiences in art criticism examines factors that contribute to a beneficial critique and recurring themes in critique experiences. These recurring themes are dialogue, environment, emotion, and multimodal learning. Additionally, I provide art educators with structure and strategies for implementing critiques in their K–12 art classrooms.

Makayla Ndu

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Teacher Influence through the Lens of K–12 Students and its Impact on their Artmaking

This is a qualitative case study using online surveys to explore K–12 students’ preferred learning style, the influences of their decision making in their artistic process, the definition of perfection, and the impact of student opportunity. The purpose of this study is to understand what influences students within their surrounding environment, specifically how it impacts their art-making and how an adult, peer, and other influences can determine how a student may respond to a lesson, including the choice in materials given to complete their project. My research questions are: What kind of learning style do high school students tend

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to prefer in the art classroom? What do high school students tend to consider the biggest influences on their artmaking? How does the notion of perfection factor in students’ art education? How does students’ choices on opportunity impact their education? Themes that emerged from the students’ responses pointed to the need for balanced pedagogy and having freedom for independence and student choice, the role of the classroom environment, and the influence of perception and appearance. The study sheds insight on students’ preferences from their own choices in their education.

Drue Schwartz

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The Collaborative Exploration of Garden Based Art Curriculum for an Urban Rooftop Garden

This study addresses the lack of focus on garden based art teaching within urban settings and the collaboration needed to develop this type of curriculum. This qualitative thesis uses participatory methods involving collaborative curriculum design integrating art and garden education. The purpose of this study is to explore shared development as it entails myself and an art teacher while focusing on what a curriculum would look like for her school’s urban rooftop garden. My research questions are: What are the participatory possibilities of curriculum design for integrating art education and garden education in an urban rooftop

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school garden? What can a unit focusing on art and garden education look like for a particular elementary school in Manhattan? The findings point to the importance of building strong relationships through valuing mentorship, the role of mutual respect and valuing individual experience. The resulting curriculum involves pedagogic approaches centered on student choice and integrated curriculum with the school’s science program. The study gives insight to art educators focused on integrating garden based art instruction through collaborative curriculum design.

Natasha Seng

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CATALYST: The Revolutionary Teaching Cart

The thesis research (in K–12 Art and Design Education and Industrial Design) explores functional and non-functional mediators that influence the relationship between art teachers and their students. Through a study of the mobile art cart and by extension, the mobile art classroom, in elementary public schools across New York City, the research explores how the redesign of the cart can contribute to a more effective and engaged art space.

Although there is no systemic data analysis for mobile art classroom statistics, the city’s arts administrators suggest that this practice is commonplace. By researching the cart through the disciplinary constructs of art education and industrial design, this study uses the pedagogical and theoretical frameworks of both disciplines to re-imagine the role of the cart and how it can serve as a functional mediator, as part of the classroom space instead of simply an object in a room.

In social science, I utilized two methodologies: a critical approach, through participatory

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action research, alongside an ethnographic approach. These will be implemented through the experiences of an art cart teacher that is site-specific using qualitative research. The study examines how the researcher, art teacher and students worked in collaboration to re-design the cart as the potential tool for a system-wide transformation of the cart. Findings from the study reveal that the process of co-design within the parameters of the school environment is complex. During the study, the teacher(s) and students realized the value of design is more in the process and less about the tangible manifestation because of the nature of how objects evolve with the co-design process.

Findings also indicate how children within the process of design are uninhibited and innovative when searching and imagining solutions to design problems while teachers tend to be more practical and reserved because they feel inseparably bound by the parameters of the educational system.

Shannon Shaw

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An Ethnographic Study in a New York Classroom: Engagement, Relationships, and the Student/Teacher Dynamic

This is a qualitative ethnographic study exploring engagement in the classroom supported by observations and field notes from my experiences and reflections in a New York high school. The purpose of the study is to explore how the relationship between the student and teacher can provide further engagement in the classroom. My main research question is: What are the elements of the teacher–student relationship that cultivate a meaningful and

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productive learning environment in which students are engaged? Themes that emerged from the data analysis point to the balance between teacher expectations and students’ motivations, the perceived expectations of the teacher, the teacher–student relationship within the classroom, and the classroom dynamic.

Insights gleaned from the data show how the relationship between the teacher and student is important on many levels.

Anna White

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Developing Independent Learners and Thinkers Through Civics and Culturally Responsible Pedagogy Within the Visual Arts

The thesis analyzes and proposes curricula that promote civic engagement. The thesis is divided into two parts; a case study of a senior social studies course taught in a New York City high school and, a proposed secondary unit of study in the visual arts. The social studies course was co-designed by the teacher and a consultant from the Urban Memory Project who provided support for the curricular design of the course and its implementation over the past fifteen years. The proposed unit of study was designed by the author to add a visual arts emphasis to a civic engagement curriculum.

Both the enacted and proposed curricula draw on the tenets of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy to promote civic engagement through student voice and meaning-making.

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This observational case study in Fall 2019 is based on data collected through classroom observations, formal and informal interviews with the teacher and students as well as the curriculum designer. The study also examined student work including their research on the communities in which they live and study and the final projects that were presented publicly on the student-created website. In particular, the case study considered how students used diverse art forms—such as photography, videography, and spoken word—to understand more about how students publicly convey civically-focused studies.

Special thanks to:

Jorge Oliver Dean, School of Art Heather Lewis Professor, Department of Art and Design Education Ann Holt Professor, Department of Art and Design Education Aileen Wilson Chair, Department of Art and Design Education Jonell Joshua Assistant to the Chair, Department of Art and Design Education

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